The Biden-Harris administration is scrambling to look useful in Sudan, where conditions deteriorated so much in the past week that Doctors Without Borders had to abandon a disease-riddled and famine-ravaged refugee camp because it could no longer operate safely.
The Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a non-profit human rights group, and the UK Guardian on Wednesday accused fighters from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of gleefully posting images of themselves committing war crimes, including the burning of civilian homes and the torture of prisoners.
Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Burkina Faso, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), claimed on Thursday it was targeting militias allied with the ruling junta, not civilians, when it launched an attack that killed almost 300 people last weekend.
The United States on Monday formally handed its last military base in Niger over to the ruling military junta, completing a pullout ordered by Niger’s rulers in March.
Dozens of mercenaries from Russia’s notorious Wagner Group were reportedly killed in two separate ambushes in Mali over the weekend.
The U.S. and Niger issued a joint statement on Sunday that set a deadline of September 15 for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces.
Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine said in an interview on Tuesday that his government’s relations with the United States broke down because the Biden administration adopted a “condescending tone and lack of respect.”
The Pentagon has formally ordered all 1,000 American combat troops remaining in Niger to withdraw over the next few months.
U.S. forces were expelled from both Niger and Chad this week, dealing a serious blow to the Biden administration’s diplomacy and counter-terrorism policies in Africa.
China’s state-owned oil company CNPC, the China National Petroleum Corporation, has signed a $400 million deal with the military junta that controls Niger, providing a much-needed infusion of cash after the coup damaged relations with Niger’s previous big oil customers, the United States and France.
Two masked gunmen entered St. Patrick Catholic Church in the town of Mohnyin, Myanmar, on Friday morning during services and fired a volley of bullets at the parish priest, Father Paul Hkwi Shane Aung. Aung was hit three times but survived the attack.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a think tank based in Washington, DC. issued a report on Monday that advised the U.S. to develop stronger trade relationships with African countries in order to become less dependent on Communist China for vital minerals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Assimi Goita, the interim president of Mali, to talk about building a closer relationship.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly ambush on a military convoy in Niger, in which 23 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced it will lift sanctions against the Niger junta.
The military juntas ruling the nations of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso issued a joint statement on Sunday announcing their exit from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
France completed the withdrawal of its troops on Friday after they were asked to leave Niger by the country’s military junta.
Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso signed a mutual defense agreement called the “Alliance of Sahel States” on Saturday, committing all three juntas to defend each other if any of them is attacked. The pact also requires each country to help suppress armed uprisings in the others.
The military government of Niger on Sunday claimed France is positioning troops in surrounding countries and preparing an invasion to reverse the coup that forced President Mohamed Bazoum out of power in July.
The Pentagon said on Thursday it will “reposition” troops and equipment in Niger, and withdraw some “non-essential personnel,” due to “an abundance of caution” as the security situation deteriorates.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions for human rights violations against Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, a senior commander in Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a brutal paramilitary force led by Dagalo’s brother Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) suspended Gabon’s membership after a coup removed President Ali Bongo.
A massive protest on Saturday in Niger’s capital city of Niamey drew tens of thousands of angry demonstrators who demanded France withdraw all of its forces immediately. France has been critical of the July 26 coup, but the public has demonstrated a great deal of support for the junta, and attitudes towards France soured even before the civilian government was overthrown.
The United Nations said on Tuesday that the situation in Sudan is “spiraling out of control” as food and medicine run out.
Rhissa Ag Boula, a former leader in Niger’s Tuareg uprisings three decades ago, announced on Wednesday he is forming a Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) to oppose the ruling junta and restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power.
The Fourth of July is a celebration of the most successful revolution in the history of mankind. By any objective measure, the rebellious colonies that broke away from the British empire in 1776 were more successful in forming an enduring new nation than other rebels and separatists throughout history. Indeed, the United States of America was soon put to its own rebellion test and the Union endured, surviving one of the most devastating wars ever fought.
Voice of America News (VOA) reported on Tuesday that while the international community is nervously monitoring the brutal war between factions of the Sudanese junta and scrambling to deal with the ensuing humanitarian disaster, Communist China is moving full speed ahead with plans to “advance its own interests” in Sudan’s oil and mineral resources.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continued his swing through Africa on Thursday by meeting with the ruling junta in Sudan immediately after pledging Russia’s support to the military coup that rules Mali.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported this week that sub-Saharan Africa has become “the new global epicenter of violent extremism,” accounting for half of the world’s terrorism-related deaths last year. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Mali, one of the four African nations with the highest number of terrorism deaths, in a bid to extend Moscow’s influence over Africa by helping the ruling junta fight jihadi rebels.
Burkina Faso President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba resigned on Sunday, wiping out the government of the West African nation in the second coup of the year and bringing it closer to Russia’s dangerous orbit.
The junta that took control of Myanmar last February has relentlessly targeted Christian clergy and places of worship. Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Monday quoted human rights activists who said it has arrested at least nine Christian leaders, subsequently killing five.
Al-Musalmi Al-Kabbashi, Sudan bureau chief for Al Jazeera News, was arrested on Sunday by Sudanese security forces who raided his home in Khartoum. The military junta currently ruling Sudan did not give any reason for his arrest.
Opponents of the coup in Sudan held a “March of Millions” rally on Saturday that turned deadly when security forces opened fire, killing at least a dozen people and injuring hundreds more.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press freedom organization, warned on Tuesday that the Sudanese military is arresting journalists while its supporters attack them in the streets.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announced over the weekend that General Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the military junta in Myanmar, will not be invited to the association’s October 26-28 summit. The unprecedented snub of Gen. Hlaing was welcomed by the Burmese opposition, which asked ASEAN to go even further and invite a representative from the civilian shadow government.
French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly expressed her government’s growing frustration with the Mali junta on Tuesday, railing that the junta’s reluctance to permit elections on schedule was jeopardizing counterterrorism efforts in the volatile region and disrespecting the sacrifices made by French soldiers.
The military junta controlling Sudan announced on Tuesday it has foiled a coup attempt by “Bashir loyalists” – in other words, troops loyal to Omar al-Bashir, who was himself overthrown by a coup in 2019.
The military junta in Myanmar on Thursday arrested 24-year-old model and actor Paing Takhon, hailed as “the most handsome person in Southeast Asia” by fans, because he criticized the coup.
Security forces loyal to the Myanmar junta opened fire in several locations Wednesday, killing 13 protesters. The incident resulted in the burning of a Chinese-owned factory in the city of Yangon.
China’s state-run Global Times reported Sunday that Chinese rare-earth companies are discovering they can no longer secure their supplies easily from Myanmar, a major Chinese supplier whose civilian government fell to a military coup last month.
