Nigerian troops have thwarted a Boko Haram attack in the country’s volatile northeast, killing 16 insurgents while 12 soldiers were wounded, an army spokesperson said on Monday. Troops “successfully repelled” the Boko Haram attack in the town of Kangarwa on Sunday, Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement.

Among the complex consequences of United Kingdom’s recent decision to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit), one of the main problems for the Union’s leaders – indeed, a component of the EU’s future – is the EU enlargement process, notably the accession of the six countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, […]

The United Nations Security Council has today passed a resolution authorizing the deployment of 4,000 more UN peacekeepers to bolster existing forces and a renewed mandate to use “all necessary means” to protect UN personnel and take “proactive” measure to protect civilians, according to ABC News. This Security Council authorization follows weeks of insecurity in […]

Commanding general of the United States (US) Army Central Michael Garrett concluded his second visit to Egypt in 2016, the US embassy in Cairo said on Thursday. Garrett met with senior Egyptian military officials to discuss the bilateral relation between both countries, joint efforts to fight terrorism, and shared interests in regional stability and security, […]

Renewed fighting pitted former Mali rebels against pro-government fighters for a second day on Wednesday, while the army separately found the bodies of five missing soldiers, the UN said. Fighting erupted on Tuesday near the restive northeastern town of Kidal between ex-rebels from the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and members of the pro-government group […]

Pro-government forces said they captured the Islamic State group’s headquarters in their main Libyan stronghold of Sirte on Wednesday, scoring a major victory in a push to oust the jihadists from the city. ISIS fighters remained in several parts of the city, officials said, but seizing control of their headquarters has been the key goal […]

Voters in Mali will be asked to go to the polls in local elections across the vast Sahel nation in November, despite the threat of attacks by armed Islamists, the government has announced. At a meeting led on Wednesday by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keta, the cabinet “adopted a draft decree on convening (the electorate), opening […]

More than a dozen US lawmakers have written to President Barack Obama to urge a UN-imposed arms embargo on South Sudan following heavy fighting in its capital last month. A draft UN Security Council resolution calls for a vote on an arms embargo if the UN secretary-general reports that South Sudan’s authorities have blocked deployment […]

Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed on Wednesday Egypt’s full support for efforts to restore peace and stability in South Sudan during a meeting with Festus Mogae, the Chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) for South Sudan, in Cairo. The Egyptian presidency spokesman Alaa Youssef said that El-Sisi and Mogae discussed recent developments […]

Twelve people, including two civilians and two soldiers, were killed in three separate militant attacks in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The source, who spoke anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media, said gunmen had attacked three army checkpoints in northern Sinai.

Five soldiers are missing after clashes with militants in central Mali at the weekend, military officials said on Tuesday, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met on Tuesday the vice president of the Libyan presidential council Ahmed Maetig in Cairo where they discussed the latest developments in Libya, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Special Forces units have been deployed on the ground in Libya’s northern city of Sirte to aid Libyan government forces fighting the Daesh terrorist group, a Libyan military source said Wednesday. “Last week, foreign special operations forces conducted an unprecedented operation [in Sirte] in coordination with government forces,” the source, who spoke on condition […]

Forces loyal to Libya’s Government of National Accord said on Monday they had seized a new sector near the Islamic State group’s command centre in Sirte. The pro-GNA forces have been engaged in a military operation since May 12 to retake the coastal city located 450km east of Tripoli. Sirte has been a stronghold of […]

The United States has asked the UN Security Council to send a 4 000-strong regional force to South Sudan’s capital of Juba to impose an arms embargo if the government blocks the deployment. A draft resolution presented to the council would establish the regional protection force and authorise it to “use all necessary means” to […]

Prominent Sudanese rebel groups said on Tuesday they have signed a roadmap brokered by African Union mediators to end deadly conflicts in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced over the years in the three regions as ethnic minority groups rebelled against […]

