Noel Bachmann

Research on terrorism, geopolitics around Africa and the Orient
📡🏴‍☠️🌐🗺

[Stop Wagner @stopwagnergroup]

Even @rybar_africa, the African branch of the prominent Russian pro-Kremlin account @rybar_en, highlights the gap between rhetoric and reality : Despite claims of a 15 000-strong force, operations on the ground have had minimal impact. Years of activity with so few tangible results reveal a deeper failure in the effectiveness of the #Wagner (and now Africa Corps)-#AES partnership.

[Abdurahman Sheikh Azhari @HOA_ANALYST]

#SecurityAlert
Growing Security Concerns as ISIS-Somalia Steps Up Operations

Recent developments indicate a noticeable increase in attacks carried out by ISIS-Somalia, which operates in the Al-Miskaad mountain range in the Bari region.

Following a series of airstrikes and ground offensives that weakened the group, it has now begun a renewed wave of operations. The group appears to be regaining momentum, emerging from previously concealed defensive hideouts and escalating its attacks.

According to local residents and security officials, the group has carried out at least three attacks over the past two weeks. They have also looted livestock from local communities, claiming to be forces of the Islamic State.

Limited airstrikes by U.S. AFRICOM forces are still ongoing. However, the conflict in the Middle East has diverted attention away from closely monitoring the group

Stay turned and please follow @wargelinn for more updates

#ISSOMALIA
#PUNTLAND
#SOMALIA
#ISIS
#AFRICOM
#SECURITY
#COUNTERTERRORISM
#HOA
#EASTAFRICA

[Open Source Intel @Osint613]

Boko Haram has kidnapped over 400 women and children from Ngoshe in northeastern Nigeria and is demanding roughly £2.7 million in ransom within 72 hours, threatening mass execution if the government does not pay.

- The Telegraph

[International Cyber Digest @IntCyberDigest]

🚨 The NSA has been confirmed to be using Anthropic's Mythos, despite Anthropic sitting on the DoD's blacklist.

Access to Mythos is restricted to just 40 organizations, with Anthropic citing offensive cyber capabilities too dangerous for wider release.

[Robert Morton @Robert4787]

This is GRU tradecraft, not random hacking. When Russian military intel can hijack routers and siphon data, the line between foreign espionage and everyday American exposure gets very thin very fast. #CyberSecurity #NationalSecurity #Russia
https://t.co/MDJYg7bmmH

[Fabian @fabsenbln]

#Togo🇹🇬 reportedly bought four @embraer A-29 Super Tucanos worth EUR 70 million. This would be a huge improvement for the air force, particularly in the fight against #JNIM. It would allow the old armed Socata TB-30 Epsilon aircraft currently used to be retired. Delivery in 2026.

[Imtiaz Mahmood @ImtiazMadmood]

A new country is emerging in the Middle East?

The Druze, with the support of Israel, now fully control the southern Syrian region of Sweida.

Sweida has almost half a million people. Over 85% are Druze and nearly 10% are Christian. It’s BY FAR the safest area for Christians in Syria.

Sweida could soon become the first overwhelmingly non-Muslim state in the Middle East since Israel"

- Boris Kfir Chainkinski

[33 Strategies of War @33StrategiesBot]

An up-front enemy is rare now and is actually a blessing. People hardly ever attack you openly anymore, showing their intentions, their desire to destroy you...

[Ayo @mariolexxx]

Nigerian Army personnel successfully ambushed the group along the Luma Babana route in Borgu Local Government Area, Niger State. Resulting in the de@ths of numerous terror!sts.

The surviving fighters attempted to escape in the direction of the Benin border, only to face another assau1t from Benin Army units, which received aerial support from a French aircraft. This follow up operation caused further heavy losses among the mi1itants.

This multi force response highlights ongoing collaborative efforts to counter the group's movements in the border region.

[Jawwwn @jawwwn_]

Never-before-seen footage of how Palantir’s Maven Smart System actually works:

“It gives us the ability to take classified, unclassified, and commercial data—and you can aggregate it all together to help you make all the decisions that you have to in warfare.”

Via @Channel4

[Crisis Group @CrisisGroup]

Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin advance remains a reality that has put all West Africa and the Sahel on alert. Here’s how states can respond to the advance of the region’s dominant jihadist group. https://t.co/K9gGazZskU

[Critical Threats @criticalthreats]

NEW | Turkey has recently advanced economic and security ties with Niger and Somalia, viewing both countries as its African anchor states through which it can further its strategic interests in Africa.

These partnerships aim to address several domestic concerns, such as patronage and energy security, and bolster Turkey’s international standing vis-à-vis global competitors.🧵⬇️

[International Cyber Digest @IntCyberDigest]

🚨🇦🇪 Dubai Police are confirmed to be "conducting electronic surveillance operations capable of detecting private WhatsApp messages."

It started with a message in a private group chat of airline workers.

Just colleagues talking, the kind of exchange that happens in thousands of workplace WhatsApp threads every single day.

An airline worker in Dubai shared images of a building damaged during the Iranian attacks...

He sent them to people he knew, in a closed conversation he believed was private.

He was wrong.

Dubai Police were watching.

They downloaded the evidence.

They built their case.

Then they lured the man to a meeting.

He showed up.

They arrested him on the spot.

He now sits in custody, facing charges that include publishing information deemed harmful to state interests, which could mean up to two years behind bars.

And then came the detail that should stop everyone reading this cold.

In their own police report, authorities stated plainly that the clip had been detected "through electronic monitoring operations."

Electronic monitoring of a private WhatsApp conversation between coworkers...

Radha Stirling (a human rights activist) put it bluntly: individuals are being tracked, identified, and arrested not for public statements, but for private exchanges between colleagues.

And the questions this raises don't stop at Dubai's borders.

They land squarely at the feet of WhatsApp and every company that promises its users end-to-end encryption capabilities.

Because if a closed chat between colleagues can be intercepted, decoded, and used as the basis for an arrest by an overreaching state, then billions of users worldwide are owed an answer to one very simple question.

How private are private Whatsapp groups and messages really?

[Robert Morton @Robert4787]

Most Americans know the CIA for analysis, not the people who go into denied places when diplomacy fails. SAC and GRS sit at the sharp end where intelligence, covert action, and U.S. lives can all hinge on one quiet mission. #CIA #NationalSecurity #Espionage
https://t.co/mdFPV1jDko

[Brant @BrantPhilip_]

ISWAP in a statement released today says the Nigerian Air Force bombings against civilians in Jilli is a sign of its "failure and desperation" in confronting the group on the field, and is only trying to "compensate for its heavy loss on the backs of unarmed Muslims".

As expected, this massacre only helped ISWAP to position itself more as "protectors of civilians" once more, without any noticeable operational gains.

[Stop Wagner @stopwagnergroup]

🧵1/4 In the Central African Republic, Russia maintains 1500, 2 500 #Wagner-linked personnel alongside several hundred AfricaCorps advisers. #Bangui remains the command hub, with Russian military coordination near the presidency of Faustin-Archange Touadéra. The transition is ongoing, not complete, and Wagner still dominates field operations outside the capital.