Africa


  • Meet Bonny, the first British military search dog deployed to Mali

    January 14, 2021

    Lance Corporal Grant Stevens and his companion Bonny are part of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team newly deployed to Mali A three-hundred strong task group of British soldiers has arrived in Mali as part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission (MINUSMA). Their mission is about building peace, stability and security in the region. Amongst those 300 men and ...

  • Somalia: AMISOM troops conclude counter IED training in Arbiska

    January 9, 2021

    Forty Ugandan soldiers serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) based in Arbiska, 30 km north west of Mogadishu have completed a five-weeks training aimed at enhancing their capacity to counter the threat posed by Improvised Explosive Devices ( IEDs). Col. Jimmy Nabiyu Musoke, the Commander of Uganda’s Battle Group (BG) XXX, presided over ...

  • Somalia: 7 Killed In Mogadishu Roadside Bombing

    January 7, 2021

    At least seven people have been killed after a landmine planted on the roadside in Mogadishu on early Thursday morning went off. Among those killed in the landmine explosion are two security forces after the landmine which targeted security forces vehicle which was passing in Hodan district went off according to a resident who sorted anonymity. The commander ...

  • Explosive kills 5 Cameroonian soldiers, civilian in Northwest region

    January 6, 2021

    Authorities in Cameroon said five soldiers and a civilian were killed early Wednesday in the troubled English-speaking region of Northwest when an improvised explosive device hit their vehicle. The soldiers were part of a government convoy that had traveled to the remote sub-divisions of Njikwa and Ngie to install newly appointed sub-prefects. The blast occurred when ...

  • Trends in Terrorism: What’s on the Horizon in 2021?

    January 5, 2021

    The year 2020 was unprecedented in many ways. Just three days into the year, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qasem Soleimani. That news was soon eclipsed by the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns, protests, and a bitterly ...

  • Two French soldiers killed during operation in Mali

    January 2, 2021

    Two French soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in northeastern Mali on Saturday, just days after three others died in similar fashion. Their deaths brought to 50 the number of French soldiers killed in the West African nation since France first intervened in 2013 to help drive back jihadist forces, according ...

  • Three French soldiers killed in Mali IED blast

    December 29, 2020

    Three French soldiers died after their armoured vehicle hit an IED in the Hombori area of Mali’s central Mopti province. The soldiers were participating in a military operation as part of a larger mission aiming at fighting armed groups in Africa”s Sahel region, the French presidency said in a statement on Monday. France has more than 5,000 ...

  • Uganda: UPDF, French troops complete joint mountain operation exercise

    December 17, 2020

    Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and French soldiers have completed a seven-day joint mountain operation exercise. The exercise that was conducted on Rwenzori mountain saw soldiers climb to its peak, Margherita. The activities conducted during the exercise included; first aid, counter Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), logistics platoon, combat platoon as well as real rescue in mountainous environment. While ...

  • Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. target al-Shabaab explosives makers

    December 10, 2020

    In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command conducted two (2) airstrikes targeting al-Shabaab explosives experts in the vicinity of Jilib, Somalia, Dec. 10. “We will continue to apply pressure to the al-Shabaab network. They continue to undermine Somali security, and need to be contained and degraded,” said U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, ...

  • British troops deployed to war-torn Mali for UN’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission

    December 3, 2020

    British soldiers have arrived in Mali to join the world’s most dangerous UN peacekeeping mission in the war-torn west African country. The 300 troops from the Light Dragoons and Royal Anglian Regiment will work alongside 16,000 peacekeepers from 56 different countries. Their role will be to provide specialist long-range reconnaissance for the United Nations mission, gathering intelligence ...

  • United States provides additional US$ 3 million for humanitarian demining in Zimbabwe

    November 18, 2020

    The United States government is pleased to announce an additional USD $3 million for humanitarian demining projects in Zimbabwe. Since 1998, the United States has invested more than $23.9 million in Zimbabwe to protect people from landmines and promote economic opportunities through safe access to land. The United States supports the Government of Zimbabwe’s goal ...

  • France says it has killed senior al Qaeda operative in Mali

    November 13, 2020

    French forces have killed Bah ag Moussa, a military leader of al Qaeda’s North Africa wing, during an operation in northeastern Mali, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Friday. The former Malian army colonel, also known as Bamoussa Diarra, was a right-hand man of Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of Mali’s most prominent jihadi group, ...

  • Nigerian Army Releases Names of 86 People Wanted for Terrorism

    November 11, 2020

    The Nigerian Army on Wednesday released a list of 86 persons wanted in connection with act of terrorist. They were alleged to be members of the notorious Boko Haram terror group. The latest release was the fourth in such releases as the military authorities had in the past rolled out lists of wanted terrorist. The latest list ...

  • Angola: US donates over USD 11 million for demining

    October 20, 2020

    According to a note that ANGOP has had access, since 1995 and with increased funding in 2020, the US has so far contributed over US$145 million to these efforts in Angola and is the biggest bilateral donor to the humanitarian demining process in the country. They strongly support the government’s goal of safely clearing all minefields ...

  • UN peacekeeper killed and another seriously wounded after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in northern Mali

    October 15, 2020

    A UN peacekeeper was killed in northern Mali and another seriously wounded after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb on Thursday, the UN mission said. The attack came as civil servants in the capital, Bamako, protested against the “selective release” of foreign hostages in hostage swap deals by the government. The attack on the UN Multidimensional ...

  • A closer look at Congo’s Islamist rebels

    September 30, 2020

    Since the start of 2019, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in and around eastern Congo’s Beni region. These atrocities — which U.N. monitors have said may be war crimes — are the latest in periodic waves of massacres in the area since late 2014. This violence followed the start of a large-scale Congolese army ...

  • Nigeria: 4 soldiers, 10 policemen, 4 others killed by terrorists

    September 27, 2020

    The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), said 18 persons, among them 4 soldiers, 10 policemen and 4 civilians, have been killed by Boko Haram terrorists in an ambush in Borno State. The deceased met their death Friday while providing security for the convoy of the Borno State Civilians Relocation Committee. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche ...

  • Al-Shabaab’s Improvised Explosive Device Supply Chain Gambit In Somalia

    September 22, 2020

    Al-Shabaab ended 2019 with a truck-borne improvised explosive device (IED) attack that killed at least 82 people and wounded dozens more in Mogadishu, Somalia. It capped a decade of increasingly deadly complex suicide attacks by the Somali terrorist group that routinely involves homemade IED devices constructed from commercially imported chemical precursors. These materials transit through ...