North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Morocco Allegations Reignite Spain’s Pegasus Debate
New reporting has revived scrutiny of the 2021 Pegasus intrusion targeting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s phone, focusing on the Ceuta visit as a potential operational opening and renewing debate over attribution, accountability, and Spain’s wider relationship with Morocco, including questions raised by Morocco’s growing security ties with Israel.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
US-Niger relations face uncertainty, with Niamey’s pivot to Russia
Audio version: The news: The visit a few days ago of a US government delegation to Niamey, the capital of Niger, did not go down well with the ruling junta there. Clearly as the junta is paving the way for the Russian military to enter Niger and expand their presence...
Bloody Sunday: The indiscriminate killing of Muslim and Catholic worshipers in Burkina Faso
Sunday, 25 February was a bloody day for religious groups in Burkina Faso. Two attacks against a church and a mosque confirm the utter instability of the northern and eastern regions of the country. In Essakane-village, in the northeastern Burkina Faso, a terrorist...
War in Gaza forces former Middle East foes to seek reconciliation
By Mondafrique: The war in Gaza is forcing feuding States in the Middle East and in the Gulf to seek the path of reconciliations. Faced with President Biden’s inability to impose a red line on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the four most influential...
Western Sahara: Escalating Tensions Between Morocco and the SPLA
The North Africa Journal: With global attention focused on the Middle East and the Ukrainian crises, the Western Sahara feud has been evolving from a low-intensity conflict to a one with more frequent incidents, risking to shift into a higher-intensity crisis if the...
Russia’s first African military base in a highly unstable nation
By Arezki Daoud: Since Russia started its war on Ukraine, we have been told that Moscow was headed towards disaster. Echoing the views of Western governments, think-tanks and their analysts, many media outlets told us that Russia will not have the stamina to withstand...
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...
22 Islamist militant suspects arrested in Tunisia ($)
Defense: Morocco orders armored vehicles from Turkey ($)
Russia-Africa: From weapon sales to economic ties
By Arezki Daoud: Has the war in Ukraine deter Russia from engagement in Africa? Certainly not! We know on the security front, a growing number of African states are turning to Russia to supply them with military equipment and security services, judging by the...
Sahel: Russia to experience boost of its influence in the Sahel
By Arezki Daoud: Russia’s influence in the Sahel is about to expand further with more cooperation deals announced by Niger and Russia during the ongoing visit to Moscow of Niger’s Prime Minister and other senior officials. Speaking to Russian media, Niger’s Defense...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Mali: Two UN peacekeepers killed in Timbuktu
Two peacekeepers in Mali were killed and four others wounded in an attack on Friday, the UN mission said, in the latest blow to the international operation. Unidentified assailants opened fire on the police patrol in Timbuktu, according to the UN mission, known as...
West Africa to have a common military force
By Serge Daniel and Emmanuel Anule: West African leaders agreed on Sunday to create a regional force to intervene against jihadism and in the event of coups, a senior official said. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States had decided to act to "take...
Sahel: Jihadist groups target southern Burkina Faso, near Ghana
Six civilians, four of them teachers, were killed in a suspected jihadist attack in southern Burkina Faso close to the border with Ghana, security officials and local sources said on Monday. Gunmen "opened fire on a group" in the town of Bittou on Sunday, a security...
Sahel: Insurgents make major gains in northeast Mali
By Amaury Hauchard Jihadists aligned with the Islamic State group are advancing in northeastern Mali, prompting terrified citizens to flee their homes, sources there say. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) launched an offensive in the Gao and Menaka...
Sahel: Deadly year for northern Mali
Armed groups affiliated with the Islamic State group have massacred hundreds of people in northeast Mali this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, adding the state was not doing enough to protect civilians. Tens of thousands of villagers from the Menaka and...
Sahel: Insurgents strike in Banibangou Niger, kill dozen civilians
A suspected jihadist attack on three lorries and a motorcycle in western Niger near the border with Mali killed 11 people, local sources told AFP on Sunday. The attack took place on a remote road in the so-called "three borders" region between Niger, Mali and Burkina...
Libya: 15 bodies found on Sabratha beach
Fifteen bodies were found on a beach near the Libyan city of Sabratha, some of them burned, the Libyan Red Crescent said Friday. The group did not identify the dead or say how they had died, but human rights groups said they were likely migrants. After being notified...
Burkina Faso: As regime in Ouagadougou collapsed last week, terror attack claimed 37 lives up north
A total of 27 troops and 10 civilians were killed in a suspected jihadist attack in northern Burkina Faso last week, the military said on Wednesday. Military search operations carried out since the attack on September 26 "have made it possible to establish the death...
Kinross Gold (Toronto)
Insurgencies: Boko Haram fighters pouring into Niger’s side of Lake Chad
Hundreds of Boko Haram jihadists have fled a forest enclave in northeast Nigeria, escaping air strikes by the military and floods from torrential rains to seek shelter on Niger's side of Lake Chad, sources told AFP. Northeast Nigeria is facing a 13-year armed...