Africa

Rarement un putschiste installé chef de l’Etat se sera montré aussi peu disert que le colonel Assimi Goïta, nouvel homme fort du Mali décrit comme un opérationnel plus qu’un politique.

“Je suis le président du CNSP”, le Conseil national pour le salut du peuple institué par les putschistes pour diriger le pays: avec les quelques phrases de circonstance qui ont suivi, ces mots prononcés le 20 août sont les seuls entendus en public dans la bouche d’Assimi Goïta depuis le coup d’Etat du 18 août.

Le premier coup d’état a consisté à «dégager» IBK, son clan familial et les affidés du régime.

Cette opération chirurgicale, sans effusion de sang, n’a été possible que du fait du rôle exceptionnel joué par le M5-RFP qui, grâce à une formidable, une puissante et une massive mobilisation citoyenne, a sapé les fondements d’un régime recroquevillé sur lui-même, sourd à la clameur populaire, miné par une corruption abyssale.

Political consultants associated with Evgeny Prigozhin — the catering magnate with alleged ties to mercenaries, troll factories, and Vladimir Putin — are campaigning for the “Rodina” political party’s nominees ahead of regional parliamentary elections in Russia’s Komi Republic. Prigozhin apparently has a vested interest in seeing Rodina’s candidates succeed: first on the party list is another political strategist, Maxim Shugaley, who was working in Libya on Prigozhin’s behalf when Shugaley was imprisoned in July 2019. Meduza’s sources say being elected as a regional deputy could help facilitate his repatriation (though it’s not entirely clear how). Spokespeople for Rodina and Prigozhin deny the oligarch’s direct involvement in the campaign, but his representatives also maintain that he “warmly supports” Maxim Shugaley.

Faiez Serraj, Libya’s internationally recognized Prime Minister backed down yesterday from sacking Fathi Bashagha, his powerful Misratan Interior Minister. The humiliating climbdown came in the form of an official decree (584) yesterday by Serraj, lifting Bashagha’s ‘‘temporary suspension’’.

Nine years after the start of the Libyan revolution and the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi, his 48-year-old son Saif al-Islam is still the only one member of the family who retains influence and political ambitions, trying to return to power. Despite the escalation of armed conflict between the forces of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord and General Khalifa Haftar, both sides shared a hostile position towards the colonel’s son. While Haftar considered Saif al-Islam “the poor boy on whom some naive people are betting,” Faiz Sarraj is confident that he should be extradited to the International Criminal Court. The latter accuses Gaddafi’s son of committing war crimes against the rebels.

More than 300 flights arrived in Libya’s east from Syria over six months in breach of an arms embargo, UN report says.

Moscow flew hundreds of military flights into Libya in breach of an arms embargo, as it stepped up its logistical support for a shadowy Russian private military contractor accused of committing war crimes in the North African country, a UN report said.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) under the leadership of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar confirmed locking its control over Libya’s southern areas, and broadcast video footage on Wednesday showing military units patrolling Libya’s southwest

West Africa’s Sahel region has become the latest scene of jihadist in-fighting, after Islamic State group (IS) revealed it is engaged in fierce clashes with al-Qaeda militants in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Russia has stepped up its logistic support for private military contractor Wagner Group in Libya with some 338 military cargo flights from Syria in the nine months to July 31 to aid Wagner fighters backing eastern-based Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters on Wednesday.