North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Morocco Busts ‘Lions of the Caliphate’ Terror Cell After Yearlong Probe
Moroccan security services arrested 12 operatives of the so-called “Lions of the Caliphate in the Maghreb Al-Aqsa” after a yearlong investigation. Authorities say the terror cell, linked to Daesh in the Sahel, had a weapons cache in Errachidia and planned attacks in Morocco.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
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...
Egypt: Helicopter of observer force crashes in Sinai, seven killed
A helicopter crash in Egypt's Sinai desert involving a multi-national observer force killed seven people on Thursday -- five Americans, a French national and a Czech citizen, an Israeli source told AFP. An official with the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO),...
Egypt: Impasse in talks over Ethiopia dam
Sudan said Wednesday the latest round of talks with Egypt and Ethiopia over Addis Ababa's controversial dam on the Blue Nile ended after they failed to make headway. The negotiations, held over videoconference, kicked off Sunday and were meant to last a week in a...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Mali: Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the Aguelhok attack
[email_link] Bamako, Jan 20, 2019 (AFP) - Jihadist gunmen killed 10 Chadian peacekeepers and injured at least 25 others in an attack on a UN camp in northern Mali on Sunday, one of the deadliest strikes against the UN mission in the West African country. Al-Qaeda in...
Mali: Attack on base in Aguelhok claims ten peacekeepers, injures 25
Editor note: Death toll updated to ten peacekeepers and 25 injured Sunday, per the UN as reported by AFP. Bamako, Jan 20, 2019 (AFP) - Gunmen killed at least eight Chadian UN peacekeepers in an attack Sunday on one of their bases in northern Mali, multiple sources...
Sahel: Canadian geologist kidnapped in Burkina Faso found dead
Ouagadougou, Jan 17, 2019 (AFP) - A Canadian geologist kidnapped at a remote gold mine in northeast Burkina Faso by suspected jihadists has been found dead, the ministry of security told AFP on Thursday. A body found with gunshot wounds late Wednesday is that of Kirk...
Sahel: Attack near Mali-Niger border leaves scores dead
Bamako, Jan 16, 2019 - At least 10 people were killed by "terrorists" in northeastern Mali, including members of an armed group and civilians, a government official said on Wednesday. The attack took place around 45 kilometres (27 miles) from Menaka in an area which...
Libya: Southwest Libya braces for more violence as Haftar prepares to bomb insurgent positions
Jan 16, 2019 - The forces of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar on Wednesday announced a military operation to "purge" jihadists and criminal gangs from the south of the conflict-hit nation. A spokesman for the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) said its...
Libya: Chaos and more deaths in Tripoli
The North Africa Journal with AFP – January 16, 2919: Just as the UN warned against escalating violence in the Libyan capital, there is news of clashes that have already claimed at least five lives. Over the past days, the UN's Libya mission warned against clashes in...
Tunisia court sentences Jihadists to death over killing of soldiers in 2015
Tunis, Jan 12, 2019 (AFP) - A Tunisian court has sentenced 41 jihadists to death over an attack that killed 15 soldiers on the border with Algeria in 2014, prosecutors said Saturday. The sentences for the men, only two of whom are currently in custody, were delivered...
Egypt deports second German alleged ‘jihadist’
Berlin, Jan 14, 2019 (AFP) - Egypt has deported the second of two young German men who were arrested last month as suspected jihadist militants, the foreign ministry in Berlin said Monday. Eighteen-year-old Issa Ibrahim ElSabagh landed at Frankfurt airport, reported...
Egypt: Six suspected militants killed by police in Sohag
Cairo, Jan 12, 2019 (AFP) - Egyptian police killed six suspected Islamist militants in a shootout early Saturday in the country's south, the interior ministry said. The clashes broke out during a police raid on a militant hideout in a mountainous area on the edge of...
Egypt arrests two Germans suspected to be joining Islamic State
Cairo, Jan 11, 2019 - Egypt has arrested two German nationals on suspicion they tried to join an Islamic State group affiliate and deported one of them, Egyptian security sources said Friday. German media reported earlier this month that two Germans had gone missing...