Search:

The first is a BBC News photo essay 'The war in the desert; Why the Sahara is terror's new front line'. IT has a few interesting, though not new quotes. This refers o the UN peacekeepers, almost...

In June 2016 a French parliamentary committee held a hearing with the French SF CO, about their role and capacity - asking him to describe some typical operations that French SF conducted. He...

Worth watching a short, seven minute video casting doubt on the DoD version of events:
Link:https://www.wsj.com/articles/experts-differ-with-official-report-on-niger-ambush-1528752372

An excellent article from 'The Guardian', helped by having access to a Nigerien National Guard soldier who was held by ISIS (his outpost being overrun) and helps to explain the background. Tribes or...

Some here I expect will dismiss this NYT report, so here are two comments via Twitter that might persuade you. Professor Bruce Hoffman:

Professor Daniel Byman:

Try this WoTR article which is a gem on the often confusing and deteriorating situation. Here is a...

Previously unheard of development in northern Niger and very relevant as the last paragraph citing a local leader who...

Posts 18 onwards were in a separate thread on the deaths of four US SOF, which had 7k views and has now been merged to here.

Hat tip to WoTR for their article, authored by a recent US SOF commander for the region and his key question:Later he provides a partial...

Andrew Lebovich, a regional SME who has actually been there, has a column in FP. It ends with:Link:http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/27/the-real-reason-u-s-troops-are-in-niger/

From my "armchair" I would not reach such a conclusion.

Sadly the deaths have aroused far greater political and media attention to Niger and AFRICOM's activity.

The Soufan Report's latest...

Some curious information in this NYT report:
Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/world/africa/niger-attack-dunford.html?

Amidst the deluge of reporting now, very little by people familiar with Niger, this passage is important:...

Thanks to a "lurker" for the pointer to an exchange on Twitter between this lady as @texasinafrica (in a moment her bio) and others:

Just found her article in 'Slate', which is of value,...

Jason Burke, in The Observer, is an accomplished journalist on terrorism; his article helps to provide the context and some pointers to why the four soldiers died in:Was this man the target?Did the...

A CNN report with some more details and more questions:
Link:http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/niger-attack-trump-silence/index.html

The film clip has a sentence akin to Niger has not...

More background on the Niger mission:http://taskandpurpose.com/niger-army-special-forces-war/?

Two passages of note IMHO:A President Trump update:

A curious incident near the Mali border and the NYT report suggests:
Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/world/africa/special-forces-killed-niger.html?

The last post was in August 2013 and events around Niger have changed somewhat, notably in Nigeria. So this commentary from RUSI is welcome; which starts...

A backgrounder 'Letter from Niamey' by Andrew Lebovich, who was in country in May 2013, which starts with:

He ends:
...

A BBC report a month old which I missed, which covers several factors, but this is different:

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17192212

As attention is focussed on Mali along comes the BBC with this report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17506421

For once governance may not be a problem:

I am always wary of reading this:...

Cross refer for some background on today's post to the thread 'Gaddafi's sub-Saharan mercenaries':http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=12565

The BBC News reports:
...

Rex,

Thanks for the update and having read the article cited I am sure several governments were disappointed. The decision by Mali was influenced by a desire to keep Canada "sweet". I wonder how...