North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Mali junta ends Algiers Agreement
The ruling junta in Mali announced, on Thursday 25 January, the "end, with immediate effect", of the Algiers agreement signed in 2015 with the pro-autonomy and independence groups based in the north of the country. Long considered essential for stabilizing the...
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Libya: Europe and Turkey at odds about Libya, threaten and intimidate each other
German navy searches Turkish ship headed for Libya Turkey on Monday said the German navy had conducted an "unauthorised" search on a Turkish-flagged vessel in a bid to enforce an arms embargo on Libya but only found humanitarian aid. The European Union's Operation...
Libya: Despite ceasefire deal, militias and foreign meddlers refuse to withdraw their mercenaries
Rival forces in Libya have failed to begin withdrawing as required under an October ceasefire agreement aimed at ending years of conflict following Moamer Kadhafi's 2011 killing, a UN envoy said Thursday. Last month's ceasefire formally ended fighting between forces...
Security crisis dominates campaigning for Burkina Faso’s presidential election
Burkina Faso will vote in a general election Sunday in the shadow of a growing jihadist insurgency, with President Roch Marc Christian Kabore expected to win re-election. But no votes in the presidential and parliament polls will be cast in one-fifth of the country's...
Morocco and Polisario face off in the Western Sahara, exchange fire
Morocco's army has responded to fire by the Polisario Front along the UN-patrolled buffer zone in Western Sahara, said an online report picked up by the official MAP news agency. "Since 13 November 2020, Polisario militias have fired provocative shots along the line...
German prosecutors charge man with spying for Egypt
A man who worked in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's press office has been charged with spying for Egypt, prosecutors said Monday. The German national, named as Amin A., began working for the visitor service of the federal government press office (BPA), headed by...
Though unconfirmed, western media report death of Al Qaeda leaders
The reported deaths of Al-Qaeda's top two leaders in recent months have raised questions about the future strategy and strength of the terror network, already a shadow of the global force it was two decades ago. The New York Times reported last week that Al-Qaeda's...
The Western Sahara conflict reignites
For three decades, a UN-monitored ceasefire has kept a fragile peace in the disputed Western Sahara. Now a row over a remote desert truck stop is prompting talk of a return to war. The pro-independence Polisario Front declared the ceasefire over on Friday, after...
Western Sahara: Clashes erupt between Morocco and the Polisario Front
The pro-independence Polisario Front said Saturday that clashes are continuing in the disputed territory of Western Sahara after the Moroccan army launched an operation in the buffer zone on its southern border. "Fighting is continuing after the crime committed by...
Sahel: French forces intensify their operations in the Sahel, report killing Al Qaeda’s Ba Ag Moussa
France announced Friday that its anti-jihadist force in Mali had killed the military commander of an Al-Qaeda-aligned group linked to attacks in the region. The killing of Ba Ag Moussa is a major boost for the thousands-strong French Barkhane force stationed in the...
Tensions escalate in the Western Sahara: Morocco and Polisario brace for confrontation
Polisario Front declares end of truce The pro-independence Polisario Front declared a three-decade-old ceasefire in the disputed Western Sahara was over on Friday after Morocco launched an operation to reopen the road to neighbouring Mauritania. The Polisario, which...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Sahel: More soldiers killed in landmine blast in Mopti, Mali
March 1, 2019 - Nine soldiers in the five-nation G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force were killed in central Mali on Friday when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, the Malian army said. The incident happened at Boulkessy, in the Mopti region, it said on its...
Sahel: Expect more Danish soldiers in the Sahel
Copenhagen, Feb 28, 2019 - Denmark announced Thursday that it plans to send materiel and some troops to Africa to help support the French operation combatting jihadist groups in the Sahel. The government's plans, which must be approved by parliament, include sending...
Sahel: Unrest in Mali intensifies, scores killed by booby-trapped corpse near Mopti
Feb 27, 2019 - Seventeen civilians were killed and 15 were wounded in a blast caused by a booby-trapped corpse in central Mali, security sources and a local official said on Wednesday. The incident occurred on Tuesday in Diankabou, a small town about 150 kilometres...
Mali: French forces say they hit alleged Jihadis in Mopti
Paris, Feb 25, 2019 - French warplanes struck a group of jihadists in central Mali over the weekend, killing or wounding 15 of them, the defence ministry in Paris said Monday. The raid -- the second in 48 hours -- took place north of Mopti on Saturday evening, as...
France says it killed al-Qaeda Maghreb commander Abu Hamame
Feb 22, 2019 - French armed forces have killed a top jihadist leader in an air and ground ambush in Mali, the government said on Friday, ending a years-long hunt for a man accused of masterminding the kidnapping of Westerners in the Sahel region. Djamel Okacha, an...
Libya: Murzuk’s security chief murdered
Feb 21, 2019 - Armed men have murdered a security official in southern Libya, the UN-backed government said Thursday, a day after forces opposed to it said they had entered his town. The interior ministry of the internationally-recognised unity government branded the...
Sahel: Security forces free Mali official from jihadists
Bamako, Feb 20, 2019 (AFP) - A senior government official and a journalist abducted by suspected jihadists in Mali have been freed, a security source told AFP on Tuesday. Makan Doumbia, the prefect of Tenenkou commune in central Mali, "was freed Monday thanks to an...
Egypt: Terror attack in Cairo kills three policemen
Cairo, Feb 19, 2019 - A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the heart of ancient Islamic Cairo, killing three policemen who were chasing him through its narrow alleyways, medical and security sources said on Tuesday. Monday evening's bombing, in the Darb...
Tunisian oil workers kidnapped in Libya freed
Tripoli, Feb 17, 2019 - Fourteen Tunisian oil workers kidnapped in Libya were freed Sunday night after three days in captivity and are in good health, the Tunisian consul in country said. Armed men seized the 14 Tunisians from a bus on Thursday as they were heading to...
Libya: US hits al-Qaeda position near Ubari
Feb 14, 2019 - The US carried out an air strike against Islamist group Al-Qaeda in southern Libya on Wednesday night, Tripoli's UN-backed Government of National Accord said. The strike near the town of Ubari, some 900 kilometres (550 miles) south of the capital, was...