Introduction   In November 2018, Salah Badi hit the international headlines when the UN Sanction Committee imposed a number of sanctions on him (UN, November 16, 2018, US Department of State, November 19, 2018; France Diplomatie, November 19, 2018; UK Foreign Office, November 16, 2018).... MORE

Introduction In recent years, the role of Libya’s local militias—which emerged immediately after the eruption of the revolution in 2011—grew exponentially. Created in many cases as revolutionary or neighborhood defense groups, their economic power and territorial presence have increased sharply over the years, particularly after... MORE

Cameroon: Biya’s Reelection and Worsening Separatist Violence The reelection of Cameroonian President Paul Biya in October likely forebodes the further destabilization of the Central African nation. Cameroon has been a relatively reliable counterterrorism partner against Boko Haram since 2013, with Cameroonian forces helping reduce the... MORE

Moscow is deepening its military involvement in Libya while denying to its own people and the world that it is doing so, thus repeating the pattern that the Kremlin has followed in Syria and the Central African Republic. Indeed, the Russian government appears to have... MORE

On October 10, Russian diplomat and a key middleman between Russia and post-2011 Libya, Lev Dengov, officially dismissed accusations by several Western information outlets that Moscow was militarily involved in the most recent outbreak of violence in this war-torn North African country. Specifically, reports pointed... MORE

On September 25, the Tripoli Security Directorate announced the end of fighting in the Libyan capital Tripoli (Libya Observer, Sept 26, 2018). This declaration comes after almost a month of fierce clashes that left around 117 people dead and 560 others wounded (Libya Observer, Sept... MORE

Abou Obeida Youssef al-Annabi, born on February 7, 1969, is the nom de guerre of Yazid Mebrak (Interpol, Feb 29, 2016). Al-Annabi is originally from Annaba, in the northeastern corner of Algeria near the border with Tunisia. Annaba is Algeria's main port for mineral exports... MORE

Libya: Foreign Powers Keep Militias Well Supplied Libyan General Khalifa Haftar handed back control of four key oil ports—Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Hariga—to the National Oil Corporation (NOC) this month, ending a crisis that had seen the country’s crude production cut by 850,000... MORE

Islamist militants have long used the power of videotaped atrocities to terrorize their opponents. One man believes he can do the same in the interests of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s attempt to gain control of Libya: Major Mahmud Mustafa Busayf al-Warfali, a senior officer in... MORE

Once an important Mediterranean port in the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans, the city of Derna is currently being leveled by artillery and airstrikes supporting a ground offensive led by 76-year-old “Field Marshal” Khalifa Haftar. A former loyalist of Muammar Gaddafi, a veteran... MORE