De-dollarization now looks inevitable and threatens to become a national security concern, according to International Crisis Group co-chair Frank Giustra.
A Business Insider report — “De-dollarization is no longer a matter of if, but when — and is a national security concern, says International Crisis Group cochair”, May 3, 2023, — said:
Burkina Faso’s interim President Ibrahim Traore on Thursday said Russia had become a key strategic ally but denied that Russian mercenaries were supporting Burkinabe forces in their fight against Islamist armed groups.
The West African country’s relations with Moscow are in the spotlight after it booted out French troops in February and ended an accord that allowed France to fight insurgents there amid a rise in anti-French sentiment in parts of the region.
In a rare televised interview, Traore was asked who Burkina Faso’s international allies were now in the conflict that has killed thousands and displaced around 2.5 million in the broader Sahel region over the past decade.
“The departure of the French army does not mean that France is not an ally,” Traore replied. “But we have strategic allies too. We have new forms of cooperation. Russia, for example, is a strategic ally.”
He said Russia was a major supplier of military equipment and would remain so, without giving further details.
“I am satisfied with the cooperation with Russia. It’s frank,” he said, sitting on an ornate chair in military fatigues and a beret.
Western countries are concerned about Russia’s widening sway in Africa’s Sahel and its border regions. France withdrew its forces from Mali last year after the junta there started working with Russian military contractor Wagner Group to fight the insurgents liked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Traore was asked to comment on reports Wagner forces are also on the ground in Burkina Faso.
“Our army fights alone,” he said. “Wagner’s presence was invented to harm Burkina, so countries would not cooperate with us.”
The instability in Burkina Faso triggered two coups last year by the military, which has vowed to retake control of the country but has so far failed to stop attacks.
Unrest in the region began in neighbouring Mali in 2012, when Islamists hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. The violence has since spread into Burkina Faso and Niger and threatens to destabilise coastal countries further afield.
People who sought route to Europe before fighting erupted in Khartoum speak of police brutality, torture and homelessness
Ever since fighting erupted in his home town of Nyala, the state capital of South Darfur in Sudan, in mid-April, Khaled’s mobile phone has not stopped ringing. Family members, friends and acquaintances want to know how to reach north Africa and which country is best for departing for Europe.
At Russia’s Valdai Club meeting – the east’s answer to Davos – intellectuals and influencers gathered to frame West Asia’s current and future developments.
The 12th “Middle East Conference” at the Valdai Club in Moscow offered a more than welcome cornucopia of views on interconnected troubles and tribulations affecting the region.
The United States has shown since its beginning that it is not a credible country. For the United States, every group, organization, country, and even political figure is supported only as long as it benefits the USA, and when it loses its effectiveness, it will be replaced very quickly, and all US obligations to that group or country will be severed. As we have seen in recent days, the United States, in a shocking move in the Taliban civil war with Afghan government, left Afghanistan very quickly after 20 years that it spent 1 trillion USD, and left Afghan people defenseless. The Afghan army, which was under the direct training of the US military and had all kinds of military equipment, could not even resist the Taliban, with such simple military equipment, for two weeks.
Pentagon considers Indian Arrow in running battle with Region
New Af-Pak strategy veiled that the USA is not ready to leave Afghanistan for long-term geopolitical objectives because of extensive stay of the NATO forces in this region. So, Washington is not only escalating American troops but it is also demanding NATO and its allies for more troops on Afghan soil. In fact, the America, the deep state, has decided to use Afghan hostile situation by dispersal of three evils; Extremism, Terrorism, and Separatism to all regional countries with the aim to alter the geopolitical landscape of the Eurasia, especially in Muslim World.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
The 2019 Sudan uprisings that ousted long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir and installed a military-civilian transitional government gave hope that the country could finally transition to democratic rule. The country has been ruled by the military for most of its independence since 1956, writes May Darwich for The Conversation Africa.
As the crisis in Sudan intensifies despite truces and ceasefires, many regional interests are at stake — and under threat. So who is backing who in Africa’s third-biggest nation? DW takes a look.
The conflict in Sudan has seen two generals, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, fight for control over Africa’s third-largest country and its vast resources.
Islamist parties are falling out of favor across the region, as leaders hope to offer economic benefits combined with authoritarianism.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing a difficult election on May 14, announced on April 30 that Turkish intelligence had killed Abu Hussein al-Quraishi — the latest self-styled “Islamic State Caliph” — in Afrin, a Syrian territory under the control of the Turkish military and its proxy Free Syrian Army fighters.