March, 2016

• 10 March

  US troops join in Somali raid

  US troops took part in a helicopter-borne special forces raid against Shabaab insurgents in Somalia, a US official said on Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the operation overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday as a “US partnered raid” with US troops accompanying Somali forces. The raid …

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• 10 March

  UN defends Sahara trip

  Morocco has accused UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of “abandoning neutrality, objectivity and impartiality” during a recent visit to Western Saharan refugee camps in southern Algeria. Morocco’s Foreign Ministry has criticized Ban’s trip in a statement, condemning the use of the term “occupation” in describing the territorial status of the Western …

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• 10 March

  Fresh clashes in Tunisia's Ben Guerdane

  Fresh clashes in Tunisia’s Ben Guerdane area near the Libyan border left 10 jihadists and a soldier dead as thousands attended funerals Wednesday for victims of a major assault. The assault, launched on Monday on army and police posts and blamed by authorities on the Islamic State group (ISIS), and …

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• 9 March

  Tunisia: three terrorists killed and a soldier near Ben Guerdane after new clashes

  Three terrorists and a soldier were killed Wednesday in new clashes in Ben Guerdane (East), target Monday of jihadist attacks unprecedented making 55 dead. “Two terrorists were killed (….) By police and military units”, said initially the Ministries of Defence and Tunisian Interior said in a statement on 9 March. …

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• 9 March

  Morocco in anger against Ban Ki-moon after his remarks on the Sahara issue

  Visiting the Sahara, the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, has drawn the ire of the Moroccan government, which accuses him of having departed from its neutrality and having made outrageous towards Morocco.

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• 9 March

  Special forces stage helicopter raid on Somalia's Shabaab

  Mogadishu – Special forces operatives in two helicopters staged an overnight raid on Somalia’s Shabaab insurgents, government officials and the al-Qaeda-linked gunmen said on Wednesday. The raid, reportedly by foreign troops, targeted the Shabaab-controlled town of Awdhegele, some 50km west of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

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• 9 March

  African leaders end Burundi peace talks

  Bujumbura – Five African heads of state met with Burundi’s president in Bujumbura on Friday at the end of a two-day visit to push for talks to end the country’s political crisis. The delegation’s visit came just days after a trip by UN chief Ban Ki-moon as international efforts to …

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• 9 March

  Tunisia arrests 17 jihadists

  Tunisia arrested 17 suspects on Tuesday in a manhunt for jihadists near the Libyan border after a deadly raid it described as an unprecedented assault by the Islamic State group (ISIS). Analysts said Monday’s co-ordinated attacks showed jihadists are keen to spread their influence from Libya to Tunisia and to …

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• 9 March

  Mali court rejects treason charge against Keita

  Mali’s High Court on Monday rejected an attempt by a civil society collective to have President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita face a charge of high treason. A group of associations filed the complaint against Keita last week to the court, which is competent to judge the country’s leaders if accused by …

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• 9 March

  Huge weapons haul seized heading for Somalia

  Nairobi – Almost 2 000 assault rifles plus grenade launchers and heavy machine guns were seized by an Australian warship, the navy said on Monday, part of international efforts to police the seas off Somalia. Sailors from Australia’s HMAS Darwin boarded the fishing boat that was “headed towards the Somalia …

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