Global defense news, analysis and opinion

Worried Togo Finds Itself on Front Line of Sahel’s Jihadist War

In a makeshift bunker of sacks of rice beneath a tree, heavily-armed Togolese soldiers keep watch over villagers coming and going on foot or bike across the border with Burkina Faso. Just a dried-out river bed separates the two West African countries. In surrounding fields, peasant farmers are bent silhouettes, watering the sorghum and maize seeds sown before the arrival of the first rains. Soon, clouds will chase away the fine dust of the harmattan, the desert wind that each year sweeps off the Sahara southwards to the coast and chokes the air. Nothing dramatic, or so it would seem, ever happens at Yemboate, in Togo’s far north. Yet less than 30 kilometers (19 miles) away, over the border in eastern Burkina Faso, jihadists and militia groups have imposed their own brutal law. Those policemen, doctors, and teachers who have not fled are being hunted down and butchered. “When I was small, we spent our time swimming in the river,” says farmer Abdoulaye Mossi, leaning on his bike with a hoe, speaking to AFP before the coronavirus pandemic. The arid channel separates his peaceful village of cob huts from a Burkinabe village on the other side. “Fear rules today,” the farmer says. But fear does …

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Three Aid Workers Killed as South Sudan Clashes Leave ‘Many’ Dead

South Sudan’s U.N. peacekeeping mission said Wednesday it was investigating reports that “many people” had died in a surge of intercommunal violence that killed three aid workers and left several missing. Clashes between members of the Murle and Lou Nuer communities broke out over the weekend in the northeastern town of Pieri, where peacekeepers have been interviewing survivors, the U.N. mission said in a statement. “The team is investigating reports that many people were killed, injured and lost their homes,” the statement said, adding that “many” huts were burnt to the ground. “However, it is difficult to verify the number of casualties given conflicting reports and claims,” it said. Moses Majok Gatluak, a member of the Lou Nuer group and former local official in the area, told AFP that 211 people were killed and 300 injured, but that toll could not be independently verified. He said the Murle had attacked Lou Nuer villages. The attack comes after a strike by the Lou Nuer against the Murle earlier this year — part of a decades-old pendulum swing of violence and revenge by the two cattle-rustling communities. The fighting often leaves hundreds dead, with one attack in 2009 killing up to 750, according to the …

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Afghan Taliban Leader Says Committed to Deal With US

The leader of the Taliban said Wednesday that militants were committed to a landmark deal with the U.S., despite being accused of carrying out thousands of attacks in Afghanistan since it was signed. In a rare message released ahead of the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan next week, Haibatullah Akhundzada urged Washington “not to waste” the opportunity offered by the deal to end America’s longest war. “The Islamic Emirate is committed to the agreement… and urges the other side to honor its own commitments and not allow this critical opportunity to go waste,” Akhundzada said in a statement, using the name the Taliban called Afghanistan when they were in power. After months of negotiations, the Taliban and U.S. signed a deal in February which stipulates Washington will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by next year in return for security guarantees. “I urge American officials to not afford anyone the opportunity to obstruct, delay and ultimately derail this internationally recognised bilateral agreement,” the reclusive leader said. Akhundzada hails from the Taliban’s traditional bastion of Kandahar, and was appointed head of the group after a U.S. drone strike killed his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in 2016. Mansour had succeeded Mullah …

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30 Years After Unity Dream, Fragmented Yemen Faces Reality

Thirty years after unification, Yemen is on the verge of fragmentation as a result of armed conflicts, regional rivalries, and foreign interference.

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Two Soldiers, Five Volunteers Killed in Burkina Attack

Two Burkina Faso soldiers and five civilian defense volunteers have been killed during an ambush on a military patrol in the restive north of the country, security sources said Tuesday. The attack occurred on Monday as soldiers from the military detachment in Banh in Loroum province were carrying out a patrol in the area, the sources said. “Two soldiers were killed along with five civilians,” a security source told AFP. Another security source said the civilian casualties were “defense volunteers who were with the military unit during the patrol,” adding two soldiers also died. The source said four others in the patrol were wounded, without giving further details. Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist alliance GSIM claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming to have killed “nine soldiers” in an ambush and taken weapons and vehicles, in a text sent to AFP late Tuesday. The Mali-based GSIM (Group to Support Islam and Muslims) comprises several different jihadist groups in the Sahel. On May 11, jihadists killed eight Burkinabe soldiers during an attack close to the Niger border in Yagha province, security sources said at the time. Burkina Faso is part of a regional effort to battle an Islamist insurgency, along with neighboring Mali and Niger, Mauritania and Chad. However, …

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Eight Afghan Soldiers Die Fighting off Taliban Attack in Kunduz