A contingent of 850 Nigerien soldiers is preparing to leave Niger soon heading for Northern Mali under the UN Integrated Mission for Stabilization of Mali (MINUSMA), a security source in Niamey said Tuesday. The first convoy essentially comprised of logistical materials left Niamey on Tuesday morning while the rest of the troops will follow soon, […]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday condemned an attack against UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, which killed one peacekeeper and injured four others. Earlier on Sunday, an improvised explosive device attack against MINUSMA took place at south of Aguelhok, a town in the Kidal Region of eastern Mali. This attack followed a […]

The European Union(EU) on Thursday extended the mandate of the border assistance mission to Libya, EUBAM Libya, until Aug. 21, 2017, according to a press release issued by the Council of the EU. It also approved a budget of 17 million euros (18.94 million U.S. dollars) for the period from Aug. 22, 2016 to Aug. […]

A delegation from the Libyan parliament is set to meet with Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry on Sunday. The meeting will discuss the ongoing situation in Libya and seek political solutions between the different parties of the dispute. The delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday and is headed by Mohamed Shoeib, first deputy […]

An African regional bloc says South Sudan’s government has accepted the deployment of a regional force to the country, almost a month after fighting erupted between opposing army factions. South Sudan had previously rejected an outside force, but the head of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said that the government had accepted a protection force […]

Libya pro-government forces backed by US air strikes said on Sunday they would soon launch a final assault to retake the coastal city of Sirte from the Islamic State jihadist group. “The countdown of the final stage of the military operations against Daesh has started,” forces loyal to the Tripoli-based national unity government said in […]

A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were injured on Sunday when their vehicle struck an explosive device in northeast Mali, the UN said. The incident occurred 11km south of Aguelhoc-Anefis in the Kidal region, the UN force in Mali, Minusma, said in a statement. The vehicle was part of a supply convoy, […]

US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kenya this month for talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta over regional security. Presidential spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said on Sunday Kerry would hold discussions with Kenyatta and Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohammed on the upheaval in South Sudan and security in violence-plagued Somalia.

Suspected Rwandan rebels killed seven people overnight in a region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has been shaken by ethnic violence, local officials said on Monday. Armed assailants torched 60 houses in Kibirizi and killed their victims with machetes or shot them dead, Deogratias Kitabingwa, the regional governor’s representative said.

A captain of the Malian army was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Timbuktu in northern Mali Sunday night, a military source told Anadolu Agency late Monday. According to a Malian officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media,”Hamatta Ag Oumalha, a Tuareg military captain of […]

Fresh fighting erupted on Sunday between troops of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former deputy President Riek Machar in Nasir town, Upper Nile State, spokesperson for Kiir’s government troops, Lul Ruia Koang, said on Monday. The clashes followed renewed fighting between the rival army factions on Saturday in Lainya County of […]

A car bomb targeting security forces in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi killed 22 people and wounded 20 on Tuesday, a spokesman for the forces and medical officials said. The blast occurred in a residential area in the Guwarsha district, the scene of fighting between security forces loyal to Libya’s eastern government and an […]

Lawmakers in Mali agreed Saturday to extend a state of emergency across the country by another eight months, officials told AFP, as fresh violence flared in the restive northeast. MPs unanimously backed the extension – which has been renewed several times since last year – during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly, a parliamentary […]

The Central African Republic’s president said on Monday he would soon hold talks with rebel groups as he seeks to restore security after years of sectarian violence. “Either this week or next week, we will initiate an exchange with representatives of the armed groups, in order to clarify some points,” President Faustin-Archange Touadera told local […]

Five Islamists were killed as Nigerian troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicentre of the seven-year insurgency, the army said on Tuesday. “Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE accompanied by Civilian JTF successfully thwarted an attempt by Boko Haram terrorists on Yauri community at the outskirts of Maiduguri city, […]

About 60 000 people have fled South Sudan since fighting broke out between rival army factions almost four weeks ago, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday. About 52 000 people have gone to Uganda, 7 000 to Sudan and 1 000 to Kenya, the agency said.

France on Tuesday reaffirmed its “full support” for Libya’s unity government, seeking to mend fences after the interim leader demanded an explanation for the presence of French troops in the east of the conflict-ridden country. Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), had last Monday told French ambassador Antoine Sivan that their […]