Around 30 MPs opposed to Mauritania’s ruling junta boycotted the opening of the country’s parliament Nov. 10. The boycott followed a statement from the head of the five-party Front for the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), Mohamed Ould Moloud, who called… Read moreMauritania: opposition boycotts parliament; regime claims al-Qaeda threat
A suicide car bombing near the eastern Algerian town of Dellys killed three people Sept. 28, as Ramadan draws to a close amid a heavy deployment of security forces throughout the country. Three armed Islamists were killed by security forces… Read moreRamadan terror in Algeria
Kidnappers holding 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians moved from Sudan into Libya with their hostages Sept. 25, the Sudanese government said. Sudanese authorities said a day earlier they had them all surrounded at their encampment near Jebel Oweinat, a… Read moreKidnapped tourists held in ex-rogue state Libya
Mauritania’s government said Sept. 20 that 12 soldiers abducted in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda were found decapitated, and appealed for international support to fight terrorism. Col. Ahmed Bemba Ould Baya, secretary general of the High State Council which took… Read moreMauritania appeals for anti-terror aid after al-Qaeda attack
Twelve Mauritanian soldiers are either killed or missing and possibly taken captive following a Sept. 15 clash with presumed militants of “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” in the remote north of the country. The location of the attack was variously… Read moreArmed struggle breaks out in Mauritania?
At least 43 were killed and 38 wounded in a suicide attack on an Algerian gendarmerie training school at Issers, in the Kabylie region, Aug. 19. The attacker drove his explosives-packed car packed to the main entrance to the school… Read moreAlgeria: suicide bomber kills 43
Tuareg rebels of the Niger Justice Movement (MNJ) announced Aug. 18 they are laying down arms following peace talks brokered by Libya. The announcement was made by the MNJ leader Aghaly ag Alambo, following a meeting across the Libyan border… Read moreQadaffi brokers Tuareg ceasefire
A suicide car bomb attack on security forces killed eight civilians and injured 19 at Zemmouri, Boumerdes province, 30 miles east of Algiers, Aug. 9. The checkpoint blast outside a barracks targeted troops of the Coast Guard and National Gendarmerie…. Read moreDialectic of terror escalates in Algeria
A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up and injured 13 Algerian troops in an attack on an army convoy in Lakhdaria July 23. On June 8 a French engineer and his Algerian driver were killed in a bomb… Read moreAlgeria: jihadis attack army —and villagers
Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffi made a big show of boycotting the Mediterranean Union summit in Paris, bashing the new initiative as a “neo-colonial” project to weaken African and Arab unity. (RFE/RL, July 14) But days earlier, France and Libya signed… Read moreLibya and France in nuclear cooperation agreement
The New York Times scored a media coup July 1 with a front-page story on the revival Algeria’s Islamist militant underground following its transformation into an al-Qaeda franchise, “Ragtag Insurgency Gains a Lifeline From Al Qaeda.” The front-page story featured… Read moreMaghreb al-Qaeda’s NYT debut sparks Algeria outrage
Two bombs exploded June 8 at the Beni Amrane rail station in Boumerdès wilaya, just east of Algiers, killing 12, including fire-fighters, soldiers, an engineer from the French water engineering company Razel, and his Algerian driver. A third bomb was… Read moreAlgerian rail bombings kill 12; attacks on army intensify
