Eurasia

Egypt’s military announced on Wednesday it was winding down its largest campaign in the Sinai against Islamists, following a 16-day operation in which it said scores of Islamic State group jihadists were killed. The army said the campaign in the Sinai Peninsula had “achieved its goals” in destroying militant hideouts …

The Nigerian Army captured one of the top commanders of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram on Wednesday, a military spokesperson said. Bulama Modu and 43 others were captured in an operation that resulted in the destruction of two “terrorist camps” at Janguoriri and Bulatori in north-eastern Nigeria, the spokesperson …

West African leaders were flying to Burkina Faso on Tuesday night to try to resolve the country’s political crisis following a coup last week. There was a tense stand-off in the capital after the coup leader refused to heed a deadline for his men to return to barracks even after …

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 …