Africa

Après un an d’intenses tractations, Wassim Nasr, le spécialiste des mouvements jihadistes à France 24, est parvenu en exclusivité à envoyer ses questions à l’émir d’Al-Qaïda au Maghreb islamique (Aqmi), Abou Obeida Youssef al-Annabi. Départ de Barkhane, menace terroriste sur la France, stratégie d’expansion vers le Golfe de Guinée… notre chroniqueur décrypte et met en contexte les réponses du chef de l’organisation terroriste.

Ever since his first term in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron has sought a broad reset of national strategy, relations and intervention in Africa owing to France’s complicated and chequered historical legacy in the continent.

• The United States provided training to several West African military officers who later went on to be involved in at least nine coup attempts in five countries since 2008.
• Russia may integrate this narrative into overall efforts to undermine the U.S. campaign to convince African governments not to engage further with the Kremlin-linked private military company known as the Wagner Group.
• Like many global powers, the United States has a history of involvement in engaging in the affairs of governments across the African continent, which can serve to further discredit future U.S. involvement.
• Russian influence is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa while simultaneously, European countries are drawing down forces from peacekeeping and counterterrorism operations in Mali.

According to Zagazola Makama, a publication focused on the Lake Chad region, a policeman was killed during the attack.

The Nigeria Police Force personnel in Borno State have reportedly repelled an attack by some suspected members of the Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP) in North Eastern Magumeri, Borno State.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is a country of extraordinary opportunities which, when considered more thoroughly, leave no one indifferent. It is located in West Africa, between the Sahel in the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean in the south. It borders Niger to the north, Chad to the northeast, Cameroon to the east and Benin to the west. About 220 million inhabitants live on the surface of a large 923,769 square kilometers. Nigeria particularly impresses with its demographic and economic potential.

In whatever form it manifests, whether it’s distaste for foreigners, refugees and asylum seekers, a nationalistic economic policy or flag-waving patriotism, tribal nationalism is a cancer upon the world. Violent, ugly, and often deadly, it creates and strengthens divisions, often resulting in war, one after another after another throughout history.

Civilian Targeting Trends in the Central African Republic and Mali

Introduction

On 30 March 2022, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament launched an inquiry into states’ use of private military contractors (PMC), drawing particular attention to the prominent Russian PMC known as the Wagner Group (UK Parliament, 30 March 2022). The decision to launch the inquiry came as Wagner Group forces deployed to Ukraine, and a series of reports emerged implicating Wagner mercenaries in human rights violations in Mali.

The war in Ukraine has not stopped Russia’s activities in Africa. Over the past year, the Wagner Group, in particular, has taken advantage of France’s and other Western countries’ worsening relations with Sahelian states.