North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Jihadist Expansion Threatens Coastal West Africa
The Sahel is confronting an intensifying insurgency that continues to evolve in scale and complexity. Armed groups such as the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) are adapting and adjusting their...
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Security: France in Al-Qaeda’s crosshairs
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb urged its followers Monday to kill anyone insulting the Prophet Mohammed and threatened French President Emmanuel Macron over his remarks on Islam. Last month Macron defended the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed on...
Libya: New meeting in Ghadames to set up the basis of a ceasefire
Rival Libyan military officers arrived Monday for talks held for the first time on home soil following a ceasefire deal last month, an AFP reporter said. Formal talks will begin later on Monday evening, said the AFP reporter present, with discussions tackling the...
Morocco: IS-linked inmate kills guard at Tiflet prison
A Moroccan prison guard was killed by an inmate who was in jail for belonging to a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group, prosecutors said Wednesday. The detainee on Tuesday "took captive an employee in his cell and assaulted him with a metal object" at...
Sahel: As expected, France opposes dialogue in the Sahel
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, on a trip to Mali on Monday, ruled out dialogue with jihadists driving an eight-year-old insurgency in the Sahel state. (See our opinion on this last week). "Let's say things very clearly. There are peace accords (with...
Libya: Tenuous ceasefire in Libya as foreign meddlers ponder what to do next
Libya's two warring factions signed a "permanent" ceasefire agreement on Friday after five days of talks at the United Nations, which hailed the deal as a historic moment following years of turmoil and bloodshed. "Today is a good day for the Libyan people," said...
Sahel: Another massacre in Mali, 12 civilian killed in Mopti
Twelve civilians were killed in volatile central Mali on Tuesday morning in addition to 12 soldiers who died in a twin attack that began overnight, police and humanitarian officials said. The group was travelling in a minibus following a military convoy sent to...
Sahel: French hostage and Mali opposition leader freed
A French aid worker kidnapped in Mali in 2016 and one of the country's leading opposition politicians have been released, the presidency said on Thursday. The office of Mali's president said on social media that Frenchwoman Sophie Petronin, 75, and Soumaila Cisse, 70,...
Tunisia announces arrest of two Islamic State insurgents in Jandouba and Kebili
Tunisia on Tuesday arrested two men allegedly linked to the Islamic State group who were plotting "terrorist operations" in the North African nation, the interior ministry said. One was arrested in Jendouba, in northwest Tunisia, and the other in Kebili, in the south....
Morocco: US defense chief Mark Esper in Morocco
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper signed a military cooperation deal Friday with Morocco, his final stop on a North Africa tour aimed at beefing up the fight against jihadists in war-torn Libya and the Sahel. His visit came as talks between Libyan rivals were set to...
With Russia’s presence in Libya and turmoil in the Sahel, US seeks to reengage with the Maghreb
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a 10-year military cooperation deal with Tunis Wednesday during his first stop on a regional tour, hailing US-Tunisia collaboration over the conflict in neighbouring Libya. The past decade has seen growing cooperation between the...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Violence escalates in the Sahel, surge of communal conflicts
The North Africa Journal - May 31, 2018: Violence in Mali continues to escalate, making dozens of deaths, including among Tuareg and Fulani civilians caught in a conflict that has no solution in sight. Security tracking firm MEA Risk LLC says over the past weekend,...
Libya: Haftar seeks to degrade Chadian mercenaries in Southern Libya
The North Africa Journal- April 4, 2018: The air force controlled by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has been targeting the forces of the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), an organization of Chad rebels operating in Southern Libya. ...
Mali: Five killed as insurgents attack two villages in Koro
MEA Risk LLC: Five civilians were killed, and four others were wounded on 18 February....
Algerian army loses two more soldiers in new attack, puts troops on high alert along Mali border
MEA Risk LLC: On 19 February, two Algerian soldiers were killed, and a third one was wounded after a roadside bomb was detonated by suspected Islamic insurgents during the passage of a military convoy in El Aich, in Khenchela's Djellal municipality. This was the...
Tunisia: Difficult Road to Stability
The North Africa Journal - February 13, 2018: Tunisia continues to face several pain points that the government is struggling to fully contain. On the economic front, new datapoints confirm the tough start of the year for the country. Its foreign exchange reserves...
The Jihadists are back
The North Africa Journal - 22 November, 2017: Although authorities have so far been able to contain the militant threat in most parts of North Africa, while Libya is bearing the brunt of the violence and Egypt struggling to contain insurgents, the region at-large is...
As Algeria ups its defensive capabilities, North Africa braces for an influx of new insurgents
The North Africa Journal - September 7, 2017: Over the past 20 years, the Algerian defense system has been largely built based on countering terrorism and militant groups. While the country’s defense forces also looked at conventional external threats, including the...
Egypt: MEA Risk reports new spike in deaths in Egypt, as confrontations between security services and insurgent groups escalate
The North Africa Journal - August 10, 2017: For those who occasionally follow news from Egypt, the past two weeks have seen an upsurge of what appears to be good news related to one single topic: how much money the country is attracting. A respectable US media outlet...
Video: Migrant crisis: How Italy is training Libyan coast guards
Africa: Nigeria halts all oil exploration in Borno as Boko Haram kills researchers and
The North Africa Journal: July 28, 2017: The Nigerian government is cancelling all exploration activity in northeast of the country. Security information firm MEA Risk LLC reports that the decision came after six civilians who were part of an oil exploration team,...