Eurasia

Authorities in Libya’s militia-held capital have called for a freeze in UN-mediated peace talks until the military of the internationally recognised government halts an offensive in the east. Khalifa Ghweil, prime minister in a Tripoli-based parallel administration, “strongly” condemned the talks being held in Morocco between Libya’s rival parliaments. The …

A Tunisian mission will be send soon to Libya to assess the security situation in Libyan civilian airports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. The mission involves the airports of “Lobruk,” “Tobruk,” “Misurata” and “Mitiga,” Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mokhtar Chaouachi said.

French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday Egypt had agreed to buy two Mistral warships which France built for Russia before scrapping the sale over the Ukraine crisis. The deal is the second big military contract this year between France and Egypt, which Hollande said he increasingly views as a strategic …

Algeria “strongly” condemned on Sunday the outbreak of violence in Libya and called on the Libyan brothers for restraint to preserve the cohesion and unity of the Libyan people, said Foreign Affairs Ministry in a communiqué.

Former colonial power France condemned a military coup in Burkina Faso on Thursday and called for the immediate release of all those arrested and the continuation of the electoral process. Burkina Faso’s military said it had stripped interim president Michel Kafando of his functions and dissolved the government, seizing power …

The leader of the coup d’etat in Burkina Faso told a French magazine on Thursday that the interim president and prime minister who have been arrested were in good health and would be released. General Gilbert Diendere told the Jeune Afrique weekly that the coup had been launched by the …

Members of Burkina Faso’s presidential guard on Thursday announced the dissolution of the government on national television, saying President Michel Kafando had been ousted. Soldiers from the Presidential Security Regiment had on Wednesday interrupted a cabinet session, arresting Kafando, Prime Minister Isaac Zida and several other ministers. The presidential guard …

Forty-two troops from the UN’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) have been killed – and at least 126 injured – since the mission was first deployed in 2013, according to a Friday statement issued by the UN. The statement was released following an armed ambush on a MINUSMA …

The United Nations mission in Mali says a government-allied militia has left a northern town it occupied last month following clashes with Tuareg separatists. In a statement on Tuesday evening, the UN mission said elements of the Platform militia coalition had withdrawn from Anefis two weeks after they first said …

Tunisian Foreign Minister Taïeb Baccouche, who is paying a working visit to Brussels, Thursday met with European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini. He also conferred with Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn.