North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Algeria boosts defense budget to tackle cross-border threats
Algeria’s draft Finance Law for the year 2025 earmarks record spending for its military and defense. The Ministry of Defense, which oversees the country’s armed forces, will receive more than US$25 billion, an increase of over 10% compared to 2024. The move is...
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Niger: Concern over fraud in defense purchasing
Niamey, June 23, 2020 - Niger's state prosecutor on Tuesday reported evidence of fraud and other crimes in a military procurement scandal that had cost the poor West African state nearly 50 million euros, although the sum was less than half the amount initially...
Egypt amplifies instability in Libya with threat to attack
Tripoli, June 21, 2020 - Libya's UN-recognised Government of National Accord on Sunday denounced Egypt's warning of military intervention in Libya, labelling it a "declaration of war". "This is a hostile act, direct interference and amounts to a declaration of war,"...
Algeria: Clash with insurgents in Ain Defla leaves one soldier dead
Algiers, June 21, 2020 - An Algerian soldier was killed during a clash with armed Islamists in the central region of Ain Defla, the defence ministry said Sunday, adding that an operation was still underway. An army detachment clashed with "an armed terrorist group",...
Defense: Debate in Algeria over sending troops abroad
By Abdellah Cheballah - Could Algeria soon send troops from its army, the pillar of the regime, to join peace-keeping missions led by the United Nations or African Union? President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has urged a constitutional change that would allow deployments...
Defense: Egypt to buy two warships from Italy
Rome, June 12, 2020 (By Ljubomir Milasin) - Italy has given a green light to the sale of two warships to Egypt, news media reported on Friday, despite tense relations between the two countries over the unresolved 2016 murder of an Italian student in Cairo. The $1.2...
Beyond the Sahel: Jihadi contagion spreads to the Ivory Coast
Korhogo, Ivory Coast, June 11, 2020 - Dozens of suspected jihadists attacked a frontier post on Ivory Coast's border with Burkina Faso before dawn on Thursday, killing around 10 soldiers, security sources said. It is the first assault by Islamist extremists on Ivorian...
Sahel: The who’s who of foreign forces in the Sahel
French troops who killed senior Al Qaeda leader Abdelmalek Droukdel in the Sahel region of Africa this week work alongside several allied military missions. Here is a roundup of anti-jihadist operations in the area. Barkhane Operation Barkhane is the biggest French...
Chad: French troops wounded in N’Djamena shooting
Paris, June 9, 2020 - Two French soldiers were shot and wounded Tuesday near the Chadian presidential palace in the capital N'Djamena, in what the French military described as an "accident." The two soldiers were on a reconnaissance patrol outside the palace to...
Libya: With their protégé warlord Haftar losing the war, Egypt and UAE want a ceasefire
The United Arab Emirates on Monday backed an Egyptian peace initiative in Libya after a series of military victories by forces loyal to Tripoli's UN-recognised government against strongman Khalifa Haftar. Haftar -- who is backed by the UAE and Egypt -- also supported...
Insurgency: France claims it killed Al-Qaeda’s Droukdel, arrests ISIS commander
French forces have killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdel, in northern Mali, France's defence minister said. Droukdel was killed on Thursday near the Algerian border, where the group has bases from which it has carried out...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
As counter-terror campaign intensifies in Algeria, Libya’s weapons making their way into the country
In the first four months of 2016, the Algerian army has killed 31 Islamist insurgents, and captured 33 others nationwide. Furthermore, an arsenal of war big enough to wreck havoc was siezed, including over 300 war weapons were retrieved, 202 hideouts were destroyed...
Tunisia in Retrospect and the Tough Choices Ahead
In one year, Tunisia has been tormented by no less than five large scale, dramatic terrorist attacks all perpetrated by the Islamic State. It all started on March 18, 2015, the day that two « lone wolves » stormed the Bardo museum of Tunis and opened fire on a group...
BP and Statoil Reducing their Staffs in Algeria: Consequences on Business Continuity
Although the recent terror attempt on an Algerian gas site, signed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) caused no physical damage, it has had without any doubt some psychological impact on jittery companies and on authorities scrambling to secure the area....
Mortar shell attack on an Algerian gas field, no casualties
According to MEA Risk sources, an insurgent group has attacked a gas field exploited by the Algerian state-owned energy company Sonatrach, Statoil and BP in the In Salah gas site of Krechba, in the Saharian province of Ghardaia. Two homemade mortar shells were fired;...
Dozens Killed in Tunisia Confrontation
In what is one of the most daring border attacks to date, early this morning a group of men, coming from Libya, attacked the border town of Ben Guerdane in Tunisia. While Tunisia largely suffered from urban-style terror attacks, as militants have been confined in...
Libya Crisis Update: Latest Development
The crisis in Libya is accelerating. MEA Risk Trackers and Analysts say that most major militias have joined the fight against the Islamic State organization ever since the US bombing of an IS site in Sebratha on Friday. The contribution of the various militias hint...
Libya: Western troops confirmed on the ground in Libya
MEA Risk trackers are reporting that Libyan officials confirmed that a French combat squad comprised of 15 troops has been operating out of Benghazi’s Benina air base for more than 2 months, and have helped the pro-government Libyan National Army conduct 2 operations...
Bombing of Libya Looms as Neighboring States Seek to Seal the Borders and Build Refugee Towns
Fresh troop movements and unusual activity along the Algeria-Libya borders are clear indications of the potential for an imminent Western offensive in Libya, according to MEA Risk security trackers. The Algerian authorities, fearful for the consequences of a...
US Enters the Libyan Conflict, But Purpose of Attack Unclear
As predicted by the North Africa Journal’s sister company MEA Risk LLC, the Western intervention in Libya has started yesterday, as U.S. forces kicked off an air campaign in Sabratha, 40 miles west of Tripoli. Although earlier MEA Risk analysts predicted the target to...
Tunisia’s Crises
Tunisia is facing a multi-faceted crisis, top of which is the ongoing unemployment protests that highlight the weakening of the Tunisian economic system and the eroding social safety nets. MEA Risk data for the period of February 01, 2016 to February 07, 2016, shows...