First Independent Mena Newspaper
South Africa has never really been affected by terrorism attacks. Its democracy is solid, its economy stable. However, it is considered a stronghold for the financing of the Islamic State (IS) group and other Islamist organizations, South African counter-terrorism expert Jasmine Opperman told AFP. Islamist financiers gather money in the country and transfer it into […]
Somali security forces have brought an end to a six-hour siege of a beachside hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, during which at least six civilians were killed and 10 wounded. Responsibility for the Friday evening’s attack on the popular, upmarket Pearl Restaurant was claimed by the armed group al-Shabab, the Somali Police Force said on […]
Burkina Faso has one of the fastest-growing internally displaced populations in the world, now totaling more than 2 million people, while at least three million people in Cameroon are facing acute food insecurity, according to government data from both countries. Violence linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has increased the number of displaced […]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday two of its staff kidnapped in Mali, early March, have been freed, without providing more details. “The two ICRC collaborators kidnapped on March 4 between (the cities of) Gao and Kidal (north) were released this (Sunday) evening”, announced the Malian branch of the ICRC on […]
UN experts on Tuesday (31 January) called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian private military contractor Wagner Group and government forces in Mali. This comes just days after the US formally designated (26 January) Russia’s Kremlin-affiliated Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization responsible for widespread […]
At least 28 people, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in two separate attacks by rebel fighters in northern Burkina Faso, a regional governor and the army said in separate statements. The army said on Monday (30 January) that a combat unit in Falagountou, in the country’s north near its border with Niger, came […]
French President Emmanuel Macron will officially announce on Wednesday (9 November) the end of the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, but this will have no impact on the French military presence in the region, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace. This announcement comes a little less than three months after the withdrawal […]
There has been huge increase in death toll from the two successive car bombings in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu Saturday (29 October), blamed on the Al-Qaeda-allied al-Shabab terrorist organization, which has seen at least 100 killed and close to 300 others injured. Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud made the announcement after visiting the site of the […]
Captain Ibrahim Traoré was appointed president of Burkina Faso on Wednesday (5 October), less than a week after the latest coup that deposed Damiba amid growing violence in the Sahel. The Sahel country plunged into political turmoil on 30 September after the second coup in less than nine months that saw a group of officers […]
Somalia’s government said it had killed Abdullahi Nadir, one of the co-founders of Islamist militant group al-Shabab, in an operation with international partners, as the United Nations warns the country is still teetering on the edge of famine. The announcement of the operation that killed Nadir on Saturday (October 1) comes as Somali security forces […]