(17.09.2023)
All three countries have undergone coups since 2020, most recently Niger, where soldiers in July overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to intervene militarily in Niger over the coup.
Mali and Burkina Faso quickly responded by saying that any such operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.
All three countries have undergone coups since 2020, most recently Niger, where soldiers in July overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to intervene militarily in Niger over the coup.
Mali and Burkina Faso quickly responded by saying that any such operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.
All three states were members of the France-supported G5 Sahel alliance joint force with Chad and Mauritania, launched in 2017 to tackle extremists in the region.
Mali has since left the dormant organisation after a military coup, while deposed Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum said in May last year that the force is now “dead” following Mali’s departure.
(August 6, 2023)
Niger is a target of imperialism for many reasons. Its natural resources include uranium, which supplies up to one third of France’s entire electrical grid. Yet Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world with the majority of its over 27 million people lacking access to their own electricity. Niger also holds strategic importance to the U.S. military as a hub for its drone operations in Central Africa, used to maintain U.S. influence in the region as well as assist in French military interventions.
In addition to 1,500 French troops, there are over 1,000 U.S. troops stationed in Niger, which the U.S. government now refuses to withdraw, despite the security agreements between the U.S. and Niger being suspended and multiple European countries evacuating their citizens. The U.S. military machine is digging in, hoping to restore the pro-imperialist government by whatever means necessary.
(August 22, 2023)
The situation is complicated by the fact that three other members of the 15-member ECOWAS are suspended because they have had their own military coups in recent years. These countries — Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, all former French colonies in the Sahel — have indicated they may side with Niger’s military government in the event of a war.
The junta led by Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani ordered the Nigerien armed forces to go on maximum alert over “threats of aggression to the national territory” and asked the military-led governments of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to send troops to help defend them.
The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has ordered its standby force to restore constitutional order in NIger Republic.
The President of ECOWAS, Omar Alieu Touray made the declaration while reading the resolution of ECOWAS on the Niger coup at the ECOWAS Extraordinary meeting in Abuja on Thursday.
Leaders from the West African bloc ECOWAS will meet on Thursday for an emergency summit on the coup in Niger, after the country‘s military chiefs defied an ultimatum to restore the elected president.
Western allies are pressuring Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to take a tough stance against the new Niger junta. But lawmakers back home have signalled they are against using Nigerian troops.
Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.
I might also say that the – you know, the threats of other countries supporting the coup leaders – those are even more risible than the threat of invasion.
INSKEEP: Oh, meaning that other countries aren‘t – they don‘t have very many resources to make much of a difference even if they do want to support.
PHAM: Well, no. I mean, yes, definitely. For example, Burkina Faso, which has been very vocal, it‘s gone through two coups in recent years – very vocal in its support of the junta in Niger.
(07.08.2023)
A military source told CNN that Niger‘s armed forces brought in a convoy of about 40 pick-up trucks from other parts of the country on Sunday evening.
The U.S. has evacuated some staff from its embassy in the capital in Niamey, while the estimated 1,000 American troops stationed in the country were restricted to their bases.
(Aug 05, 2023)
ECOWAS Defence Chiefs finalised an intervention plan and urged militaries to ready resources. However, the Niger junta has threatened ‚devastating consequences‘ in case of an intervention. Watch this video for details.
(August 2, 2023)
General Salifou Mody, one of the Niger officers who seized power in a military coup last week, visited Mali on Wednesday, according to the Mali presidency, amid speculation of a possible interest in the Wagner mercenary group, which has a presence in the country.
Mali’s transitional president, Assimi Goïta, hosted Mody and a large Nigerien military delegation on Wednesday, according to pictures and a statement posted on Facebook by the Mali presidency.
(03.05.2023)
Die Bundeswehr will aber auch nach dem Abzug aus Mali in der Sahel-Region präsent bleiben – mit steigender Entwicklungshilfe im Rahmen einer neuen Sahel-Strategie, sowie militärisch im Nachbarstaat Niger. Mit bis zu 60 deutschen Soldatinnen und Soldaten will sie sich an einer EU-Mission zur Ausbildung der nigrischen Streitkräfte beteiligen.
