Africa

Mali : Bamako reçoit de nouveaux hélicoptères et radars russes

Les militaires au pouvoir à Bamako ont annoncé avoir reçu de nouveaux équipements russes, dont deux appareils de combat et des radars de surveillance.

Cité dans un communiqué de la Direction de l’information et des relations publique des armées (Dirpa), le général de division Oumar Diarra n’a pas manqué de se réjouir. « C’est la manifestation d’un partenariat très fructueux avec l’État russe », a déclaré le chef d’état-major général de l’armée malienne précisant qu’il s’agissait d’un « deuxième lot d’équipements militaires en provenance de la Russie ».

The U.K.-Rwanda Deal Is Another Blow to Refugee and Asylum Norms

Rwanda has announced an agreement with the United Kingdom to take in some asylum-seekers for processing in the East African country. Having pledged to control the country’s borders during the successful “Brexit” campaign to leave the European Union, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday announced a crackdown on migrant crossings via routes across the English Channel, saying that migrants who do not meet strict asylum criteria will be flown more than 4,000 miles to Rwanda for processing and possible resettlement there.

Une ONG saisit l’UE sur des actes de torture sur le détenu sahraoui Lamine Haddi

Une ONG française a appelé l’Union européenne (UE) à oeuvrer pour la fin “des actes de torture et mauvais traitements” infligés par les autorités d’occupation marocaines au détenu politique sahraoui Mohamed Lamine Haddi et le lancement d'”une enquête indépendante” sur les violations subies par les militants de la cause sahraouie.

The days of elite deals in Sudan should be over

It was only a year ago that Sudan—newly removed from the US terrorism list—was negotiating the terms of its upcoming debt-relief package and proposing ways to invest more than one billion dollars in promised international financial assistance toward propping up democracy. At the time, the world was still talking about the country as a potential model for others to follow on the road from dictatorship to democracy.

The Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine in the Middle East and North Africa

The war in Ukraine that followed the Russian invasion is still in its early stages. While it is too soon to measure the war’s full impact on crises in the Middle East and North Africa, it is clear that the repercussions will be multidimensional. For now, its effects are limited in the military sphere, but noticeable in the political realm as conflict actors reposition themselves vis-à-vis one another and the outside world. For the region’s economies and its already strained social contracts, the consequences may be devastating.

Russian Mercenaries in Great-Power Competition: Strategic Supermen or Weak Link?

Along with China, Iran, and North Korea, Russia is one of a handful of strategic competitors posing a substantial threat to U.S. strategic interests.

Russia has now interfered to some extent in at least three democratic elections in the United States. Russian hackers are probably responsible for the recent SolarWinds attack on U.S. government agency networks. Russia has been aggressively undermining U.S. interests in proxy wars in Syria, Libya, and across the African continent, and it is backing the Taliban against the United States in Afghanistan.

Russia’s new world order is bad news for Africa

Rather than following the lead of despots like Putin and Xi, Africa should chart its own path.

On March 30, just a day after a Russian missile hit an administrative building in the port city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, killing at least 12 people, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the case for the establishment of new world order. In a videotaped message to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Lavrov claimed the world is “living through a very serious stage in the history of international relations”. He added, “We, together with you, and with our sympathisers will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order”.