The aftermath of the Arab spring not only saw a difficult regime transition in Tunisia and Libya but contributed to the revival of old and new security challenges in the Maghreb and the Sahel. The secessionist conflict that broke out in 2012 in northern Mali, followed by a military coup in Bamako and the French intervention a year later, is paradigmatic of how the fallout effects of the Libyan civil war and the difficult political transitions in Tripoli and Tunis affected the internal stability of neighbouring countries.

Mali, the tourism sweetheart and West African cultural melting pot, even though hailed as a stable democracy, has had an intense history witnessing a series of coups to this day. Interestingly enough, the coups have been alternating with Tuareg rebellions in the north of the country, which have been present on an on-and-off basis since the 1960s, when France ceased to be Mali’s colonial ruler. The current crisis in the Sahel is not a new phenomenon, nor was it totally unexpected, as I see it, after the buds of the Arab Spring blossomed to create an uncontrollable bullet garden at the edges of the Sahara.

The Arab Spring and the 2012 Malian coup brought to surface a new threat in North Africa; Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a once weak node of Al-Qaeda, has upgraded its capabilities, and it seems to be a growing threat for the local security and political stability. This article aims to present the structure of Al-Qaeda’s terrorist network in N. Africa, and to comment on its political and security pressure in the region.