First Independent Mena Newspaper
West Africa is becoming a central node in global cocaine trafficking, as powerful criminal groups from the Western Balkans expand their footprint across the region, a new report has revealed. Once operating largely behind the scenes, Albanian- and Slavic-speaking networks have now entrenched themselves in countries like Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Cape Verde. These […]
The polisario-forced and Algeria-backed recruitment of children in the camps of Tindouf fuels instability in North Africa and the Sahel, said, on Thursday in Dakhla, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita. Speaking at a conference organized by the International Research Center on the Prevention of Child Soldiers, Bourita stressed the correlation between the lack […]
Morocco is looking carefully to the situation in the Sahel where terrorists are increasingly resorting to organized crime and trafficking to fund their activities, head of Morocco’s counterterrorism agency, BCIJ, Abdelhak Khiame said. Speaking to local press, Khiame rang the alarm bell regarding the fallout of the connivance between terrorists and organized crime groups on […]
Morocco has reiterated its firm commitment to security and stability in the Sahel calling for a triangular cooperation (Morocco-EU-Sahel) benefiting the region. Speaking at the International High-Level Conference on Sahel, held Friday in Brussels, Morocco’s foreign minister, Nasser Bourita underscored the priority given to the Sahel in Morocco’s foreign policy as evidenced by the multiple […]
The US has expressed reservations over the French move to garner support at the UN Security council for the adoption of a resolution mandating a force by West African states to combat terrorism and trafficking in the Sahel. The US voiced its concerns regarding the UN financial backing for the Sahel force after France has […]
Moroccan navy is currently taking part off Spanish coasts in the 13th iteration of the multinational maritime exercise Phoenix Express 2017 along with maritime forces from Europe and the United States. The Moroccan frigate, Tarik Ibn Ziad, took part in the naval exercise, which was sponsored by U.S. Africa Command and facilitated by U.S. Naval […]
Algerian military forces have launched lately a large scale combing campaign targeting Islamist militants groups operating in the Boumerdes-Tizi-Ouzou-Bouira triangle, stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its affiliates. This campaign comes as the international community braces for military action to dislodge the radical Islamist forces occupying northern Mali after a coup in […]
Arab Interior ministers have pledged to tighten borders security and control to prevent arms smuggling in the Arab world at the current turbulent and fragile regional and international juncture. At the end of their meeting held lately in Tunis, top Arab security officials stressed the need to enhance coordination and information sharing between Arab counter-terrorism […]