The new junta, however, insisted it was going nowhere. In a statement before the summit, it warned forcefully against any foreign military intervention.
“We want to once more remind ECOWAS or any other adventurer of our firm determination to defend our homeland,” a junta spokesman said on Saturday night in a televised statement.
Two neighbouring countries, Mali and Burkina Faso, have experienced coups triggered by jihadist uprisings in recent years.
In both countries the new military leaders have fallen out with France, the former colonial power, which also formerly ruled Niger.
African Union, United Nations Should Press for Credible, Independent Inquiry
Das Bundeskabinett will den Bundeswehreinsatz ein letztes Mal verlängern, noch im Mai soll der Bundestag abstimmen. Angestrebt wird zudem die Leitung der Sahel-Allianz.
Demnach sollen sich bis zu 60 deutsche Soldaten an der EU Military Partnership Mission Niger (EUMPM Niger) beteiligen, die die nigrischen Streitkräfte ausbilden und sie beim Ausbau ihrer Strukturen unterstützen wird. Niger, dessen Präsident Mohamed Bazoum klar prowestlich orientiert ist, soll sich als Anker für den Westen in der Sahelzone erweisen, nachdem Mali eine enge Kooperation mit Russland eingegangen ist und sich auch Burkina Faso von den Mächten Europas ab- und Moskau zuzuwenden beginnt.
Another accused the Burkinabe army of the massacre, saying he saved his life by covering himself with the blood of corpses.
Residents of the nearby town of Ouahigouya also said they saw the battalion pass through towards Karma and return on April 23 before heading to the capital Ouagadougou, Amnesty said.
„The army had cordoned off the roads, blocking access, until April 24. It was only after that date that some people were able to return to Karma and the surrounding villages, where the violence had taken place, to identify the victims and help the families bury their loved ones,“ said Diallo.
The CISC published a first communiqué on April 27, stating that 136 bodies had been found in Karma, including „50 women and 21 children, among them babies under 30 days old killed on their mothers’ backs“
(April 8, 2023)
Forty-four civilians have been killed by “armed terrorist groups” in two villages in north-eastern Burkina Faso, near the Niger border, a regional governor said Saturday.
Burkina’s beleaguered army has recently acquired foreign-made drones, and regularly issues video footage of strikes against purported terrorists and troops described as reconquering and securing lost territory.
(10 October 2022)
Although fairly small in number, it has prompted speculation that there may have been some Russian involvement in the events that saw Captain Ibrahim Traoré seize power in a nation beset by growing jihadist violence. (…)
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, has been more forthright in his observations: „Our people helped the new leader [of Burkina Faso].
„Another African country will move from co-operation with France to an alliance with Russia.“
(June 13, 2022)
Armed men killed at least 100 civilians in a rural district of northern Burkina Faso close to the border with Niger over the weekend, a security source said.
The attackers targeted men but appeared to spare women and children in Seytenga district on Saturday night, the security source and two other sources said, all speaking on condition of anonymity.
(Jan 25, 2022)
One of the Burkina Faso president’s final acts in office was refusing to sanction the use of Russian paramilitaries on his soil.
The leader of this week’s successful military coup against him was the very man who tried to pressure him into accepting help from Moscow, sources in the former president’s camp told The Daily Beast.
Das Mandat ist befristet bis Ende Mai 2024, die einsatzbedingten Zusatzausgaben beziffert die Bundesregierung für diesen Zeitraum auf 8,7 Millionen Euro.
In den letzten Jahren habe sich die Sicherheitslage in der Sahelregion trotz erheblicher internationaler Unterstützung weiter verschlechtert, schreibt die Regierung.
