Chili peppers, fake medicine, fuel, gold, guns, humans, and more are being trafficked via millennia-old trade routes crisscrossing the Sahel, and the UN and partners are trying out new, collaborative ways to thwart those attempting the illegal practice, a growing problem in this fragile African region.
Introduction
Beginning in the sixteenth century, millions of African people were kidnapped, enslaved, and shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas under horrific conditions that frequently resulted in starvation and death. Nearly two million people died at sea during the agonizing journey. Over two centuries, the enslavement of Black people in the United States created wealth, opportunity, and prosperity for millions of Americans. As American slavery evolved, an elaborate and enduring mythology about the inferiority of Black people was created to legitimate, perpetuate, and defend slavery. This mythology survived slavery’s formal abolition following the Civil War.
Rapid Support Forces claim to have captured 700 soldiers at base during new battles in and around capital
Airstrikes and artillery fire shook much of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and its neighbouring cities on Tuesday as fighting between the country’s warring factions intensified sharply.
Egypt fears that a prolonged conflict in Sudan, a major market for its exports, will add to its economic hardships.
The outbreak of clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group came as bad news for Egypt’s economy, already struggling under severe pressure over the past year.
Airstrikes and artillery fire intensified sharply across Sudan’s capital early on Tuesday, residents said, as the army sought to defend key bases from paramilitary rivals it has been fighting for more than a month.
The airstrikes, explosions and clashes could be heard in the south of Khartoum, and there was heavy shelling across the River Nile in parts of the adjoining cities of Bahri and Omdurman, witnesses said.
Events in Sudan would have perhaps gone unnoticed in Russian society, including by politicians and the media, if Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had not visited Khartoum two months before fighting broke out last week between Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.
Ukraine Isn’t the Only Place Where America Must Counter Russia’s Mercenaries
Russia’s infamous Wagner paramilitary company may be headed for defeat in Ukraine. The group has sustained enormous losses in the last five months, and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is embroiled in a high-stakes feud with Russia’s top military brass, who have accused him of indirectly aiding Ukraine by “sowing rifts” among Russian forces. Late last week, Prigozhin publicly castigated Russia’s senior military leadership for not supplying Wagner with enough ammunition and threatened to withdraw his forces from the city of Bakhmut. According to the British Ministry of Defense, the Kremlin may be looking to replace the Wagner contingent in Ukraine with forces from another private military company—one that it can more tightly control.
Thousands of Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan are expected to arrive in Ethiopia, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) announced.
It anticipates the arrival of up to 130,000 refugees, including 100,000 Ethiopians and the remainder being foreign nationals.
Depuis 2020, l’émir du Groupe de soutien à l’islam et aux musulmans (GSIM) doit faire face à la branche sahélienne de l’Etat islamique.
Ce sera peut-être son dernier combat, après tant de coups de feu tirés dans toutes les directions. Depuis quarante ans, Iyad Ag-Ghali s’est successivement battu pour la légion islamique de Mouammar Kadhafi au Liban et au Tchad, pour la cause touareg au sein des rébellions apparues dans le nord du Mali au tournant des années 1990, pour le compte d’Al-Qaida afin d’imposer une conception salafiste de la charia – la loi islamique – dans son pays et au-delà, contre les soldats des opérations militaires françaises « Serval », « Sabre » et « Barkhane ».
Les djihadistes affiliés à l’EI et leurs rivaux d’Al-Qaida se disputent le contrôle de la zone « des trois frontières » aux confluences du Mali, du Burkina et du Niger.
Au prix de combats sanglants, de massacres et de déplacements de civils, le groupe Etat islamique au Grand Sahara (EIGS) est désormais en position de force dans le nord-est du Mali, qui sert de base à ses visées expansionnistes au Niger et au Burkina Faso, selon des analystes.