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Algerian, Moroccan pilgrims take swipe at hosting conditions in Mecca

Several pilgrims from Morocco and neighboring Algeria have voiced their concerns about accommodation and food at their various hotels as they embark on the annual religious ritual of Hajj in the holy city of Mecca. Algerian pilgrims from the city of Oran, Huffpost Maghreb reports, demanded the organizing committee of the gigantic religious event to […]

France’s Persistent Role in Africa: The Other ‘Indispensable Nation’?

While recently attending a conference in Benin, the crisis in Mali still loomed large. The conflict in Mali had threatened to unravel the entire security situation in the Sahel and Western African nations spent much of the last year bickering whether a military intervention to save Bamako from approaching Islamist militias was feasible. In the […]

West African mining companies deploy surveillance drones as gold rush intensifies conflicts

Gold mining companies across West Africa are turning to aerial surveillance technology to combat escalating incursions by artisanal miners, as record gold prices above $3,300 per ounce fuel increasingly violent confrontations at corporate mining sites, Reuters reported. At Gold Fields’ Tarkwa mine in southwestern Ghana, drone operators recently detected suspicious activity, leading a 15-person response […]