Au moins 15 terroristes ont été « neutralisés » cette semaine par les forces armées du Niger, avec l’appui des partenaires, dans la zone nord de Tillabéry (ouest), proche de la frontière avec le Mali, a annoncé dimanche le ministre nigérien de la Défense, Issoufou Katambé, dans un communiqué lu à la radio publique du pays.
Les FAMa ont détruit deux colonnes de véhicules et de motos terroristes à Mondoro. Deux sites de regroupement des terroristes ont aussi été détruits. Cela fait suite à une attaque des GAT contre les FAMa dans la nuit du 1er mars 2020 aux environs de 22 heures. Au cours de cette opération, les FAMa déplorent 6 morts, 10 blessés et des engins endommagés.
La Communauté économique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO) et l’Union africaine (UA) auraient dû être plus visibles et plus décisives dans la lutte contre les groupes armés qui mènent régulièrement des attaques terroristes meurtrières au Mali, au Niger et au Burkina Faso, a estimé ce lundi à Dakar, le coordonnateur du Forum social sénégalais, Mamadou Mignane Diouf.
“We don’t have specific courts for Muslims… the essence of Danish society is that we have courts that apply to everyone… There are many democratic Muslims, who lead normal lives and are well integrated in Danish society…. I know it is easier said than done, but then we as a society must support them.” — Minister of Integration Mattias Tesfaye, Berlingske Tidende, February 2, 2020.
In character and politics, Kosovo’s president and new prime minister are very different beasts, with two decades of disagreement behind them. Can they bury the hatchet, at least for the sake of Kosovo’s EU-mediated talks with Serbia?
Bosnia and Herzegovina is once again in the throes of political crisis, and once again the chief architect is Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency.
As the over-mighty presidents of Kosovo and Serbia meet again without revealing much about their talks, the question is whether either of them has the mandate, the willpower – or the interest – to reach a final deal.
The presidents of both Kosovo and Serbia paid visits to Washington this week, and again circumvented the governments of their respective countries, reportedly making promises they have no legal right to make.
“We’re playing Russian roulette with people’s lives, letting convicted, known, radicalised jihadi criminals walk about our streets”. — Chris Phillips, former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, The Guardian, December 1, 2019.
If the current crisis facing Turkey is entirely of Mr Erdogan’s own making, that has not prevented the Turkish president from trying to deflect attention away from his own mishandling of the conflict by seeking to provoke a new migrant crisis in Europe.
Turkey would apparently like to see more progress in the talks to grant it admission as a full member of the European Union…. Erdoğan would most certainly like the West overlook his massive democratic deficit, and to help Turkey secure even more dominance over the Greek islands off its coast, as well as its claims on the gas fields beneath the eastern Mediterranean.