Africa

The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution that would bolster the peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic with 900 extra troops to help protect civilians, according to the text obtained by AFP on Tuesday. The measure follows a request from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who has warned …

France said on Wednesday it will increase its development aid to the troubled Sahel by more than a third, linking the extra funds to the fight against jihadist groups in the vast African region. The five nations in the sprawling area south of the Sahara – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, …

Maghreb neighbours Algeria and Mauritania are to open their first border post more than 50 years after independence from France, the Mauritanian news agency AMI reported on Thursday. Mauritanian Interior Minister Ahmedou Ould Abdallah and Algerian counterpart Noureddine Bedoui signed an accord Bedoui ended a visit to Nouakchott on Wednesday, …

The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Libya Bettina Muscheidt has revealed in a meeting with the Libyan Foreign Minister of the Government of National Accord Mohammed Sayala that they will reopen the border assistance mission’s bureau in Libya’s capital Tripoli soon, not specifying a date for …

At least 10 people died in attacks in Mali on Monday, as the prime minister cancelled a visit to a central town after a vehicle sent to protect his team hit a landmine. A bus travelling in the restive north was blown up by a mine on Monday, killing at …

The African Union says it has begun its withdrawal from Somalia and will cut 1 000 troops by the end of this year as security responsibilities start to shift to the local military. The continental body said on Tuesday that the move comes at a critical time, less than a …

France has sent high-level representatives to talk to the Malian government after a French anti-terror raid killed Malian troops held by the jihadists. Defence Minister Tiena Coulibaly met on October 31 with the French ambassador and the commander of France’s military force in Mali, according to a ministry communique received …

Stressing the urgent need to help Mali and other countries the Sahel address cross-border terrorism and organized crime, Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday invited the United Nations Security Council to “be ambitious” in deciding how the UN supports the region’s newly-established joint force.

Libyan factions involved in UN-brokered peace talks are still far apart on the issue of the leadership of a future national army, the head of one of two rival parliaments said on Monday. Abdulrahman Swehli said delegations from both the Tripoli State Council that he leads and from a parliament …

The Security Council is deciding whether to increase the number of United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), one of the recommendations put forward by Secretary-General António Guterres for strengthening the operation, which was discussed at today’s meeting in New York.