What’s new? As jihadist groups in the Sahel move southward, Côte d’Ivoire has beefed up its security deployment in the north and rolled out a range of social projects to alleviate poverty and youth unemployment. Militant violence has subsided since a series of attacks in the north between 2020 and 2021.
Insurgents have established bases in an important nature reserve spanning parts of Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. They pose a growing danger to local ecosystems and people living around the park. The three countries need to collaborate more closely to keep the threat at bay.
Au Mali, les combats ont repris entre l’armée appuyée par Wagner et une coalition de groupes armés signataires de l’accord de paix de 2015, mettant en péril le processus de paix. Ibrahim Maïga et Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim expliquent les raisons de ces affrontements et ce que les deux belligérants ont à y perdre.
Comment les combats se sont-ils intensifiés au nord du Mali ?
Amid shifting military dynamics, a narrow window for dialogue about stopping the fighting in Sudan may have opened. But diplomacy is in disarray. Outside actors should urgently coordinate efforts to steer the belligerents toward a negotiated end to hostilities.
What is happening?
Chad was facing a turbulent time even before April, when fighting broke out in Sudan’s Darfur region on its eastern border, and things have only got worse since then. President Mahamat Déby Itno, who took over on an ostensibly interim basis after his father unexpectedly died in 2021, appears set on staying in power. Discontent with his regime is growing, despite efforts led by the Economic Community of the Central African States (ECCAS) to facilitate an agreement among key political parties on how to handle the transition after, in October 2022, a police crackdown killed more than 200 demonstrators. The repression has weakened the political opposition and civil society, prompting several leaders to leave the country. Key Chadian rebel groups remain excluded from the transition, while others are dissatisfied with the government’s disarmament and reintegration program, which is supposed to be their bridge back to civilian life. Since May, the military has clashed with armed groups in the northern Tibesti region and in the north of the neighbouring Central Africa Republic (CAR), near Chad’s southern border, while the late July coup in Niger threatens to unsettle the western frontier.
L’Égypte « ne cédera pas une partie de son territoire pour accueillir des réfugiés palestiniens » de la bande de Gaza. Le maréchal al-Sissi, chef de l’État égyptien depuis 2013, a exprimé, lors d’une récente conférence de presse, son opposition à cette éventualité évoquée depuis les événements tragiques du 7 octobre 2023. « Cette opération vise à pousser les Palestiniens à émigrer vers l’Égypte et cela est inacceptable », a-t-il ajouté.
Acteur central de la rébellion indépendantiste de 2012, le Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) fait partie des groupes armés qui ont repris les armes contre Bamako. Jeune Afrique a rencontré son chef, Bilal Ag Acherif.
Au poste-frontière de Rafah, entre l’Égypte et la bande de Gaza, les candidats à l’exil s’accumulent mais les portes restent closes. Elles le sont aussi pour l’aide humanitaire, alors que de nombreux pays ont commencé à stocker des produits de première nécessité pour Gaza.
The leaders of Russia and Mali have agreed the political crisis in Niger should be resolved using diplmoacy and not force. Meanwhile France has rejected accusations by Niger’s coup leaders that it’s planning a military intervention.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin and interim Malian leader Assimi Goita had talked by telephone at Bamako’s request.
They discussed the situation in Niger and said the political crisis sparked by a coup d’etat on 26 July 26 should be resolved “through political and diplomatic means”.
The comment came a day after Niger’s military rulers accused former colonial power France of assembling troops, war materials and equipment in several neighbouring West African countries with a view to “military intervention” in the Sahel state.
A rise in France-Niger tensions
Relations with France have degraded with Paris standing by ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.
Speaking from the G20 summit in India, French President Emmanuel Macron denied accusations by Niger that France was preparing to deploy its forces in Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States with the aim of a military aggression against Niger.
Macron told journalists he did not recognise the legitimacy of the statements made by Niger’s putschists, adding that he had daily phone conversations with deposed president Bazoum.
#France - #Niger : À l'occasion du Sommet du G20 à New Delhi, le Président français Emmanuel Macron a animé une conférence de presse où il a abordé la question du Niger. Question journaliste: « Juste une question à propos du Niger, je voulais savoir comment vous réagissiez aux... pic.twitter.com/xs9WgqFiFH-- KONATE Malick (@konate90) September 10, 2023
Meanwhile, over the weekend, thousands of young Nigeriens took to the streets to demand that French soldiers leave Niger.
Most of them chanted: "Macron, get out of our house".
Rallies to protest the presence of the 1,500-strong French military presence in Mali have attracted tens of thousands of people over the past 10 days.
Demonstrators have gathering around the airbase in the capital Niamey, which hosts part of the French contingent.
A Mali-Russia-Niger axis
During his telephone exchange with Putin, Goita thanked Russia for vetoing an attempt by the UN Security Council to keep a team of UN experts in Mali.
The experts had accused "foreign forces", a veiled reference to the Russian mercenary group Wagner, of involvement in widespread abuses in Mali.
Mali shares a long border with Niger, and, immediately after the coup, its junta voiced support for Niger's new military rulers.
It has on several occasions stated its opposition to a military intervention there.
Mali has shifted sharply to Russia since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, becoming one of the few nations to back Moscow at the United Nations over its invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin added that Putin and Goita also discussed cooperation between Russia and Mail on economic and commercial issues, and on "anti-terror" operations.
Ecowas leaders have threatened to intervene militarily in Niger, the fourth West African nation since 2020 to suffer a coup after Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
The bloc suspended the four countries one after another.
Au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient, les réactions face à l’offensive du Hamas contre Israël varient en fonction des liens entretenus avec Tel-Aviv. Mais les autorités doivent aussi composer avec une opinion publique totalement acquise à la cause palestinienne.