French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has undertaken multiple contacts this week with a number of Arab nations concerning the rising tensions in Libya, Ayrault’s press office said on Thursday. In a statement, France said that it continues to work for “a political compromise between the different Libyan parties” but that the volatile situation currently warranted […]

The president of Central Africa Republic called Thursday for additional training and equipment for the country’s armed forces so they can be deployed to deal with the conflict among armed groups that is leading to loss of lives “and massive destruction.”

Libya’s Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord Fayez al-Sarraj on Wednesday hailed “all efforts, especially of Arab countries, for the resolution of Libyan crisis,” including the initiatives of Algeria and Egypt, which culminated in the signing of the Declaration of Tunis.

A dangerous terrorist was eliminated Wednesday near Tipasa (50-km west of Algiers) by a detachment of the People’s National Army, said Thursday the Ministry of National Defence in a statement. “As part of the fight against terrorism and following tips, a detachment of the People’s National Army of Tipasa (1st Military Region) killed, yesterday 29 […]

The White House announced Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will make an “official visit” to Washington on April 3, ending years in which the Egyptian president had been kept at arm’s length amid rights concerns. “President Trump and President Al-Sisi will use the visit to build on the positive momentum they have built for the United States-Egypt […]

More than 60 000 South Sudanese have entered Sudan in the first three months of 2017, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday, fleeing famine and war in the world’s youngest nation. South Sudan, formed after splitting from the north in 2011, has declared a famine in parts of the country where 100 000 people […]

The head of Libya’s UN-backed government has called for a dialogue between all political rivals in the North African country to reach a political settlement to the country’s crisis. Fayez Serraj told an Arab summit in Jordan on Wednesday that “everyone knows that no party can achieve a military solution.”

Some 7 000 people have fled from villages around the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok because of Boko Haram attacks, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday. The IOM said an estimated 4 449 people or 740 households have fled to Chibok itself since February 25, “seeking safety following attacks or threats of […]

Hamas Official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar: The Quran Tells Us To Drive the Jews Out Of Palestine In Its Entirety And To ‘Kill Them Wherever You May Find Them’ Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, one of Hamas’s leaders in Gaza, said that “removing the Jews from the land they occupied in 1948 is an immutable principle” appearing in the Quran, […]

Several recent developments but mostly the increasing military presence of some powerful international actors are attracting the analysts’ attention towards the Horn of Africa, one of the most complex and conflicted regions of the world. For the last 150 years, the Horn has been a theater for strategic power struggles: the British Empire’s demand to […]

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Wednesday arrived in Khartoum for an official two-day visit to Sudan during which he is to hold talks with his Sudanese counterpart Bakri Hassan Saleh. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said that the two countries’ prime ministers would hold joint talks which “would review a number of files, while […]

US Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, head of the US Africa Command, told reporters that the US needs to retain a small special operations force in Libya indefinitely. Even though he estimated that less than 200 Islamic State fighters remain in Libya, the general still maintained that they were enough of a threat to retain the […]

Russia is trying to expand its influence in Libya through a combination of military means and oil and weapons sales, a top US general said Friday. General Thomas Tom Waldhauser, who heads the US military’s Africa Command, said Russia is “on the ground” in the border region between Egypt and Libya. “They are trying to […]

Algeria “strongly” condemned the terrorist attack perpetrated Wednesday, in Westminster, in the British capital. “The attack that struck, this afternoon, the British capital is a coward terrorist attack that we condemn in the strongest terms, underlined the spokesperson of the ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdelaziz Benali Cherif in a statement to APS.

Burkina Faso’s government says its military forces have killed a key jihadist and arrested 18 others in the country’s north, close to the West African nation’s border with Mali. Security Minister Simon Compaore said on Friday that forces also seized weapons and ammunition in Wednesday’s operation.

An organisation that monitors extremist groups says al-Shabab has claimed to kill 17 soldiers and wound 22 in an attack in southwestern Somalia. The SITE Intelligence Group says in a statement Thursday that the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab’s news agency posted a claim on Facebook about attacking the coastal city of Barawe.

Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak left a military hospital on Friday where he had spent much of his six-year detention, his lawyer said. Mubarak had been cleared for release earlier this month after a top court finally acquitted him of involvement in protester deaths during the 2011 revolt that ousted him. “Yes,” his lawyer Farid […]

At least 50 people have been killed and dozens more injured since Tuesday after armed men attacked three villages in the central Bambari region of the Central African Republic, local residents who fled their homes told AFP. Prosper Tchoulekrayo, who escaped from Yasseneme village, said the attackers had “fired indiscriminately on the inhabitants”.

The UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, on Friday kicked off his visit to Mali and South Sudan with his successor, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who was appointed to replace Ladsous next month, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

Libya’s major oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf are resuming operations and preparing to export crude after a two-week halt in shipments due to armed clashes in the holder of Africa’s largest crude reserves. Libya’s total production rose on Monday to 646,000 barrels a day from 621,000, mostly due to an increase from […]

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has arrived in Egypt where he is scheduled to meet with President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi and Prime Minister Sharif Ismail with the view of strengthening ties between the two countries. Hariri will also meet with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Church and Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb of Al-Azhar.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’ spoke with Egyptian Minister of Defense General Sedki Sobhy on Tuesday during which Mattis expressed his “commitment to advancing the US-Egyptian defense partnership.”

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Wednesday arrived in Khartoum for an official two-day visit to Sudan during which he is to hold talks with his Sudanese counterpart Bakri Hassan Saleh. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said that the two countries’ prime ministers would hold joint talks which “would review a number of files, while […]

France’s ambassador to the United Nations warned on Tuesday that drastic cuts to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo would be tantamount to “playing with fire” as the country faces election turmoil. France has circulated a draft resolution to renew the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission, but is facing scrutiny […]

Dozens of armed factions have battled for control of oil-rich Libya since the 2011 fall of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. This week, four days of intense fighting saw pro-unity government armed forces expand their control in the capital Tripoli, where dozens of militias operate. Further east, troops commanded by military strongman Khalifa Haftar said on […]

The United States on Wednesday urged coalition partners to step up efforts to defeat Islamic State militants as top officials from 68 nations gathered to assess the fight to retake Iraq’s second largest city and advance on the extremists’ self-declared Syrian capital. “I recognise there are many pressing challenges in the Middle East, but defeating […]

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry welcomed the invitation by his US counterpart Rex Tillerson—during a phone call on Saturday—to participate in a ministerial conference titled “Coalition Against ISIS.” The conference will take place in Washington on 22 March.

As part of the efforts to achieve a political concord in Libya, the Chief of Staff of the armed forces, Mahmoud Hegazy, met on Sunday with UN special envoy to Libya Martin Kobler, who is currently visiting Egypt, the army spokesperson said in a statement on Facebook. The meeting discussed the new updates in Libya […]

Senior army chiefs from the 5+5 Defense Initiative have agreed on the necessity to further enhance cooperation and better share experiences mainly on how to combat terrorism, the French Defense Ministry said on Monday. The 5+5 Defense Initiative includes five Maghreb countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Mauritania, and five EU countries: France, Italy, Spain, […]

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Thursday that the humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) continues to deteriorate, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here. With the upsurge in violence and the spread of hot spots since September 2016, more than 100,000 newly displaced people have been registered, […]

A United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) air operation dispersed heavily armed militiamen in the remote Central African Republic town of Bambari town on Sunday. According to a statement on Monday by MINUSCA, about 40 fighters from the Popular Front for the Renaissance of Central African Republic (FPRC) armed […]

Four terrorist bunkers were destroyed Sunday by an Army detachment while seven members of terrorist supporting groups were arrested in Boumerdes and Sid Bel Abbes, the ministry of National Defence said in a statement. In a counterterrorism operation “a detachment of the People’s National Army destroyed four terrorist bunkers in Bejaia (5th military district) on […]

The security situation in Mali “remains worrying” despite recent troop deployments and some progress on the country’s peace accord, the head of the UN’s peacekeeping force said on Saturday in Bamako. “The overall security situation remains worrying. We are all too frequently attacked by armed groups,” Herve Ladsous said at a press conference.

Egyptian and Palestinian leaders are holding talks in Cairo in what Egyptian media reports are branding a “reconciliation” meeting. Relations between Egypt and President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration have been tense over a range of issues, including Cairo’s contacts with factions in the Gaza Strip that did not involve Abbas’ Palestinian Authority.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will visit Washington in April for talks with US President Donald Trump that will include the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process, his office said on Monday. A statement by the presidency said “the Palestinian issue will be discussed” with Trump during Sisi’s “visit to Washington early in April”.