Eight Afghan soldiers were killed on Tuesday while repelling a fierce Taliban attack on Kunduz, a strategic city in northern Afghanistan that had briefly fallen to the militants twice in the past, officials said. Taliban fighters attacked several government posts on the outskirts of the city at around 1:00 am, a defense ministry statement said, triggering heavy fighting. “With the support of air force their attack was repelled,” it said, adding the fighting lasted for several hours. Defense Minister Assadullah Khalid, who visited Kunduz later on Tuesday, said the Taliban had “suffered big losses.” “Unfortunately, we have also lost eight brave soldiers,” he told reporters. Three civilians were also killed and 55 others wounded in the overall violence that rocked the city, Kunduz provincial health director Ehsanullah Afzali said. An airstrike also hit and partially damaged a clinic in the nearby district of Chardara but there were no reports of casualties, he added. “Taliban wounded fighters were also treated in that clinic,” Afzali told AFP. Both the Taliban and Afghan forces have clashed repeatedly in rural areas in recent months, but an attempt to enter a city as large as Kunduz is seen as a serious escalation. The latest violence follows a declaration …

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Jihadists Attack Nigeria Town Where Girls Abducted

Jihadists have carried out a rare attack on the northeast Nigerian town of Dapchi, where more than 100 schoolgirls were abducted two years ago, military sources and residents said Tuesday. One soldier was killed and three wounded as fighters believed to be from an Islamic State group affiliate looted shops and torched the home of a local chief in the assault Monday, the sources told AFP. The attack comes days before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when jihadists who have waged a 10-year insurgency usually ramp up their deadly assaults in the region. Fighters suspected to be from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction stormed the town, leading to a fight with troops in which sources said the soldier and five jihadists were killed. Resident Bashir Manzo said the insurgents spent over four hours in town before soldiers backed by a military jet confronted them. Dapchi was the scene of the abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls by ISWAP in February 2018. The girls were later released although the only Christian among them is still being held by the group after she reportedly refused to renounce her faith. The decade-long conflict in northeast Nigeria has …

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Saudi Attacker on US Base Had Longstanding Al-Qaeda Ties: US

The Saudi military student who killed three Americans at a U.S. naval base in December had longstanding ties to Al-Qaeda and planned an attack before he arrived in the United States, U.S. justice officials said Monday. The December 6 attack by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Royal Saudi Air Force flight student at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, “was actually the culmination of years of planning and preparation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Evidence discovered on an encrypted cell phone shows he was radicalized at least as far back as 2015, and had since been associating with “dangerous” operatives from the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Wray added. The FBI and Justice Department revealed their findings after a months-long effort to crack the encryption on Alshamrani’s iPhone, which they said Apple refused to help with. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr accused Apple of putting its own financial interests ahead of the nation’s. “If not for our FBI’s ingenuity, some luck, and hours upon hours of time and resources, this information would have remained undiscovered,” Barr said. “The bottom line: our national security cannot remain in the hands of big corporations who put dollars over lawful access and public safety. The …

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Afghan Forces Repel Taliban Attack on Key City: Officials

Afghan security forces on Tuesday repelled a fierce Taliban attack on Kunduz, officials said, a strategic city in northern Afghanistan that had briefly fallen to the militants twice in the past. Taliban fighters attacked several outposts of Afghan forces on the outskirts of the city at around 1:00 am, triggering fierce fighting, a defense ministry statement said. “With the support of air force their attack was repelled. Eleven Taliban were killed and eight wounded,” it said, adding that the fighting lasted for several hours. Both sides have repeatedly clashed in rural areas in recent months, but an attempt to enter a city like Kunduz is seen as a serious escalation. It follows a declaration by President Ashraf Ghani last week to resume offensive strikes against the insurgents, after a string of brutal attacks. The Taliban responded to the order by vowing to increase attacks against Afghan security forces. During Tuesday’s fighting, the insurgents managed to briefly capture an Afghan army post, killing one soldier, but it was quickly retaken by security forces, Hadi Jamal, an army spokesman in northern Afghanistan told AFP. The Taliban were not immediately available for comment. The insurgent group briefly captured Kunduz, a strategic city not far …

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Taliban Claims Afghan Bomb Attack, Demands Prisoner Release

The Taliban claimed a deadly attack on an Afghan intelligence agency post Monday, even as they urged the new power-sharing government to accelerate a prisoner swap to pave the way for talks. At least seven intelligence personnel were killed by a car bomb in the eastern province of Ghazni, Wahidullah Jumazada, spokesman for the province’s governor told AFP. “The terrorists have used a Humvee in their attack. They have targeted the National Directorate of Security unit in Ghazni city,” he said, adding that 40 people were wounded. The interior ministry in Kabul and a health official in Ghazni confirmed the car bomb. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that their insurgents had carried out the attack. The bombing comes a day after President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah signed a new power-sharing accord in Kabul, ending their bitter months-long feud. The agreement overcomes one of the hurdles to negotiations with the Taliban, which warned Monday that talks cannot open until a so-far piecemeal prisoner swap is completed. “That which is taking place in Kabul is only a repetition of the past failed experiences,” Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, said on Twitter in what was the group’s first reaction to the …

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