Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 1/10/2025

News and analysis from the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn, and the Middle East

Last week’s links can be found here.

Sahel and West Africa

The presidential palace in N’Djamena, Chad was attacked on January 8. Much remains unclear about the perpetrators, what happened, and how to classify the event. Al Wihda Info summarizes President Mahamat Deby’s reaction statement here.

An anti-junta protest rocked Conakry, Guinea on January 6.

French President Emmanuel Macron offended Senegal and Chad with his (in my view, arrogant and condescending) remarks about the French military presence in Africa.

Mali’s ex-Prime Minister Choguel Maïga, now at odds with the ruling junta, has been accused of financial misappropriations during his time in power. Meanwhile, Maïga is “blowing hot and cold” as he talks about the regime.

Monica Pronczuk for the Associated Press: “They Fled from Extremists. Now the Government in Burkina Faso Tries to Hide Their Existence.”

Thomas Naadi at the BBC: “Burkina Faso's military leader Capt Ibrahim Traore sparked concern when he attended Tuesday's inauguration of Ghana's President John Mahama with a holstered pistol at his waist.”

Ghana has broken ties with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara).

Reuters: “China Development Bank Releases $255 Mln for Nigeria Rail Project.”

The Nigerian military is striking a triumphalist tone in its fight against the Lakurawa group in the far northwest. I have a bad feeling.

North Africa

Djamel Belaïd at OrientXXI on the Kadoussa dam in Moroccan territory near the Algerian border, and the wider impliciatons of conflict over water.

In Morocco, unions are negotiating with parliamentarians over a law concerning the right to strike.

Ahmed Elumami at Reuters: “Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say.”

Frida Dahmani writes for Jeune Afrique on the traffic of ancient artifacts in Libya.

Algerian writers are increasingly willing to touch on the previously taboo subject of the “Black Decade.”

French-Algerian interactions are particularly tense at the moment, as the Western Sahara issue and the arrest of writer Boualem Sansal weigh on the relationship.

Greater Horn of Africa

Basillioh Rukanga and Anita Nkonge for the BBC:

Five young Kenyan men - including a popular cartoonist - who went missing just before the Christmas holidays have been found alive, family members and rights groups say.

Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, with the state-funded rights group saying that over 80 people have been abducted in the last six months.

The abductions generally target government critics and are widely believed to be the work of security agents, although the authorities have not admitted responsibility.

Related, from Martin Siele at Semafor: “Kenya’s largest telecoms operator Safaricom is facing widespread public backlash over its alleged involvement in the unexplained abductions of government critics.”

From Washington:

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa (Hemedti), the leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under Executive Order (E.O.) 14098, “Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons Destabilizing Sudan and Undermining the Goal of a Democratic Transition.” For nearly two years, Hemedti’s RSF has engaged in a brutal armed conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan, killing tens of thousands, displacing 12 million Sudanese, and triggering widespread starvation.

In addition, OFAC is sanctioning seven companies and one individual linked to the RSF.

Al Jazeera: “Sudan’s Military Pushes Back Rebels in Second City of Omdurman.”

AFP:

While observers wonder who is behind IS-designated caliph Abou Hafs al-Hachimi al-Qourachi -- the would-be leader of all Muslims -- or whether such a person actually exists, Abdul Qadir Mumin may already be running IS's general directorate of provinces from Somalia.

Aster Misganaw and Mulugeta Atsbeha at VOA: “9 Million Children in Ethiopia out of School; Hijab Ban in Tigray Adds Tension.”

Mashriq

Lebanon has a new president - Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces General Joseph Aoun (no relation that I know of to past President Michel Aoun, who was in office 2016-2022). Jeanine Jalkh profiles him at L’Orient Le Jour.

France24’s Wassim Nasr has published his travel diary from Syria.

Toqa Ezzidin in New Lines Magazine: “Assad’s Fall Sparks Fear and Reflection in Egypt.”

Salman Alzraiy at the Institute for Palestine Studies: “The Bleak Future: Will The Gaza Genocide Come to an End?”

Muhammad Shehada at the Center for International Policy: “The Biden Administration’s False History of Ceasefire Negotiations.”

Mary Turfah in The Baffler:

At what point does MSF simply refuse the conditions it is sustaining, as it did in Libya or Afghanistan? A decade later and under an exponentially escalated targeting of Gaza’s health care system, these concerns persist. Today, both its modes of intervention—medical care and witness—are compromised, especially as the latter is only as effective as the media coverage it receives. MSF’s “voice of outrage” against Israel’s destruction of medical infrastructure has been drowned out by the propaganda war that moves in lockstep with Israel’s needs.

Marta Bellingreri in The Guardian, with photographs by Alessio Mamo: “Uncovering Iraq’s Mass Graves: The Painstaking Search for Missing Loved Ones – Photo Essay.”

Bekir Aydoğan at Amwaj Media: “Deep Dive: How Turkey-PKK Peace May Usher Change in Iraqi Kurdistan.”

At Foreign Affairs, Lisa Anderson reviews Erica Gaston’s Illusions of Control: Dilemmas in Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria (Columbia, 2024). Anderson writes, “Examining nine case studies of U.S. involvement with local proxies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, Gaston concludes that virtually none of those attempts to mitigate the risks of partnering with proxy forces were effective in limiting undesirable behavior, even as they served bureaucratic purposes within the U.S. government and among its international partners and allies.”

Carol Rosenberg at the New York Times: “Guantánamo Convict Sues to Stop U.S. Plan to Send Him to Prison in Iraq.”

Mohammed Sergie at Semafor: “Riyadh Metro Becomes the World’s Longest Driverless Train Network.”

Experts at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy commented on key issues in the Middle East for 2025. I found Kassem Mnejja’s intervention particularly compelling. An excerpt:

In 2025, policymakers must address the growing weaponization of technology in conflict as the boundaries between traditional and digital warfare blur. In 2024, we continued to witness how internet shutdowns, surveillance, and online attacks—combined with the dystopian use of AI-powered technologies for targeted attacks—have further deepened people’s suffering across the region. Israel has used these tactics in Gaza and Lebanon and similar patterns emerged in Sudan. Urgent frameworks are needed to mitigate such attacks, ensure accountability for violations of international law, and protect civilians.