A Niger guerilla faction led by dissident Tuareg insurgent leader Rhissa Ag Boula announced Dec. 16 it had abducted Canadian UN special envoy Robert Fowler, who disappeared with an aide while driving some 30 miles northeast of the capital Niamey. The vehicle was found abandoned. In a posting on its website, Ag Boula's Front of Forces for Rectification (FFR), which split from the Niger Justice Movement (MNJ) in May, said it was holding four people, including Fowler.

A Moroccan criminal court Nov. 13 convicted Moroccan citizen Said Boujandia of crimes related to terrorist acts. The Salé Criminal Court sentenced Boujandia to 10 years in prison. Boujandia admitted his association with with an organization which sought to aid the Afgahn Taliban, but denied committing any crime. Boujandia was held in US custody in Guantánamo Bay from 2001 until May 2008.

Around 30 MPs opposed to Mauritania's ruling junta boycotted the opening of the country's parliament Nov. 10. The boycott followed a statement from the head of the five-party Front for the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), Mohamed Ould Moloud, who called the session "pointless and without an aim" in "the absence of a legal government and legitimate president." Police deployed in front of the parliament building in Nouakchott, and carried out checks on the surrounding streets. (AFP, Nov. 10)

A suicide car bombing near the eastern Algerian town of Dellys killed three people Sept. 28, as Ramadan draws to a close amid a heavy deployment of security forces throughout the country. Three armed Islamists were killed by security forces in eastern Algeria a day earlier, and an alleged leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Sept. 5. Four police officers were also wounded in a bombing near the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou Sept. 14, and a gendarme killed and two others wounded in Ain Defla, west of Algiers, Sept. 24. For all that, it was Algeria's least bloody Ramadan since 1992; 60 were killed in the Muslim holy month last year.

Kidnappers holding 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians moved from Sudan into Libya with their hostages Sept. 25, the Sudanese government said. Sudanese authorities said a day earlier they had them all surrounded at their encampment near Jebel Oweinat, a mountain near where the borders of Egypt, Sudan and Libya meet. Egyptian officials have said the kidnappers are demanding a large ransom. One security source said they wanted 6 million euros to set the hostages free. "The Libyan authorities have been informed. They are now following the progress of the group," Ahmed said. Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, told Reuters. (Reuters, Sept. 25; AlJazeera, Sept. 23)

Mauritania's government said Sept. 20 that 12 soldiers abducted in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda were found decapitated, and appealed for international support to fight terrorism. Col. Ahmed Bemba Ould Baya, secretary general of the High State Council which took power in last month's coup, told Reuters the corpses were found near Tourine, 70 kilometers from Zouerate. "Their bodies were found this morning after a search... They were mutilated and had their heads cut off," he said. "This tragic episode puts the international community face to face with its responsibilities. We need its help."

Twelve Mauritanian soldiers are either killed or missing and possibly taken captive following a Sept. 15 clash with presumed militants of "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" in the remote north of the country. The location of the attack was variously cited as Tourine or Zouerat, close to the border with Western Sahara. Hundreds of military reinforcements were sent in after an army convoy was ambushed. Nine suspected militants were arrested by security services in Nouakchott over the weekend.

At least 43 were killed and 38 wounded in a suicide attack on an Algerian gendarmerie training school at Issers, in the Kabylie region, Aug. 19. The attacker drove his explosives-packed car packed to the main entrance to the school as candidates for an entry exam were waiting outside. Civilians as well as police officers were among the victims. "It's utter carnage," said the father of one of those killed in the attack. "It's a catastrophe. May God punish them for the crime they have committed against these youngsters, and their country." (AlJazeera, Reuters, Aug. 19)