Western Sahara independence activist Aminatou Haidar is on hunger-strike at an airport in Spain, demanding the right to return to her country without acknowledging Moroccan sovereignty over it.
An Algerian court sentenced in absentia Guantánamo detainee Ahmed Belbacha to 20 years in prison. Belbacha says he fears torture in Algeria and has requested asylum in the US.
An Algerian court acquitted former two Guantánamo detainees. Their lawyer said that while the men admitted to involvement in theft and drug trafficking, they denied any link with terrorism.
Hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police in Algiers as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vicki Huddleston arrived for talks on closer counter-terrorism ties.
Dissident rebel factions in Niger are refusing to honor a peace deal brokered between the government and Tuareg guerillas by Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
The issue of Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony, was discussed in depth at the UN’s Decolonization Committee meeting in New York this week.
The World Bank, EU and NATO have all restored full ties to Mauritania—despite charges of fraud in elections claimed by coup leader Gen. Ould Abdel Aziz.
Mauritania registered its first suicide bombing when an attacker presumably linked to al-Qaeda blew himself up outside the French Embassy in Nouakchott, injuring two security guards.
Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who led a coup in Mauritania last year, has claimed victory in the new election—but four opposing candidates rejected the result.
Just about a year after the last time and two-and-a-half years after the first time, the New York Times for a third time July 10 treats al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to some lurid front-page publicity, “Qaeda Branch Steps… Read moreAQIM makes Times front page —again
Mauritania’s ousted President Sidi Abdallahi formally resigned as part of a power-sharing deal with the nation’s military rulers—days after a US teacher was killed by suspected al-Qaeda militants.
Gunmen presumably linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ambushed and killed 24 Algerian paramilitary police in the country’s deadliest insurgent attack in nearly a year.
