When the United Nations General Assembly voted on March 2, 2022 on a resolution to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, 17 African countries abstained, eight countries did not vote at all and one country (Eritrea) voted against the resolution. When Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council on April 7, African countries were even less willing to counter Russia: Nine African countries voted against suspending Russia, while 24 countries abstained.
Mercenaries have become increasingly influential as states across Africa find their armies unable to limit the widening reach of armed groups.
Ahead of the holy month of Ramadan every year, traders from neighbouring towns flock to the popular cattle market in the central Malian town of Moura. That ritual continued this year.
But on March 27 – one of those market days – military helicopters suddenly appeared in the sky. Malian troops and foreign soldiers descended on the busy market to target members of armed groups who had controlled the remote town for years.
Witnesses said the bloodied operation lasted for more than four days, with about 300 civilian men, some of them suspected fighters, summarily executed in that period.
One trader said dozens of men, including two of his brothers, were executed by Russian-speaking soldiers who “took them several meters away and executed them, point-blank”.
China continues to deepen its engagement in Africa on all levels. Recently it engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity with African countries. In March alone, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held bilateral talks with his African counterparts in Algeria, Egypt, The Gambia, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania and Zambia. The talks came only two months after Wang Yi visited Eritrea, Kenya and Comoros. Also in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, during which the two spoke about deepening cooperation between the two countries. Ramaphosa affirmed that he supports China’s policies on Taiwan, Tibet, and other “major issues”.
“Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs. The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa.”
The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business has announced that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will address the opening of its 3-day session from October 26-28, 2021.
‘’The Prime Minister’s message will focus on Canadian efforts at home and on the African continent for the restart of African economies,’’ said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, Chair of the Board of the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business.
Groups affiliated with Islamic State and al Qaeda are killing and kidnapping elder statesmen and their families in villages across Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. The violence mimics their tactics in other parts of the world where they have seized control.
Scrawled onto a cement gravestone in the village of Tchombangou is the date when the calm of the remote community in southwest Niger was shattered: Friday, Nov. 22, 2019.
Before dawn that day, gunmen approached on motorbikes across the surrounding scrubland. Their target: Boubacar Lawey, the 95-year-old village chief who walked with a cane and for 55 years had settled local disputes, collected taxes and registered births and deaths.
While residents slept, the men led Lawey a short way from the village and shot him dead.
Last week, Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum said his country needed technological assistance from its European partners to fight jihadis. He complained of swaths of territory in Mali and Niger being taken over by the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) — known also as ISIS — and its affiliates.
Bazoum’s comments came as French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would start closing military bases in northern Mali by the end of 2021, including the 5,100-member Barkhane force.
“We are going to reorganize ourselves in line with this need to stop this spread to the south,” Macron told reporters.
Islamic State’s affiliates in Africa are set for major expansion after a series of significant victories, new alliances and shifts in strategy reinforced their position across much of the continent.
Following recent gains in Nigeria, the Sahel, in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Isis propaganda published by the group’s leadership in its heartland in the Middle East is increasingly stressing sub-Saharan Africa as a new front which may compensate the group for significant setbacks elsewhere.
Fearless prediction – Enraged African masses will destroy all Muslim states.
The multinational effort to stave off an encroaching takeover by extremists in the part of Africa known as the Sahel is facing severe challenges.
Mali, where around 400 British troops are currently deployed, has just experienced its second coup in nine months, widely condemned by regional leaders.
President Emmanuel Macron has threatened to pull out all 5,100 French troops there if the coup leaders carry out their suggestion of making a deal with the same Islamist insurgents the troops are fighting.
100 killed in Burkina Faso attack
Armed men have killed around 100 people in an attack on a village in the north of Burkina Faso, President Roche Kabore has said.
During the overnight raid on Solhan, homes and the market were also burned, Reuters news agency reports quoting a government statement.
No group has said it was behind the violence.
But Islamist attacks are increasingly common in the country, especially in regions bordering Niger and Mali.
Last year Joe Biden said African Americans who don’t support him “ain’t black,” but this year the Delaware Democrat is open to reparations for slavery, America’s “original sin,” according to the composite character president David Garrow described in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. A neglected historical account provides enlightenment on slavery’s true origins and its most enduring practitioners.
In 1856, British Army officer John Hanning Speke set out to find the source of the Nile. Speke’s massive Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile documents the African societies he found, and the widespread practice of slavery. “To catch slaves is the first thought of every chief in the interior,” Speke wrote, “Hence fights and slavery impoverish the land.”
For the better part of two decades, U.S. commandos—Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and Marine Corps Raiders, among them—have been fighting quasi-wars across the African continent. From Tunisia to Somalia, special operators have been involved in combat while working with local allies against a plethora of terrorist groups known in military parlance as violent extremist organizations or VEOs.
From infrastructure development to trade, film, and education — there’s no doubt China’s presence in Africa is having a significant influence on the continent.
But how has China been winning the so-called ‘war of hearts and minds’ of more than one billion Africans?
“For China, propaganda has positive connotations, it is seen as a proactive tool in educating and shaping opinions to contribute to a ‘harmonious society,'” Ivana Karaskova, an expert on Chinese foreign and security policy, said during a virtual panel discussionon Friday. The event, dubbed ‘Telling China’s story well — Beijing’s attempts to reign into media in Africa and Europe,’ was organized by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).
The new rankings are driven in large part by countries in the Sahel, which is facing the fastest growing jihadist insurgency on Earth
Sub-Saharan Africa is now home to some of the world’s worst terrorism hotspots, according to a new index released today.
Seven African countries are among the top 10 nations facing the greatest terrorism threat, according to a ranking of 198 countries released by Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk consultancy, making the continent the worst performing region globally.
With the index’s worst possible score of 0 out of 10, Burkina Faso, Mali and Somalia rank alongside Syria and Afghanistan for the highest risk.
Cameroon, Mozambique, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all facing sustained violence from various jihadist groups allied to Al Qaeda or Islamic State, also rank among the worst affected countries in the world.
