OCP & IFDC

West Africans’ arrivals to Canary Islands surge to 32,878 up to October

Illegal migrants who made it from West Africa to the Canary Islands surged 37% to 32,878 from January to October 15, highlighting the growing demand for this risky route, Spanish interior ministry data showed. On Oct 21, Spanish coast guard rescued 230 on a wooden boat off the Canary Islands, which have overtaken mainland Spain […]

Côte d’Ivoire: Northern border communities face rising extremist threat following aid suspension

Border communities in northern Côte d’Ivoire find themselves increasingly vulnerable as counterterrorism funding crucial to preventing extremist expansion has been suspended. The $20 million US-funded initiative, which supported dozens of villages like Kimbirila-Nord, looking like a front line of the global fight against extremism, has ended amid sweeping foreign aid cuts, leaving residents concerned about […]

US offers $5 million reward to catch ex-Polisario member, IS leader in Sahel

The US authorities announced on Friday a $5 million reward for information leading to the location, the identification, the arrest or conviction of Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahraoui, an ex-member of the Algeria-backed polisario separatist front and current chief of ISIS in Great Sahara (ISIS-GS) that killed four Green Berets in a 2017 ambush in Niger. […]