Tag: North Africa

North Africa

Libya: fatwa against ‘infidel’ Berbers

The Amazigh Supreme Council (ASC) of Libya, representing the Berbers in the country's western mountains, responded strongly to the fatwa issued by clerical authorities attached to the "Interim Government" based in Libya's east against the practice of Ibadhi branch of Islam. The fatwa refers to Ibadhi Muslims as "infidels." Nearly all followers of Ibadhi Islam in Libya are ethnic Berbers in the Nafusa Mountains. The ASC called the fatwa "a direct incitement for genocide."

North Africa

Arab-Berber unity in Morocco protests

Protests continued for a second week in Morocco's neglected Rif region, and spread to cities throughout the country—bringing together Arabs and Berbers to demand democratic reform.

North Africa

Libya: Saif al-Islam Qaddafi released from prison

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, was released from prison under a new amnesty law, according to the militia that has held him for the past five years.

North Africa

Arab Revolution re-ignited in Morocco

Protests spread across Morocco as thousands demonstrated solidarity with activists who took to the streets in the fishing port of al-Hoceima and were met with mass arrests.

North Africa

Egypt bombs Libya after new attack on Copts

Egyptian warplanes carried out air-strikes on what President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called six "terrorist training camps" in Libya after a new massacre of Coptic Christians.

North Africa

Massacre reported in battle for Libyan airbase

Up to 130 soldiers are reported to have been summarily executed after a force loyal to Libya's Tripoli-based government took an airbase controlled by eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar.

North Africa

Thousands protest Tunisia corruption amnesty bill

Thousands of Tunisians marched to protest a bill that would grant amnesty to officials facing charges of corruption committed under the previous regime of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

North Africa

New Qaeda franchise escalates Mali insurgency

A new Qaeda-affiliated faction, the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), is attempting to re-unify the fragmented jihadist insurgency in Mali's desert north.

North Africa

US troops for Libya, escalation in Somalia

The US military plans to station ground troops in Libya to help local forces fight the ISIS faction there, and also seeks greater scope to target insurgents in Somalia.