Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has dismissed claims that the deployment of the country's soldiers to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is commercially motivated. President Cyril Ramaphosa in January deployed 2,900 soldiers to provide support in combating illicit armed factions in the [...]
©- - 26 february 2024 - 11:08:29 - thread Politics (229 words)


Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Three suspended member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS - - Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger -- have announced the formation of a mutual defence pact against “possible threats of armed rebellion or external aggression”. The military rulers of the three countries initialled [...]
©- - 28 november 2023 - 13:13:12 - thread Politics (237 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA)- The Libyan Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Abdulhamid Al Dbaiba, and the UK Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, James Hebbey, on Monday held a meeting in Tripoli to review Libyan-British cooperation on training and the fight against terrorism. The meeting, which was also attended by [...]
©- - 10 october 2023 - 10:39:59 - thread Politics (189 words)


Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – A meeting of the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff began on Wednesday at Nigeria's Defence Headquarters, Abuja, over the coup in Niger. Sources confirmed that the meeting is to finetune measures to execute the resolutions of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads [...]
©- - 02 august 2023 - 14:10:16 - thread Politics (524 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South Africa’s Department of Defence is sending a 13-member delegation to the United States to attend the 19th SA-USA Defence Committee Meeting in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday to engage the US Department of Defence on a range of military-to-military issues. The South African delegation’s [...]
©- - 06 june 2023 - 08:47:10 - thread Politics (266 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity and Minister of Defence, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, participated in an extended security meeting of the Defence and Security Council chaired by the chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council, Supreme Commander of the Libyan Army, Mohamed Al-Manfi. The meeting [...]
©- - 16 may 2023 - 20:03:45 - thread Politics (196 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – Just weeks after hosting a joint naval military exercise with Russia and China in South African waters, Pretoria is again under fire after two Iranian warships docked in Cape Town harbour on Friday. MPs in Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on International Relations have received a notice [...]
©- - 04 april 2023 - 12:06:14 - thread Politics (270 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs Naledi Pandor has dismissed a warning by the United States government to its citizens in South Africa to stock up on food and water due to electricity blackouts. This is after the US Embassy urged US citizens to stockpile [...]
©- - 01 march 2023 - 09:05:47 - thread Politics (245 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the National Unity Government, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, stressed here Thursday the importance of developing cooperation with Malta in all governmental sectors, and speeding up the opening of a consulate general in Benghazi, eastern Libya. During a meeting in Tripoli with [...]
©- - 19 january 2023 - 20:09:21 - thread Politics (242 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The 14th. Meeting of the chiefs of staff of the armies of the 5+5 defence initiative countries - Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia - and five European countries - France, Spain, Italy, Malta and Portugal  - adopted at the end of their meeting, a joint [...]
©- - 30 october 2022 - 19:25:41 - thread Politics (223 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan ministry of Defence of the government of national unity has accused the former director of the Military Intelligence Department, Osama al-Juwaili, of mobilizing a military force affiliated to the commander of the Western Region in a district of the capital, Tripoli. In a statement, the [...]
©- - 27 may 2022 - 16:13:56 - thread Politics (380 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The tenth meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force Commanders of the 5 + 5 Defence Initiative countries started on Thursday in Tripoli to discuss the contribution of the air force in the relief efforts and to exchange experiences between the member countries [...]
©- - 14 october 2021 - 19:52:41 - thread Politics (215 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, has met with a delegation from the UK Ministry of Defence, led by the ministry's Adviser for North Africa and the Middle East, Jan Martin Smeaton. The two sides discussed a number of important issues, including support for [...]
©- - 27 september 2021 - 19:12:34 - thread Politics (186 words)


Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – Nigeria and Bulgaria are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen. Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd), has said. Magashi, who said that machineries are in motion to “carefully contextualise and conceptualise the draft documents” for the MoU, spoke at the [...]
©- - 18 august 2021 - 19:25:17 - thread Politics (349 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South Africa will send 1,495 soldiers to Mozambique, as part of a regional force aimed at quelling an insurgency in the country's troubled Cabo Delgado region. President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the deployment in letter to the Parliamentary Speaker of Parliament Thandi Modise. The deployment will last [...]
©- - 29 july 2021 - 11:38:37 - thread Politics (202 words)


Rabat, Maroc (PANA) - The 17th annual joint US Africa Command exercise, African Lion, began on Monday in Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal. With more than 7,000 participants from nine countries and NATO, African Lion is the largest U.S. Africa Command exercise where training is focused on improving readiness for U.S. forces [...]
©- - 08 june 2021 - 12:10:17 - thread Politics (207 words)


Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Niger's defence minister Alkassoum Indatoun arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday and called on the First Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council, Maj.  Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. According to Sudan's  official news agency, SUNA,  said the Niger official handed Vice President Daglo a written message from Niger  President [...]
©- - 12 may 2021 - 13:35:41 - thread Politics (115 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday called for a “troop surge”, comprised of all Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique to counter the scourge of increased terrorist action. This comes after a number of South [...]
©- - 29 march 2021 - 17:37:24 - thread Politics (300 words)


