Italian oil and gas company ENI has made a significant discovery of gas and condensates off the Libyan coast, at the Bahr Essalam South exploration prospect at Area D, 82 kilometres from the coast and 22 kilometres from the Bhar Essalam production field.

ENI -via ENI North Africa BV- is the operator in Area D with a 100 percent share of the area during the exploration phase. The discovery was made through well B1-16/4, drilled at a water depth of 150 metres in the Metlaoui Formation of Eocenic Age.

The well produced about 1 million cubic metres of gas and over 600 barrels of condensate a day during tests. This was limited by the reduced capacity of the surface infrastructure in this phase. It has been estimated that the well could deliver in excess of 1.5 million cubic metres of gas and 1,000 barrels of condensate a day.

It has the potential to develop quickly due to the proximity of the Bahr Essalam production infrastructures. ENI is using three drilling plants in offshore exploration and in outlining the area D discoveries.

The development of Libyan natural gas will support the growth of domestic consumption and local industry, helping the country to keep its role as a strategic supplier to Italy and Europe. The D area includes the Wafa and Bahr Essalem fields which, since 2004, have supplied the domestic and the Italian markets via the Greenstream pipeline.

The area D fields produce a high percentage of liquid product. The offshore area where the discovery occurred is a zone where ENI is carrying out major development projects which will enhance recent discoveries.

ENI is also exploring to meet local demand. ENI’s gas supplies to Libya have grown from about 1 billion cubic metres in 2009 to 4.3 billion cubic metres last year, with a potential to reach 6.2 billion next year. ENI has been working in Libya since 1959, and produces about 350,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent.

It was an awkward reminder of the world’s failure to hold to account a president accused of war crimes: A group photo from Egypt’s economic summit over the weekend shows US Secretary of State John Kerry standing just behind Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.

Even as the International Criminal Court scolds the UN Security Council to make sure a defiant al-Bashir faces trial on charges of orchestrating genocide in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the United Nations appears to be easing away from the conflict. Under pressure from al-Bashir, the UN opened talks this month with Sudan on a plan for a large peacekeeping mission to leave Darfur.

The Security Council on Tuesday will discuss the troubled mission and how its eventual departure will affect a civil war that once drew the world’s outrage.

The idea alarms observers of the chaos in Darfur, where nearly half a million people were displaced last year, the most in a decade. The UN has blamed the spike in violence largely on a new rapid action force backed by Sudan’s government, which has been fighting rebels across the vast region since 2003. More than 300 000 people have been killed overall.

‘Exit strategy’
Some suggest that al-Bashir, who is running for re-election this year, is just posturing and doesn’t really want to lose the benefits of a $1.3bn-a-year peacekeeping mission. But last year he ordered the expulsion of top UN officials and the closure of the mission’s human rights office in the capital, Khartoum, and called for an “exit strategy” for the joint UN-AU force, which numbers more than 20 000.

Adding to the tension was the mass rape of more than 220 women in a Darfur village last October by Sudanese army troops. The peacekeeping force, called UNAMID, has been blocked from entering the village after a brief and inconclusive visit shortly after reports of the mass rape emerged.

But Human Rights Watch pieced together details of the attack through more than 100 interviews with local residents, calling it “a new low in the catalogue of atrocities in Darfur.”

That a single Human Rights Watch researcher could produce a damning report through telephone calls alone, while one of the UN’s largest peacekeeping efforts appeared powerless to act, shows the deep disconnect between the mission and Sudan, said Ryan D’Souza, advocacy officer for the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

‘Worst kept secret’
“It’s the worst kept secret: The mission is failing,” D’Souza said. At the same time, “a withdrawal would send al-Bashir the message that he’d won.”

UNAMID has long been criticised for its ineffectiveness in Darfur. It also has become the third-deadliest peacekeeping mission in UN history. At least 215 members have been killed since it was created in 2007.

A new report by the UN secretary-general says the mission’s downsizing has begun, though it notes there has been “no tangible progress towards a comprehensive resolution of the conflict.” A total of 770 posts will be gone by April.

And UNAMID now has measures to repatriate underperforming members, “in light of several incidents in which military units failed to respond effectively to armed attacks.” The report gives no details.
A fuller exit strategy, based on the new talks among Sudan, the UN and the AU, is expected by the end of this month.

Charges of genocide
One Sudanese activist with projects in Darfur, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of safety concerns, said al-Bashir associates the peacekeeping mission with the Security Council’s referral of the Darfur situation to the ICC in 2005. That led to al-Bashir being charged with genocide.

