First Independent Mena Newspaper
North Africa’s aviation companies are engaged in a battle to dominate the skies. The latest move to increase its effectiveness in the skies emanates from Air Algerie. The company boosted its fleet with the signing of three 250 seat Airbus passenger jets and eight 150-seat jets from Boeing, company officials said. The deal is worth […]
The killing of three French journalists in northern Malian region of Kidal in early November 2013 is indicative of the ability of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to conduct terrorist attacks in the region despite French military presence. Similarly, the announcement of the creation of a new terrorist group called Al Mourabitoun out of […]
Former Algerian billionaire tycoon, Rafik Khalifa, has been extradited to his homeland after living in Britain for more than a decade. Once considered the “golden boy” of Algeria, the 47-year-old Khalifa rose from obscurity to build an empire including a bank, an airline and television stations, at one point employing an estimated 20,000 people in […]
Algeria and France have intensified their cooperation at the end of French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s and nine ministers visit to the country by signing 9 partnership agreements. Much of the agreements were focused on economic and trade activities as France position as the biggest investor in Algeria comes under pressure from Chinese investments. Jean-Marc […]
Algerian authorities have moved to step up security presence along the border with Libya in light of the continuing chaos and instability in the neighboring country while striving for better co-operation against terrorist threats. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal announced recently, following his meeting with his Tunisian counterpart in Paris, that he would visit Libya […]
International Anti-Corruption Day was celebrated all across North African earlier this week with dismal news on the fight against bribery. Overall, the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from Transparency International showed little to no improvement in graft around the region. For example, in Libya, the situation got even worse when the country was ranked as […]
Khalid Ould Addah, third in command of the terrorist network operating in North Africa, has been killed by after plans to capture him alive failed. Terrorists use the Sahara desert as their base and hideout due to its favorable nature. Algeria has been engaged in a serious battle against them since the Ain Amenas attack […]
Maghreb, African, and European leaders met in Tangier during an event whose aim was to discuss the joint endeavor towards protection of the Sahel region. The meeting concluded that security in general, and specifically dealing with challenges coming from increasing instability across the region, is the most important issue. Therefore, all sides have agreed to […]
Over the past thirty years, the inhabitants of Moroccan Oriental province have enjoyed unlimited cross-border ‘trade’ in petrol with neighboring Algeria. All-purpose petrol smuggling has been thriving even though the border has been officially closed since 1994 due to the murder of two Spanish tourists, who were allegedly killed by Algerian extremists. The border crossing […]
In the days preceding the meeting to be held next Friday in the White House between President Barack Obama and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, several influential legislators, diplomats, analysts and commentators have called on the U.S. president to seize the opportunity of this encounter to build on the USA’s historic alliance with Morocco. The Congressional […]