Tunis Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisia will in June host the multinational "African Lion" military manoeuvres, sponsored annually by the United States. The announcement was made on Wednesday in a statement by the commander-in-chief of the U.S. military in Europe and Africa, Christopher G. Cavoli. He said that these exercises are an opportunity [...]
©- - 25 february 2021 - 10:13:55 - thread Politics (211 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday saluted the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for its work during the COVID-19 pandemic which saw a major lockdown. Addressing a rally to mark the National Armed Forces Day in Cape Town, Ramaphosa noted that thousands of soldiers were [...]
©- - 21 february 2021 - 16:54:26 - thread Politics (175 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The Tunisian Parliament on Tuesday approved the extension of deployment of a military air transport unit in Mali and a helicopter unit in the Central African Republic (CAR) under the United Nations banner. Speaking during the plenary session, Tunisian Defence Minister Brahim Bertéji said that these missions [...]
©- - 10 february 2021 - 09:37:01 - thread Politics (284 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Italian Defence Minister, Lorenzo Guerini, has welcomes the success of a military technical agreement signed between the Libyan and Italian Defence Ministries. Mr Guerini was speaking at a meeting held at the headquarters of the Italian Ministry of Defence with the Vice-President of the Libyan Presidential [...]
©- - 12 january 2021 - 10:23:38 - thread Politics (244 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian Defence Minister Brahim Bertégi chaired a working session with U.S. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett at the ministry's headquarters on Wednesday to discuss military cooperation between the two countries in light of the situation in the region. A Tunisian Defence Ministry statement issued on Wednesday said [...]
©- - 07 january 2021 - 09:55:17 - thread Politics (228 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libya's Ministry of Defence under the Government of National Accord has signed a military-technical cooperation agreement with the Italian Ministry of Defence, covering training, technical information , support, development, maintenance, consultation and exchange of experience in the field of illegal immigration, land, sea and air borders. The [...]
©- - 04 december 2020 - 16:32:47 - thread Politics (447 words)


Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - Generals and senior officers of the DR Congolese armed forces (FARCD) and the Congolese national police (PNC) Tuesday reaffirmed their loyalty and allegiance to President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the communication service of the presidential press said here. “Grateful to the Congolese population which it is [...]
©- - 01 december 2020 - 22:51:20 - thread Politics (165 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The Tunisian Defense Minister, Brahim Bartagi, said on Thursday morning that Tunisian security units have eliminated four alleged terrorist leaders during joint operations, injured many other elements and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition as well as electrical equipment. Mr Bartagi, who was speaking at a [...]
©- - 19 november 2020 - 17:28:46 - thread Politics (217 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Defence Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Salaheddine al-Nemruch, has criticised the European Union (EU) for its "negative position" during the attack by the Libyan National Army (LNA) on Tripoli from April 2009 to June 2020.  "Some European Union countries supported this attack [...]
©- - 18 november 2020 - 11:10:37 - thread Politics (564 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The Tunisian minister of Defence, Brahim Bertéji, Tuesday presided over the opening of the 34th session of the joint Tunisian-US military cooperation here, official sources said here. It was witnessed by the US ambassador in Tunisia and the two high-level delegations from the two countries. Addressing the session, [...]
©- - 06 october 2020 - 22:46:57 - thread Politics (251 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – United States President Donald Trump has addressed claims that Iran is considering assassinating US ambassador to South Africa by tweeting that any attack would be met with a response "1 000 times greater in magnitude". As previously reported by PANA, US intelligence sources on Monday [...]
©- - 15 september 2020 - 14:52:28 - thread Politics (233 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian President Kais SAied Wednesday held talks with US Army General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US Commandment for Africa (Africom), a statement issued by the Tunisian presidency here said. The talks focused on the ways and means to implement further bilateral cooperation between Tunisia and the [...]
©- - 09 september 2020 - 23:08:08 - thread Politics (113 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The Tunisian president, Kaïs Saied, Wednesday met with the chief of the US Commandment for Africa (AFRICOM), General Stephen Townsend, who was on an official visit. A statement issued here by the Tunisian presidency said the meeting, which was attended by the minister of Defence, Brahim Bartagi, [...]
©- - 09 september 2020 - 21:35:00 - thread Politics (332 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The President of the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, on Wednesday held talks in Tripoli, with Italian Defense Minister, Lorenzo Guerini, on the developments in Libya and a number of joint cooperation issues. During the meeting between both men, al-Sarraj and Guerini, [...]
©- - 05 august 2020 - 17:59:55 - thread Politics (371 words)


