French military forces serving in the Sahel as part of Operation Barkhane carried out a bold, complex, large-scale raid to neutralize a large terrorist detachment that probably contained one of Iyad ag Ghaly’s top commanders, Amadou Koufa, head of the Macina Liberation Front.

Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly applauds the courageous and effective efforts by the troops involved in this operation. This latest French military success in the Sahel reflects our resolve to relentlessly combat terrorism. It also demonstrates our determination to assist the Malian authorities in their daily battle to stabilize and restore peace to their country.

Last night’s operation deals a serious blow to a particularly brutal terrorist organization. It has repeatedly targeted civilians and symbols of the authority of the Malian state. Weakening terrorist groups is crucial to the restoration of public services, access to education and a gradual return to normal daily life. Military action can be effective only if it goes hand in hand with development policy. This is how Barkhane conceives of its mission

Militants of the Boko Haram Islamic terror group kidnapped 18 girls last Friday from two villages in the southeastern part of Niger near the Nigerian border, reports say.

The Islamist fighters reportedly arrived on horseback and stormed the villages of Blaharde and Bague in the Diffa region on Friday evening, abducting girls from the first village and others from the second.

MEP spokesman Lamido Moumouni confirmed to the press that abductions took place Friday night near Toumour, a municipality to the east of the city of Diffa, while Boukar Mani Orthe, the local town mayor in the Diffa region, added that about 50 armed men were responsible for the kidnappings.

On Sunday, the population and local authorities launched an appeal to ask the central government in Niger to spare no effort to find the kidnapped girls.

“We ask the government, along with the efforts undertaken so far, to take all the necessary measures to find the young women as soon as possible and bring them back to their homes,” Moumouni said. For its part, the Diffa parliamentarians urged the government to send a “massive deployment of military forces” to restore confidence to the Toumour population, which “is going through very difficult times.”

Friday’s kidnapping comes hard on the heels of an attack by Boko Haram Wednesday night in Toumour, during which the jihadists killed eight employees of the French drilling company Foraco.

“Last week, some NGOs had commemorated the 500 days since the abduction in July 2017 of 39 people – 33 women and six boys – by Boko Haram in N’Galéwa, a village north of Diffa, where other inhabitants had also been slaughtered from the same terrorist group.”

The Nigeria-based Boko Haram has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in its nine-years of terror in an effort to establish an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. The insurrection has included numerous raids and attacks even across borders into Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

In 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, and earlier this year staged another major abduction of schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state.

Also on Sunday, Kenyan police arrested the wife and father-in-law of one of the suspected kidnappers of the Italian volunteer Silva Romano in the eastern African nation. Police intercepted a phone call between the woman and her husband, which provided useful information on where the missing woman was being kept.

Local police continue to look for the Italian volunteer and have attributed the kidnapping to Islamist radicals of the Al Shabaab group.

A prominent Somali imam and 17 worshippers have been killed by extremists in the northern city of Galkayo after playing music as part of their religious ceremonies, police have said according to independent.co.uk.

Two suicide bombers detonated explosives in front of Sheikh Abdiweli Ali Elmi’s residence, which is also a Sufi shrine, and then four gunmen stormed the building and opened fire, said Ahmed Awale, a police officer in Galkayo.

At least 20 others were injured, he said.

Somali security forces rushed to the scene, leading to exchanges of heavy gunfire in the building.

Somalia‘s extremist rebels, al-Shabab, have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sheikh Elmi has hundreds of followers, but had generated controversy after publishing videos showing him and his followers chanting religious poems with music, which some extremists say is not Islamic.

The imam had defended his actions, saying music is not contrary to Islamic teachings.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for five attacks in an area it calls the “State of West Africa” that it said resulted in 118 casualties in the past week, according to a video posted on its account on the messaging website Telegram late, according to reuters.com.

The militant group, which typically uses the “State of West Africa” to refer to Nigeria, made the claim in a video presentation of attacks it says it carried out between Nov. 16 and 22. It did not specify the number of people killed in the attacks, referring only to 118 casualties.

Five security sources told Reuters more than 100 soldiers had been killed in attacks in Nigeria in recent days, one of the highest death tolls since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015. It could raise pressure on him ahead of an election in February since he has claimed victory over the nine-year insurgency.

The sources said the insurgents attacked a military base in the village of Metele in northeastern Borno state, the epicentre of a revolt by Boko Haram and splinter group Islamic State in West Africa.

Islamic State, in a statement released on Monday, said it attacked an army base on Sunday in Metele and killed at least 40 Nigerian soldiers. The group said it burned down the base after the attack finished.

A Nigerian presidency spokesman on Thursday said the military would issue a statement and military spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment. The government and military often decline to acknowledge the scale of losses in the northeast.

The U.S. military on Thursday announced the latest of several deadly airstrikes this week against al-Shabab extremists in Somalia as it targets a region well north of where the al-Qaida-linked fighters control large parts of the country, like reported by stripes.com.

