International Security Bulletin

Weekly Brief: March 30, 2015

By Thucydides  

Middle East

Fighting in Yemen continued to escalate this week. On Wednesday, the Houthi rebels seized an airbase as they moved closer to the city of Aden, where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sheltered. By Thursday, Mr. Hadi had briefly sought shelter in Oman before moving on to Riyadh. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia led airstrikes against the Houthis in the capital, Sanaa, as well as the cities of Saada and Taiz. The strikes also involved aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan. Pakistan and Egypt provided naval support. All ten countries are predominantly Sunni Muslim, while the Houthis area Shiite group. John Kerry, America’s secretary of state commended the attacks, while Iran (whose population is mostly Shiite) denounced them. Ground troops from the Saudi-led coalition also began to march toward Aden. The Brookings Institution warned that the intervention was unlikely to speed resolution of the conflict. The Daily Beast reports that the conflict in Yemen has become a “regional proxy war” and represents a big setback for American counter-terrorism operations.

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Weekly Brief: March 23, 2015

By Thucydides  

Africa

On Wednesday, gunmen stormed a museum in Tunis, Tunisia, killing 22 people and injuring at least 22 more. Tunisian security forces killed two attackers in the ensuing firefight, but three remained at large. No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but local groups affiliated with al Qaeda are active in the country, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies suspects that some cells have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Indeed, the Islamic State claimed responsibility the next day and promised more attacks in Tunisia. Tunisian authorities announced nine arrests on Thursday, claiming that four of the persons arrested were directly related to the attack. Foreign Policy reports that the attack threatens the last vestiges of the Arab Spring.

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Conflict Report: South Sudan

By Thucydides  

Background

South Sudan became a country on July 9, 2011. Its independence from Sudan brought an end to part of a devastating civil war that had originated in southern Sudan in 1983. Less than three years after declaring independence, South Sudan became embroiled in its own civil conflict. On December 15, 2013, President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup against him. Kiir had fired Machar in July, along with his entire cabinet. Kiir arrested eleven prominent politicians he suspected of involvement with the alleged plot.

Fighting broke out between supporters of Mr. Kiir and supporters of Mr. Machar. Ethnic tensions, spurred by radio broadcasts, have fanned the flames of the conflict and converted it into a civil war between two ethnic groups: Mr. Kiir’s Dinka and Mr. Machar’s Nuer. Shortly after the fighting began, reports indicated that both sides had begun killing civilians of the opposing ethnicity. On December 16, government military forces killed 200-300 Nuer men in Juba, the capital. There were also reports of rebels targeting Dinka civilians elsewhere.

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Weekly Brief: August 2, 2013

By Thucydides  

This is the first installment of the International Security Bulletin‘s Weekly Briefs, which will recap the top security stories from around the world this week. This installment includes updates on elections in Zimbabwe, unrest in Egypt, potential al Qaeda activity in the Middle East, counterterrorism in the United States, potential attacks on computer encryption algorithms, and ongoing violence in the eastern DR Congo.
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Conflict Report: North Kivu

By Thucydides  

On Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed optimism that a major peace agreement among eleven nations in Africa’s Great Lakes region signed in February will provide lasting stability in central Africa. But nine days ago, the M23, a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, claimed that it has killed over 400 government troops in skirmishes over the previous ten days. Actively supported by the Rwandan military, the M23 has been guilty of at least 61 rapes and 44 executions in the last five months. The group also forces men and boys in the eastern Congo to join it, according a recent report from Human Rights Watch. The UN estimates that strife in the DR Congo has created 2.6 million internally displaced persons and that 6.5 million need food and emergency aid. Unfortunately, the skirmishes, rapes, and murders in the east are only the most recent chapters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s bloody history.
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