Of all the potential terrorist hotspots in the world today, Niger is an unlikely country to take center stage. However, the killing of four members of U.S. Special Forces in Niger, near the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, on October 4, has forced the... MORE

Libya: Islamic State Still Holding Out Fighters with Islamic State (IS) are clinging on in Libya despite the loss of their stronghold in Sirte last year. The country’s continuing political crisis has given the extremists time and space to regroup. In the last few months,... MORE

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the founder and leader of a Biafran separatist movement known as the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has been missing since a raid by Nigerian security forces on his Abia State compound on September 14. Rumors abound regarding Kanu’s fate or location:... MORE

Italian Foreign Minister Marco Minniti reportedly recently reached an agreement with Katiba al-Shahid Abu Anas al-Dabbashi (The Martyr Abu Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade), one of the most powerful Libyan militias profiting off of the trans-Sahara network involved in smuggling migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. Based... MORE

Iraq: Political Differences and Outside Influences As Iraq moves into the next stage of its campaign against Islamic State (IS), political rivalries, sectarian divisions and the outside influence of regional players are conspiring to hamper efforts to tackle the terrorist group. Backed by air strikes,... MORE

Over the last 12 months, al-Shabaab has markedly increased the tempo and sophistication of its attacks on a range of soft and hard targets in Somalia, the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and in southeast Kenya. The al-Qaeda affiliate is re-taking territory it once controlled in... MORE

Cameroon: Boko Haram Stepping Up Attacks Two suicide bombers killed at least 14 people and wounded another 30 in northeast Cameroon on July 12 in an attack on a bustling market town near the Nigerian border (Cameroon-Info, July 14). The attack in Waza, attributed to... MORE