Africa

he African Union will send a mission to northern Mali in the next few weeks to look into setting up a counter-terrorism force to support vulnerable UN peacekeepers, sources familiar with the matter said. The Bamako government, as well as some officials of the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA, have …

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday recommending the suspension of military aid and assistance to Egypt in light of the “abduction, savage torture and killing” of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni in Cairo. The resolution was passed by a majority of EU member states, with 558 voting in …

Algerian Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel said Thursday, in Cairo, Algeria is for a political solution to the crisis in Libya. Speaking with Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Dairi, on the sidelines 145th session of Arab League’s ministerial council, Messahel recalled Algeria’s position in favour …

US troops took part in a helicopter-borne special forces raid against Shabaab insurgents in Somalia, a US official said on Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the operation overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday as a “US partnered raid” with US troops accompanying Somali forces. The raid …

Morocco has accused UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of “abandoning neutrality, objectivity and impartiality” during a recent visit to Western Saharan refugee camps in southern Algeria. Morocco’s Foreign Ministry has criticized Ban’s trip in a statement, condemning the use of the term “occupation” in describing the territorial status of the Western …

Fresh clashes in Tunisia’s Ben Guerdane area near the Libyan border left 10 jihadists and a soldier dead as thousands attended funerals Wednesday for victims of a major assault. The assault, launched on Monday on army and police posts and blamed by authorities on the Islamic State group (ISIS), and …

Three terrorists and a soldier were killed Wednesday in new clashes in Ben Guerdane (East), target Monday of jihadist attacks unprecedented making 55 dead. “Two terrorists were killed (….) By police and military units”, said initially the Ministries of Defence and Tunisian Interior said in a statement on 9 March. …

Visiting the Sahara, the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, has drawn the ire of the Moroccan government, which accuses him of having departed from its neutrality and having made outrageous towards Morocco.

Mogadishu – Special forces operatives in two helicopters staged an overnight raid on Somalia’s Shabaab insurgents, government officials and the al-Qaeda-linked gunmen said on Wednesday. The raid, reportedly by foreign troops, targeted the Shabaab-controlled town of Awdhegele, some 50km west of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

Bujumbura – Five African heads of state met with Burundi’s president in Bujumbura on Friday at the end of a two-day visit to push for talks to end the country’s political crisis. The delegation’s visit came just days after a trip by UN chief Ban Ki-moon as international efforts to …