Saharan Insurgency

The Saharan Insurgency was a regional conflict that erupted in North Africa in February 2322, only days after the first bombs fell in the Rainforest Wars. The insurgency emerged from the same ideological fractures that had destabilized South America: anti-UTF sentiment, the radical messaging of the Brotherhood of Nod, and the legacy of colonial exploitation. But in the vast, newly-greening expanse of the Sahara, these tensions took on a uniquely regional character—one rooted in land disputes, food insecurity, and generational resentment. Decades of aggressive terraforming and climate engineering had turned parts of the Sahara into arable plains, a miracle of post-collapse science made possible by UTF-led reclamation initiatives. Brotherhood operatives, long embedded in the region’s black-market economies and marginalized enclaves, seized on the opportunity presented by the Rainforest Wars. They distributed weapons, spread propaganda, and coordinated an escalating campaign of attacks on UTF supply lines, agricultural research hubs, and orbital elevators in Algeria, Mali, Libya, and western Sudan.

Rising Resistance

Unlike the more chaotic Rainforest front, the Saharan conflict unfolded as a slow-burning, decentralized insurgency. The Brotherhood of Nod had no central command in the region but operated through tribal alliances, smuggler clans, and underground cells that had long resisted outside authority. Their objective was less about territorial conquest and more about paralyzing UTF operations through persistent harassment and undermining the legitimacy of its civil governance.
In response, the UTF deployed large elements of the 3rd Brigade, 8th Infantry Division, along with orbital surveillance and rapid-deployment mechanized units. Among the officers leading this campaign was Major Edward Tetchu, a rising star in the military who had previously served with distinction during the Rainforest Wars. Tetchu was placed in charge of several key counterinsurgency operations throughout the region, particularly in the southern reaches of Algeria and the fertile reclamation zones of Niger and Chad. His brigade was responsible for pacifying what became known as the Sahara Plains—vast stretches of contested green territory where most of the fighting occurred.
UTF tactics during the insurgency focused on precision strikes, psychological warfare, and the attempted co-optation of tribal leaders. But Nod cells remained resilient. Their fighters made use of the terrain’s extremes—hidden caves, sandstorm cover, bio-hacked desert fauna, and outdated but rugged war-tech from the pre-nuclear age. Convoys were ambushed in reclaimed salt flats, UTF aircraft were brought down by electromagnetic mines, and civilian collaborators were publicly executed in makeshift trials broadcast to sympathetic networks.

Tetchu’s Campaign

Major Tetchu quickly became one of the most visible faces of the UTF war effort in the Sahara. His reports were widely circulated in internal military briefings, and his unit—known for both its aggression and tactical adaptability—earned a reputation as one of the most efficient anti-insurgency forces on the planet. Under his leadership, UTF forces recaptured strategic infrastructure hubs in Mauritania and forced a temporary retreat of Brotherhood elements along the Nile corridor. Yet despite his success, Tetchu began to question the very foundations of the conflict.
As the campaign wore on, he became increasingly disillusioned by the war’s cyclical brutality and fevor of captured gurellas. When nod-aligned insurgents destroyed a UTF desalination plant near Lake Chad, the resulting water crisis disproportionately affected civilians—many the UTF was too late to respond. The events left a lasting impact on his psyche, planting seeds of discontent that would later shape his future rebellion.

Suppression and Aftermath

By early 2324, UTF command claimed victory in the Saharan theater. While no formal ceasefire was ever reached, major insurgent networks had been shattered, their leadership scattered or killed. Brotherhood propaganda networks in the region were disabled, and major routes across the Sahara were resecured. Tetchu’s brigade was formally rotated out of combat duty, reassigned to garrison posts in the now-stabilized territory of Wakanda.
In the years that followed, Major Edward Tetchu’s transformation from celebrated officer to revolutionary would come to define the legacy of the insurgency. As the man who had once crushed rebellion in the Sahara later stood at the helm of a new one during the Wakandan Police Action, historians would look back on this desert war as both his crucible—and his turning point.

Included under Conflict

Interplanetary Secessionist Wars

Conflict Type

War, Theatre

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

2322

Ending Date

2324

Conflict Result

UTF tactical victory

Location

Earth

Belligerents

United Terran Federation

Brotherhood of Nod

Strength

~18,000 (including mechanized and aerial units)

~14,000 (asymmetric forces)

Casualties

4,000

~9,000

Objectives

Secure green zones and UTF-owned infrastructure

Resisting UTF and promoting insurrection