Africa

Mali’s prime minister promised the creation of specialist anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday on a visit to the country’s restive centre, along with a disarmament campaign for militias operating in the area.

Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga is on a tour of Mali’s most dangerous regions after being appointed in December to bolster security ahead of a presidential election in July.

“We will soon set up a special judicial section to investigate and judge terrorist crimes,” Maiga said in Bandiagara, a former tourist destination abandoned by foreign visitors after the rise of a jihadist insurgency.

Libya’s UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Sunday announced formation of a military force to secure southern Libya, which is witnessing tribal clashes for days.

Serraj made his announcement during a meeting with military officials to discuss the situation in southern Libya.

The 35th session of the Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior kicked off in Algiers on Wednesday, as participants are tackling security threats and the fight against crimes, in addition to illegal migration.

Arab interior ministers are focusing on cooperation to deal with challenges threatening the region, including terrorism, trans-border criminality, violent extremism, illegal migration, as well as cyber-crime and cyber-terrorism.

The Algerian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Algeria will host the 14th Foreign Ministers Conference of Western Mediterranean 5+5 Dialogue on Sunday.

The conference will focus on “overall, shared and sustainable socio-economic development” in the western Mediterranean region, the statement said.

Libya’s UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj holds French-brokered talks Tuesday with Khalifa Haftar, the rival military commander who controls the east, to try to end the chaos in the conflict-ridden country.

French President Emmanuel Macron has organised the talks but his office has stressed that it has modest expectations of the meeting to be held in a chateau just outside Paris.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met today with General Jospeh L. Votel, commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) to discuss bilateral relations, especially military cooperation, according to a press release by Egyptian presidency.

The commander of the US Central Command is visiting Cairo to hold meetings with senior Egyptian officials to discuss a number of issues related to regional security.

The EU Naval Operation Sophia started this week the training of the Libyan Navy Coast Guard and Libyan Navy and the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya.
An EU statement Thursday noted that the naval operation aimed at disrupting the business model of human smugglers and traffickers in the Southern Central Mediterranean.

Security, fight against terrorism and the situation in the Arab world will be on the agenda of the 13th meeting, Friday in Marseille, of the Foreign Affairs Minister of 5+5 Dialogue on the western Mediterranean.

This meeting of the western Mediterranean’s countries will bring together, in addition to Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia.

Algerian Minister for Maghreb Affairs, the African Union and the Arab League, Abdelkader Messahel and visiting Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ignacio Ybanez, vowed on Monday to boost bilateral cooperation in the political, security and economic fields.