The U.S. Africa Command statement said two new strikes killed six fighters and destroyed a weapons cache on Wednesday near Harardere. That al-Shabab-controlled community last month was targeted by the deadliest U.S. airstrike in almost a year, with dozens of extremists killed.

The U.S. has now carried out 35 airstrikes this year against al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, which continues to stage deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and other cities.

Somali intelligence officials said the latest airstrikes targeted locations in the rural villages of Jimo-Luqunyar and Adaley, 75 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Harardere.

The Nigerian Army said on Thursday that it has uncovered a new terrorist group, Jama’atu Nus’ratul-Islami Wal-Muslimina, believed to be operating in the North-East of the country. Consequently, the Army has vowed to fight the group with “advanced technologies” and crush them, like reported by vanguardngr.com.

The army said it had also identified the leader of the new group as Abul-Fadl Iyad Gali, adding that the existence of the group “portends grave danger to Nigeria’s national security.”

The Army while making the disclosure in its official facebook handle, also said troops have killed an Islamic State of West Africa Province Media Chief, Sale Ahmad, also known as Baban Hassan, in a joint operation with the Nigerian Airforce. Furthermore, the army statement said, ISWAP is a faction of Boko Haram, directly affiliated to and sponsored by the Islamic State and has attacked military troops and civilians in recent times.

The Army said, “The new leader of Jama’atu Nus’ratul-Islami Wal Muslimina, Abdul-Fadl Lyad Gali, has been identified. “The group is a new terrorist group which Ansaru is affiliated to. In the same vein, the identification of the leader of the group would enable the army to target the group effectively using advanced technologies in its arsenal. “This is as the existence of group portends grave danger to Nigeria’s national security.

“Reports available reveal that one Sale Ahmad Sale, the leader of Al-Barnawi media group, a faction of Boko Haram, was killed by a joint operation conducted by the army and the air force. “The killing of the media leader is indicative of efforts by the army to eliminate key members of the sect. It is worthy to note that the sect is directly affiliated to the Islamic State and has carried out several attacks against troops and civilians in the past”.

Armed men killed seven people in an attack on French drilling company Foraco’s water well site in southeastern Niger, a security and company source said according to iol.co.za.

The security source said the assailants were believed to belong to Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, which is active in the Diffa region near the border with Nigeria.

An official at the well site in the village of Toumour did not know who was responsible for the attack but said the victims included six company employees and one civil servant.

“We lost six agents in our ranks,” the official told Reuters. “The controller, a civil service agent, was kidnapped before having his throat slit not far from the site.”

Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria and has launched repeated attacks into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Thousands of civilians have died in the violence.

Marseille-based Foraco is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and says it is the third largest global mineral driller with mining and water projects across 22 countries.

Rampaging Boko Haram insurgents overran a Nigerian Army battalion in Borno State on Sunday, killing the unit’s commander and dozens of soldiers, military sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.

A large cache of arms, ammunition and military equipment were carted away by Boko Haram fighters during the attack on 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele, Abadam Local Government Area, at about 6:00 p.m., a setback for government forces trying to push terrorists further out of Nigeria’s northeastern flank.

There were fears for the fate of the troops from the base, which was raided only a month ago, as military sources said the Nigerian Army was making frantic efforts to contain the traumatic effect of the attack on the larger counterinsurgency operation.

Bodies of fallen troops were still being recovered and evacuated from the scene as of Tuesday morning, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. But dozens of soldiers from the battalion have already been confirmed killed, amongst them their commander. Military sources were unable to tell the number of Boko Haram casualties.

Military sources said the fallen commander was a lieutenant colonel, who had overseen the unit for a long time. He once allegedly refused to mobilise troops for an operation, citing unavailability of serviceable hardware, but faced threats of being court-martialed, sources said.

PREMIUM TIMES has decided to withhold the identity of the officer as it was not immediately clear his family had been informed of his death.

It was not immediately learnt how many soldiers were manning the base during the attack, which was linked to Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA).

The group has long targeted military bases, and has intensified its assaults in recent months on military formations across the volatile northeast.

A day before on November 17, Boko Haram terrorists attacked the base of Sector 2 troops in Mainok, Kaga Local Government Area, killing at least one soldier and leaving several others wounded. Military sources believed the Shekau faction of the group was responsible for the attack, which saw insurgents cart away a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

Both the Nigerian Army and the Defence Headquarters did not return PREMIUM TIMES’ requests seeking comments on the attacks Tuesday morning. A spokesperson for the Nigerian Air Force also did not return messages seeking comments.

It was only on October 8 that Boko Haram militants raided the same base of 157 Battalion in Metele, killing at least 18 soldiers and wounding eight others, PREMIUM TIMES reported.

At least 157 soldiers were feared missing during the attack, and their whereabouts had not been conclusively resolved by military brass over a month later, sources said.