Since then, Sudan’s president has travelled to several countries without being arrested. And the Security Council now faces its sharpest divide since the Cold War. Permanent member Russia can block action on Sudan with a veto, backed by China. Both countries have business interests there.

The activist is upset with al-Bashir’s actions, but also impatient with UNAMID: “The mandate of the mission is just observing. What is the use of observing violations if they don’t interfere?”

If that doesn’t change, the activist said, “I think they should leave.”

Nigerian government forces recaptured the northeastern city of Bama from Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, the army said on Monday, a significant victory for the government just two weeks before a national election.

Boko Haram had held Bama, situated in Borno state where their six-year-old insurgency to establish a medieval-style Islamic caliphate has been centred, since September last year.

Their campaign expanded over the past few months with cross-border incursions into Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

But counter-strikes launched by the armed forces of Chad and Niger over the frontier into Nigerian territory, particularly around Lake Chad, as well as the engagement of hundreds of mercenaries may have begun to turn the tides of the conflict.

The arrival of new equipment has also helped boost morale among hard-pressed Nigerian soldiers.

Africa’s biggest economy and top energy producer has been plagued by the insurgency launched in 2009.
Boko Haram managed to take control of territory the size of Belgium by the beginning of 2015.

The inability of the army to dislodge the militants, who have killed thousands of people and kidnapped hundreds, has been an embarrassment for President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Nigerian troops have this afternoon routed terrorists from Bama in Borno state. Mopping up operation is ongoing,” the Nigerian Defence Headquarters tweeted.

Bama is about 60km south-east of the state capital Maiduguri.

The army has been fighting for Bama since last week and began making headway at the weekend, security sources said.

The militants were progressively pushed out of neighbouring Adamawa and Yobe states since the start of the year, and cornered into an ever shrinking area of Borno, the heartland of the insurgency, where they appear to be suffering heavy losses.

But the Nigerian government has warned that the splintered militants would regroup and increase attacks on “soft” targets, something that has already occurred with a string of deadly bombings across the north and middle of Nigeria.

The elections were postponed in February by six weeks, with the military citing Boko Haram as warranting the delay.

Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party will face former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, seen as tough on security, in the March 28 election, which is likely to be the closest ballot since the end of military rule in 1999.

The Islamic State terrorist group posted pictures Tuesday of the beheadings of four men it said were recruiters for pro-government militia fighting its terrorists in northern Iraq.

The images show four men dressed in black kneeling in an empty street with knife-wielding jihadis standing behind them, after which they are pictured being beheaded.

Text accompanying the photographs said the beheadings were carried out in Salaheddin province, where Iraqi troops backed by militia are fighting to retake the provincial capital Tikrit from ISIS.

The exact location where the photos were taken was unclear, and their authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

A massive anti-ISIS offensive to take Tikrit by Iraqi army troops, Iranian-backed Shia Islamist militias and some Sunni tribesmen has ground to a near halt, despite making significant initial gains.

Ten of thousands of fighters had their advance slowed against just a few hundred ISIS jihadis by sniper fire, mines and booby traps, and on Monday a senior commander of the Shia Imam Ali Brigades militia was killed in clashes.

ISIS spearheaded a sweeping offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last year.

It has carried out numerous atrocities in areas it controls ranging from public beheadings to enslavement and rape.

The United Nations on Monday expressed concern over the presence of the Islamic State supporters in Afghanistan.

Families fled Libya’s coastal city of Sirte in their dozens on Monday after two days of clashes between Islamic State militants and fighters loyal to a government based in Tripoli, with the violence set to escalate, according to witnesses.

Families were seen packing into cars and heading westwards along the coast for Misrata, the stronghold of Libya Dawn, the armed group that backs the government in the capital, Tripoli. Some 20 cars evacuated staff from a hospital.

One resident leaving the city said Islamic State had told them that more fighting was likely in the next few days. Fuel was running short in Sirte while some shops had closed, he said.

The region east of Sirte, towards Benghazi, has been a battlefield since December when Libya Dawn tried to seize Libya’s biggest oil ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which are held by forces loyal to the internationally recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni in the east.

Reinforcements from Misrata could be seen arriving on Monday on the outskirts of Sirte – the birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted four years ago after decades in power.

Islamic State has exploited turmoil in Libya, a major oil producer, where Thinni’s government and the administration in Tripoli and their respective allies are fighting for power.

Militants loyal to Islamic State have taken over government buildings, a hospital and the university in Sirte and at the weekend fought near the city with Libya Dawn forces, although there was no major confrontation in the city center, residents said.

On Sunday, a car bomb exploded in Misrata at the headquarters of a force sent to fight Islamic State in Sirte. Misrata has largely been spared the kind of violence gripping other parts of Libya. There was no claim of responsibility.

