A quiet meeting in Oran on 18 August between the Moroccan and Algerian Prime Ministers Abderrahmane El Youssoufi and Ahmed Ouyahia was intended to ease months of rising...

The present Sudan government stands for everything the Egyptian government dislikes and fears, including Islamist extremism, international terrorism, domestic instability, hostility to its neighbours and the United States....

The pressing need to increase water supply along the Nile’s 6,825 kilometres has nurtured various degrees of cooperation between ten states, several of which have strained relations. Water...

Old animosities between Algiers and Rabat are re-emerging. This time it's over Islamist infiltrators and the planned referendum on Western Sahara (see Box). Algeria's still powerful former Defence...

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan risks losing face in the Western Sahara. The referendum planned for 7 December - to decid.e at last whether the territory joins...

The arrest of over 100 members of 'patriot' militias, including the Presidents of the Relizane and Djidiouia Assemblées Populaires Communales, for involvement in 'extra-judicial executions',including some very high-profile...

The European Union’s 20-21 January trip to Algiers achieved little. Public pressure in Europe and North Africa to stem a spiralling death toll had forced the EU to...

Russia is still punching holes in United States’ sanctions: its Fuel and Energy Ministry is finalising an agreement with Tripoli that is to relaunch oil projects stalled by...

Hopes of resolving the 25-year conflict in Western Sahara were sharply raised by the 7 December announcement of a referendum on the territory's future. Yet despite the success...

For all their differences, the rulers of the two big Maghreb neighbours share some important traits. They fear Islamist revolutionaries and are offering a small share of power...