Illegal armed groups are opportunistic by nature. They usually start their operations and recruit followers in countries where there is poverty, corruption, religious conflict or ethnic strife, and where the security forces are unable to keep the public safe and illegal formations under control.
Burkina Faso is facing a challenge on how to protect its gold industry against a wave of jihadist violence that last month left scores of mining employees dead in a single attack.
Egypt has cut ties with Qatar as a result of the Gulf state’s “support to terror groups [Muslim Brotherhood],” Egyptian representative at the International Court of Justice said yesterday.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia on Monday accused Qatar at the UN high court of failing to honour its obligations amid a two-year diplomatic spat locking a Saudi-led bloc and Doha.
Norwegian police chief Benedicte Bjørnland is unable to rid from her mind the certainty that mistreating a copy of the Koran is wrong and that she and her fellow flatfoots should, under some statute or other, have the power to do something about it. In short, for the Norwegian police, the Koran is, in a way, as holy as it is for Muslims.
Can a plan to replicate the EU’s freedom of movement in the Balkans transform the region — or is it all about political posturing?
A week before the European Union dashed the EU hopes of Albania and North Macedonia back in October, the prime ministers of those countries met with Serbia’s president and unveiled a regional initiative that was quickly dubbed the “mini Schengen”.
The continuing debate over migration is, at its core, about European federalism and the degree to which the European Union will be allowed to usurp decision-making powers from its 28 member states.
“Bring your father, today has been better than the last couple days; I swear nothing is happening,” a resident of Ras al-Ain implored his nephew over WhatsApp. Shortly after, Ahmad’s (a pseudonym) mother sent him a message: “Wait. No one here knows their head from their legs, if you head towards us, they will snatch you up.”
While one can hardly imagine the Pakistani government responding to Norwegian pressure to stop oppressing Ahmadiyya Muslims, Hindus, women, gays, and so on, Pakistan has not hesitated to complain about developments in Norway that offend its delicate cultural sensibilities.
Conditions in Sweden have deteriorated so drastically — with everything from child care to elder care being deprived of funds that are instead being used to feed, clothe and house refugees, faux refugees, and other foreign freeloaders — that many Norwegians worry, with good reason, about a massive spillover of social chaos, poverty and crime from a country with which it shares a thousand-mile-long border.