Tchad : 117 terroristes tués en représailles à l’attaque de Boko Haram

Au moins 117 terroristes ont été éliminés par l’armée tchadienne dans l’ouest du pays, lors d’une opération militaire lancée en réponse à une attaque attribuée au groupe jihadiste Boko Haram, survenue le 27 octobre. Une quarantaine de soldats tchadiens ont été tués, selon des sources militaires. L’incident s’est produit dans la province du lac Tchad, une région stratégique bordant le Cameroun, le Niger et le Nigeria, où les forces armées tchadiennes ont mis en place un dispositif de représailles.

IS Sahel: Consolidating territory and reviving economies.

Since 2023, Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel), a violent extremist organization affiliated to the Islamic State, has shifted from perpetrating high levels of indiscriminate violence against civilians towards building community support in areas where it has consolidated its influence. It has also begun actively reviving local economies (including illicit activities) that had been heavily undermined by its earlier indiscriminate use of violence.

Benin–Niger border closure drives surge in migrant smuggling profits.

When Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown in a July 2023 coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) moved within days to impose punitive measures that it hoped would force a return to constitutional order. This included financial sanctions on Niger and the closure of all member states’ borders with the country.1 The bridge over the Niger River, linking the Beninese city of Malanville and the city of Gaya in Niger ­– a key transit point for migrants and both licit and illicit trade – was therefore officially closed.

Political extortion? JNIM’s blockade of Boni, Mali.

In June 2024, fighters from the Katiba Serma sub-group of Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) redoubled their efforts to cut off the town of Boni, in the Mopti region of central Mali.1 This is the latest iteration of a blockade that the jihadist group had intermittently imposed for more than nine months on the Route Nationale (RN) 16.2 Blockades are very much part of JNIM’s toolkit in its areas of influence not just in Mali, but also in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

Al-Qaeda’s Brazen Attacks in Mali’s Capital Bamako

Map 1 : The Gendarmerie Academy and barracks and the International Airport Modibo Keita

At dawn September 17, 2024, the Malian capital of Bamako witnessed one of the most brazen terrorist attacks seen in recent years. Armed gunmen first stormed a barracks of the gendarmerie in the south of the capital and subsequently attacked the military part of the airfield Modibo Keita.

African Union soldiers killed in al-Shabab mortar attack

Two African Union soldiers were killed and a third one injured by an al-Shabab mortar attack Sunday on their base inside the perimeters of Mogadishu’s international airport.

A statement by the head of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mohamed El-Amine Souef condemned the attack on the facility known as the Halane Base Camp.

Healing the scars of Tigray’s war

At a large intersection in central Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Asmelash Mariam waits cautiously for a speeding blue bajaj to let him cross.

The 28-year-old walks with a limp, but eases his way through the crowd, a serious and proud look on his face. Beneath his grey-washed jeans a prosthetic on his right leg replaces the limb he lost in the war two years ago.

Chad threatens to withdraw from multinational security force

Chad’s interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby has threatened to withdraw the Central African country from a multinational security force, which he said had failed in its task of tackling insurgent groups in the Lake Chad region.

Deby made the statement on Sunday during a visit to the region, which sits in part of western Chad and also Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon. Around 40 Chadian soldiers were killed in an attack there by suspected Boko Haram militants in late October.