Latest Articles about Africa
Tunisian Jihadists Establishing New Networks with Libyan Islamists
The Tunisian Salafist movement Ansar al-Shari’a in Tunisia (AST) was declared a terrorist organization by the government of Tunis in August 2013. Since then, it seems to have adopted concealment tactics, given the impossibility of operating openly. Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities have launched an unprecedented counter-terrorism... MORE
Alleged Connection between Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Fulani Herdsmen Could Spark a Nigerian Civil War
In recent weeks, Nigerian security forces have claimed that some groups of semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen engaged in bitter and bloody conflicts with farmers in several Nigerian states are actually composed of members of Boko Haram. A statement from Nigerian Director of Defense Information Major General... MORE
BRIEFS
ALGERIA FIGHTING A TWO-FRONT WAR WITH ISLAMIST MILITANTS Andrew McGregor The continuing break-up of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) into northern and southern factions under rival commanders Abd al-Malik Droukdel and Mokhtar Belmokhtar has presented Algerian authorities with the necessity of fighting a two-front... MORE
Hot Issue: Boko Haram’s Mass-Kidnapping in Chibok: Shekau’s Gains and Objectives
Executive Summary On May 12, 2013, Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, demanded in a video that all Boko Haram prisoners, which number in the hundreds in Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, be released before he orders the return of more than 250 girls kidnapped in April.... MORE
Terrorist Campaign Strikes Mombasa as Somali Conflict Spreads South
Kenyan authorities in the coastal city of Mombasa arrested two individuals on March 17 as they drove a vehicle laden with explosives into the city. Authorities believed that the two men were part of a larger cell of 11 who were planning a campaign of... MORE
The Libyan Oil Crisis: Social Fragmentation in an Unstable State
In early March, the North-Korean flagged tanker MT Morning Glory reached the eastern port of Es-Sider, one of the three oil ports seized by Ibrahim al-Jadhran’s Cyrenaica Defense Forces. [1] Jadhran’s forces tried to sell oil independently of Tripoli’s control, something that they had threatened... MORE
Congolese Forces Take the Offensive Against Uganda’s ADF-NALU Militants
Fresh from a victory over the rebel troops of the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) in the unsettled but resource-rich Nord-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Congolese army has launched an offensive against the self-described “Islamists” of the Allied Democratic... MORE
Counterterrorism or Neo-Colonialism? The French Army in Africa
France has sent troops in the past year to two former African colonies, Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR). In Mali, the concern was an Islamist terrorist assault on the government, while in the Central African Republic there were fears that religious clashes between... MORE
A Look at Influential al-Qaeda Member Abu Anas al-Libi and His Ties to Ansar al-Shari’a
In a clandestine operation that angered many Libyans, especially Islamists, U.S. Special Forces captured Nazih Abd al-Hamid al-Ruqai from outside his Tripoli home last October. Known as Abu Anas al-Libi, al-Ruqai is a Libyan al-Qaeda suspect with a $5 million bounty on his head for... MORE
Are Corruption and Tribalism Dooming Somalia’s War on al-Shabaab Extremists?
After decades of conflict that have nearly destroyed the nation, Somalia now stands poised to make a final drive with international assistance to shatter the strength of radical al-Qaeda-associated Islamists in central and southern Somalia, but there are indications that Somalia’s leaders may be posing... MORE