Kigali, Rwanda (PANA)  - The body of a Rwandan soldier, who was killed while serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Central African Republic (MINUSMA), has been returned to Rwanda, a military source confirmed in Kigali on Thursday. Sergeant Major Edouard Nsabiyaremye was killed in an ambush by unknown [...]
©- - 23 july 2020 - 15:25:38 - thread Politics (239 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, has affirmed that "the Tunisian state is standing and will not falter in the implementation of the law against all those who violate the law without exception". Mr. Saeid, who made an inspection visit to the headquarters of the special military forces and [...]
©- - 22 july 2020 - 16:12:18 - thread Politics (248 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisia has affirmed its desire to further strengthen its presence in United Nations peacekeeping operations "in order to keep its leading role among countries which contribute to the UN efforts," according to a press release published on Wednesday by the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Tunisia on [...]
©- - 15 july 2020 - 18:03:24 - thread Politics (198 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the Defence Ministry to urgently engage with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regarding the increasing Islamist military threat in the region. The DA statement followed ISIS's warning to South Africa that it would “open the [...]
©- - 09 july 2020 - 16:29:07 - thread Politics (202 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Turkish Defence Minister, Hulusi Akar, arrived in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Friday as part of efforts to promote bilateral cooperation between the two countries and follow up on the progress made in the implementation of their agreement on security and military cooperation. On his arrival at [...]
©- - 03 july 2020 - 15:56:40 - thread Politics (287 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian Defense Minister Imed Hazgui formally denied here Thursday the presence of a foreign military base in Tunisia, saying the country would not allow any of the parties to the conflict to use its soil for military operations in Libya. Hazgui, however, stressed the need to secure [...]
©- - 11 june 2020 - 19:53:00 - thread Politics (157 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisia and the United-States Thursday decided to strengthen military cooperation between them, official sources told PANA here. The decision was agreed during talks on the phone between the Tunisian minister of Defence, Imed Hazgui, and General Stephen Townsend, chief of the US Command for Africa (AFRICOM), said [...]
©- - 28 may 2020 - 23:39:01 - thread Politics (243 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA)  - The Tunisian ministry of defence Tuesday strongly denied what it described as ’partisan rumours’ by several non-official websites about the use of its land by foreign powers as bases for military operations. "Tunisia exercises absolute sovereignty on all its entire land, maritime and air territory, and does [...]
©- - 28 april 2020 - 23:18:22 - thread Politics (286 words)


Tunis Tunisia (PANA) – The US Deputy Secretary of State for political-military affairs, Clarke Cooper, on Wednesday stressed the importance of strong cooperation between Tunisia and the United States through a programme on capacity strengthening and border protection to support Tunisia’s sovereignty. Mr Cooper was speaking at the international aeronautics and [...]
©- - 05 march 2020 - 08:10:12 - thread Politics (180 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) – The Tunisian president, Kais Saied, on Wednesday opened an international aeronautics and defence fair which will continue until 8 March. The fair will feature  military and civilian airplanes and heavy and light war materials presented by big international companies specialized in military and civilian spatial industries. The opening [...]
©- - 04 march 2020 - 22:45:46 - thread Politics (203 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) – The need to strengthen cooperation between the Tunisian and French armies and diversify its components was at the centre of talks on Tuesday between the Tunisian minister of Defence, Imed Hazgui and Chief of Staff of the French army, General Thierry Burkhard. In a speech, the Tunisian [...]
©- - 04 march 2020 - 05:51:21 - thread Politics (238 words)


Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - DR Congo and Central African Republic Wednesday agreed to establish a surveillance system to deal with the activism of armed gangs all along their common border, an official source said here. The decision followed talks the Central African Republic Minister of Defence Mrs Marie Noëlle Koyara [...]
©- - 26 february 2020 - 21:44:06 - thread Politics (258 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA)  -  The warships moored in the port of Goulette in Tunis belong to NATO member- countries (Italy, Canada, Greece and Turkey) "as part of a routine docking and for purely logistical considerations”, the Tunisian defense ministry said here Tuesday in a statement. "Tunisia is a transit region like [...]
©- - 18 february 2020 - 21:05:54 - thread Politics (146 words)


Paris, France (PANA) - French President Emmanuel Macron, in accordance with the orientations from the Pau summit and the construction of the Coalition for Sahel, Tuesday decided to increase the staff deployed in the Sahelo-Saharan strip to about 5,100 soldiers, or an increase of 600 troops, the French ministry of [...]
©- - 04 february 2020 - 22:02:57 - thread Politics (418 words)


Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA)   - This past week witnessed the traditional ceremonies for exchange of end-of-year wishes between the defense and security forces and Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, declaring his last third five-year term since 2005. It has been a while since the Burundian head of state publicly announced his departure from [...]
©- - 23 december 2019 - 23:17:26 - thread Politics (624 words)


Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The President of the Presidential Council of the Government of the National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, has sent messages to the leaders of five countries - United States of America, the United Kingdom, Italy, Algeria and Turkey - asking them to activate the pact signed with [...]
©- - 20 december 2019 - 10:21:59 - thread Politics (409 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian security and army units stationed along the border with Libya have been put on maximum alert to monitor the land, sea and air borders between the two countries, a Tunisian security source said on Friday.   "Various security services are fully prepared to deal with any eventuality [...]
©- - 13 december 2019 - 18:22:43 - thread Politics (217 words)


Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The Burundian government Thursday totally condemned a series of assaults against the country attributed to Rwanda, and appealed to the international community to intervene in the crisis. The armed attack against the west of the country by unknown assailants has been denied by its neighbor to the [...]
©- - 28 november 2019 - 22:38:00 - thread Politics (379 words)