Militants loyal to Islamic State have claimed responsibility for an attack on the luxury Corinthia hotel in Tripoli in January, as well as the killing of a group of Egyptian Copts from Sirte that triggered air strikes by Egypt.

Iran has reportedly deployed an arsenal of high-powered artillery rockets and missiles to Iraq in an effort to help that country’s military and Shiite militias in an ongoing campaign against ISIS.

Iran’s deployment of Fajr-5 artillery rockets and Fateh-110 missiles, combined with the Iraqi military recently amassing 30,000 troops, has raised concern among US officials about possible sectarian tensions in the region, according to The New York Times.

Iraqi forces were partially trained by American military, and the US has been unwilling to commit ground troops to the fight.

Shiite militias, with backing from Iran, have played a major part in the campaign against ISIS and have helped Iraqi forces drive the group out of Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

But Iranian influence in the area is a concern among some in Washington.

“Sectarianism is what brought us to the point where we are,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a hearing recently. “And so, I do look at it with concern. We’re watching it very closely.”

1500 Saudi security men for a Presumption terrorist attack on “Suef” border port with Iraq, within the framework of the first tactical common exercise (homeland 85)

carried out by the Internal Security Forces, with the follow-up of Crown Prince and Interior Minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef 
.
According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), “the activities of the exercise included a field operation organization to repel an attempt to storm terrorist elements backed by cars to port border land of the Kingdom, with the participation of (1500) security man representing sectors: border guards, private security, emergency, security patrols, security facilities, aviation security, civil defense, passports, the center of command and control of the Interior Ministry, the Supreme Commission for Industrial Security and the Customs Department, was evacuated to monitor the movements of these elements, during the assault on a border port simulates reality in its design and public facilities, and deter them successfully”.

During this process, passengers and staff were evacuated from the port that was exposed to a terrorist attack after the arrest of terrorist elements, as well as the evacuation of vulnerable residential areas of the dangers that may result from the security forces to deal with terrorist elements, sheltering them, to save those affected, search for the missing and rescue the injured, including firefighting and re-situation to what it was before the attack 
.
The implementation of security hypotheses included, conducting joint security exercises designed to develop security personnel skills in the implementation of various functions, the use of tools and techniques and support mechanisms, including fitness training, archery, and follow-up procedures, monitoring and control, according to SPA 
.
The first of its kind exercise has been carried out by the internal security forces in Saudi Arabia, after about two and a half months of the terrorist group that attacked a Border Police patrol near the border with Iraq, killing the commander of the border guards of the northern region, Brigadier Awda Mouawad Balawi in addition to two soldiers, and wounding director of operations in Saudi border guards, Brigadier ,Salim al-Anzi

Egyptian forces engage in an increasingly intense fight with Islamic Caliphate-linked terrorists in the Sinai, and as violence continues on a weekly basis it raises the risk of U.S. troops eventually becoming involved in it since they are stationed in the area as part of a longstanding peacekeeping force.

The New York Times reported on March 16 that the Islamic Caliphate-linked Sinai Province (formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis) claimed to have captured the engine of an M60 tank from the Egyptians. The Egyptians denied this. The M60 is an American-made tank but was retired from service in the U.S. in the 1990s. Other nations, such as Egypt, still use it.

This is just the latest report of a series of attacks by the Sinai Province or other Islamic terrorists against Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula. Last week Islamic terrorists carried out at least three attacks in or near Al-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai province.

The Telegraph reported on two attacks on March 10 that killed at least two people, while Reuters reported on March 12 that a small-arms attack on Egyptian forces left three troops wounded. No group had claimed any responsibility for the attacks as of the time of this article.

Al-Arish is near the North Camp of the Multinational Force and Observers, which is located approximately 40 km away at el Gorah. U.S. troops, such as the 1st Squadron of the 112th Cavalry Regiment (Texas National Guard), are stationed at North Camp and other sites throughout the Sinai.

MFO troops are not involved in the fight against terrorists in Egypt. However, as attacks against Egyptian security forces and other targets in the Sinai continue, the chance of an attack eventually striking a U.S. or other MFO troop grows.

And if that occurs media attention would instantly focus on Egypt, which in turn would focus the attention of pundits and politicians on it. A debate would then occur on what the U.S. response should be and the U.S. might eventually decide to become more heavily involved in yet another theater of operations.
MFO is a peacekeeping force of many nations, including the U.S.

It was created following the 1979 Egyptian-Israel peace treaty and its mission “is to supervise the implementation of the security provisions of the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty of Peace and employ best efforts to prevent any violation of its terms.”