First Independent Mena Newspaper
International and regional efforts to combat armed groups linked to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other extremist groups have failed to stop their expansion in Africa’s Sahel region, a senior United Nations official has warned. The joint force set up in 2014 to combat groups linked to al-Qaida, ISIL (ISIS) and others in the Sahel, […]
Germany’s Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, Wednesday said the European country will use Niger as base as it remains committed to the Sahel region flagged by ramp insecurity. “Our future military engagement in the Sahel will focus on Niger,” he said as he embarked on a visit to the African country. “Security in the Sahel region […]
Reporters Without Borders fears reporting in Africa’s Sahel region will soon be ‘mission impossible’, as the international NGO reveals in its latest report published on Monday (3 April) where it describes a deterioration in the working conditions of journalists. Local and international media are caught between jihadist threats and pressure from the authorities, as was […]
The United States and its Western allies must demonstrate they “can deliver results” in Africa’s Sahel region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said during his visit to Niger, pledging humanitarian assistance for displaced people and support for the country’s efforts to combat violent extremism. Blinken’s trip to the West African country — the […]
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are hosting US Africa military command AFRICOM drill bringing together 29 countries in view strengthening the capacities of armies of the participating countries to tackle terrorism and extreme violence. The drill began on March 1st and will run through March 15th. Around 1,300 soldiers from 29 countries mostly from West Africa. […]
France, the former colonial master in the Sahel, is receiving a series of blows as its foothold shrinks on the back of growing anti-French sentiment and increasing Russian incursions. After their retreat from Mali following a ten-year failure to eradicate Jihadist groups, now Burkina Faso asked France to withdraw its troops from the country within […]
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 […]
Laurent Gbagbo, Cote d’Ivoire’s ex-leader, has called on regional grouping ECOWAS to establish counter-terrorism brigade to curtail terrorism that has plagued the region. Gbagbo was speaking at a meeting of his party PPA-CI, at Bayota, a town in south-central Ivory Coast. “The problem in the Sahel today is the jihadists,” he said. For a 77-year […]
“The issue of inclusive industrialization in the Sahel is of prime importance” given the challenges the conflict-torn region is currently facing — this is the main message from an event this week that was held as a part of the African Union Summit in Niamey, Niger. As part of the African Union Summit on Industrialization […]
Seven West African coastal states held last week their first major talks — within the so-called Accra Initiative — on boosting cooperation against jihadist violence spilling over from the Sahel. During the meeting in the Ghanian capital, leaders from Gulf of Guinea neighbor countries Benin, Ghana, Côte D’Ivoire and Togo discussed ways of preventing the […]