Military authorities announced the attack, but heavily downplayed its magnitude.

President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian military leaders have claimed they are winning the war on terror, but analysts say recent attacks are bolstering rather than dampen fears of the insurgency.

“When you consider the frequency of these attacks since July, it is difficult to say that our military has the upper hand,” said security analyst Chris Ngwodo.

Mr Ngwodo said a possible failure on the part of the military leaders to appropriately fortify bases might be responsible for the audacious scope of the attacks.

“These bases are not sufficiently fortified to withstand insurgents’ attacks,” the analyst said. “That they are doing this regularly and getting away with it shows there is no adequate security in place even at the bases.”

“Every resource must be made available to fortify where soldiers are manning, even though many of them are forward operating bases,” Mr Ngwodo added. “Intelligence capabilities must be also be strengthened to anticipate things like this because the huge movement it takes for terrorists to carry out such attacks should have been detected.”

Hundreds of Nigerian troops have been killed and even more missing since Boko Haram resumed its latest campaign in July, fueling concerns amongst military leaders, and prompting an emergency reshuffling of commanders.

Worried about the rising cases of missing soldiers in Boko Haram attack, the chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, issued a warning to troops on the battlefront against fleeing from insurgents in August, threatening errant personnel with a tough prosecution.

The Defence Headquarters announced last week it had taken new delivery of military equipment, boasting of a tough time ahead for insurgents.

The military has said it recorded tremendous gains in its counterinsurgency operations over the past three years, especially after managing to confine the insurgents to the fringes of Nigerian territories.

This was against the previous years when the deadly Boko Haram terrorists held vast Nigerian lands across its North-east stronghold, occasionally spilling into North-west and North-central geopolitical zones.

The Foreign Ministers of Sudan, Chad, Niger and Libya have agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting of the joint border security committee among the four countries at the end of the month, said El-Dirdeiry Ahmed, Sudan’s top diplomat

The four Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of the 11th Extraordinary Summit in Addis Ababa.

According to Ahmed, the ministerial committee would hold its 5th regular meeting next month in Niamey, capital of Niger.

He pointed out that the Foreign Ministers’ meeting stressed importance to move ahead with the coordination and cooperation among the four countries to protect border security.

In a meeting held last April in Niamey, Sudan, Chad, Libya and Niger agreed to “coordinate the actions” of their armed forces to fight against the “transnational crime” in the region.

The four countries agreed “on the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for border security and the fight against transnational organized crime”.

Last June, they signed an agreement in Ndjamena to control and monitor the joint borders.

The political instability in Libya after the collapse of Muammar Kadaffi’s regime impacted negatively the whole region and particularly, Niger, Chad and Sudan.

Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Boko Haram pose a serious threat to Niger and Chad while Sudan seeks to prevent trafficking of arms to Darfur and migration of mercenaries to Libya.

Sudan is not part of the multi-national military force in Africa’s Sahel region dubbed “G5 Sahel force” which includes Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

The UN-backed force is tasked with policing the Sahel region in collaboration with 4,000 French troops deployed there since intervening in 2013 to fight an insurgency in northern Mali.

An Islamist rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo received money from a financier linked to Islamic State, suggesting tentative ties between the Congo insurgents and other jihadists in Africa and beyond, like reported by voanews.com.

Islamist “financial facilitator” Waleed Ahmed Zein paid the Allied Democratic Forces at least once, said the report from New York University’s Congo Research Group and the Bridgeway Foundation that cited U.S. sources and an ADF defector.

Zein is on a U.S. government sanctions list and was arrested in his home country of Kenya in July for links to Islamic State.

The payments were made in recent years but it was not clear when, how much was paid or how the money was used.

The Congolese government blames the ADF for a series of massacres in the last two years in the east of the country where violence around the city of Beni has hobbled efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak.

The ADF was set up by Ugandan Muslims in the 1990s purporting to fight for the rights of the Tablighi Jamaat sect, although it turned to banditry after crossing Uganda’s western border with Congo.

The Congolese and Ugandan governments accuse the ADF of links with jihadists like al Qaeda but has offered little evidence to back up these claims.

The payment was made as the ADF seeks to align itself with Islamic State, Nigeria-based Boko Haram and al Qaeda and other groups.

“The ADF appear to be … becoming more interested in broadcasting their messages to a wider … audience and are attempting to present themselves within a broader setting of radical jihadi groups,” the report said.

Links between the ADF and other groups are not yet strong, it said. Reuters was unable to independently verify the findings of the report.

To reach a wider audience, the ADF has made propaganda videos which feature a flag similar to Islamic State’s and broadcast in Luganda, Arabic, French, Kinyarwanda and Swahili, the region’s most widely spoken language. They call for martyrdom and violence against infidels, the report said.

Rival militia groups control parts of eastern Congo, long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war in which millions of people died, mostly from hunger and disease.

Rights groups say the army is responsible for at least some of the recent killings in eastern Congo.