(03.05.2022)
In an interview with Italian television Mediaset, Lavrov reiterated Moscow‘s position that Wagner „has nothing to do with the Russian state“.
Wagner, which is reputedly close to President Vladimir Putin, is accused of employing mercenaries who have committed abuses in Mali, Libya and Syria.
Während die Bundesregierung an der UN-Mission also festhält, wird der zweite Einsatz, die Ausbildungsmission für malische Streitkräfte im Rahmen der EU-Mission EUTM, auf minimalem Niveau eingefroren beziehungsweise ins Nachbarland Niger verlagert.
Ein Grund dafür ist die Präsenz russischer Kräfte in Mali:
Für eine UN-Mission und eine EU-Ausbildungsmission sind derzeit insgesamt etwa 1200 Bundeswehrsoldaten in dem Land. Das Auswärtige Amt und das Verteidigungsministerium unterrichteten am Freitag die Obleute im Bundestag über Erkenntnisse, wonach die mit einem Militärputsch an die Macht gekommene Führung um den malischen Oberst Assimi Goïta mit russischen Akteuren verhandelt.
Seit acht Jahren ist die Bundeswehr in Mali im Einsatz. Frieden gibt es weiter nicht, das Militär putschte mehrfach. Das neueste Problem: Russische Söldner. Lohnt sich der Einsatz?
Der IS seinerseits könne „sich auf den Erfolg seiner Zweigorganisationen berufen, selbst wenn seine Kernorganisation im Irak und in Syrien und Franchise-Gruppen in Ländern wie Libyen und Afghanistan mit Rückschlägen zu kämpfen haben“ heißt es in „Foreign Policy“.
Als Brückenkopf in Afrika zum IS im Nahen Osten dient Libyen, dort haben sich auch aus Syrien und dem Irak geflüchtete Milzen niedergelassen. In dem Land, in dem es in weiten Teilen keine funktionierende Staatsmacht gibt, können sie fast beliebig schalten und walten.
Verteidigungsministerin Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer sagte, von den Deutschen seien drei schwer verletzt. Die Soldaten sicherten nach UN-Angaben den Konvoi eines malischen Bataillons. Vorangegangen sei am Vortag die Explosion eines Sprengsatzes, bei der es aber nur Sachschaden an einem Fahrzeug gegeben habe.
(25.06.2021)
Die Pan-Sahel-Initiative der USA, später die Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative, war der Deckmantel, hinter dem sich das Pentagon verbarg, um mit seinem NATO-Verbündeten und Malis ehemaligem Kolonialherrn Frankreich Aufstandsbekämpfungsoperationen in Mali durchzuführen und zu leiten. Die Tuareg streben seit über einem Jahrhundert in der einen oder anderen Form nach einem unabhängigen Staat, der derzeit als Azawad bezeichnet wird.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his counterparts from Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger jointly met with General Mahamat Idriss Deby before the funeral of his father, a presidential official said.
Unklar ist, warum der Präsident überhaupt „an vorderster Front“ war und nicht in der Hauptstadt seinen Wahlsieg feierte, der unmittelbar zuvor verkündet worden war. Zwar hatte der Langzeit-Potentat immer wieder seine Rolle auch als militärischer Führer spektakulär unter Beweis zu stellen versucht, dass er jedoch inmitten der von ihm geführten Armee lebensgefährlich verletzt werden konnte, wirft – gerade in Verbindung mit der prompt anschließenden Machtübernahme der Militärführung – gewisse Fragen auf.
Despite its oil wealth, Chad has been facing an enormous debt burden. Global Commodity trading house Glencore is one of the largest creditors to Chad through an oil-for-cash loan. Last year, the Chadian government requested that Glencore suspend payments on its oil-for-cash loan. The oil producer now also relies on oil-for-cash loadings from Chinese creditors.
Chad holds around 1.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, according to BP‘s Energy Outlook 2020, making it the 10th-largest oil reserve holder in Africa. Oil accounts for almost 90% of the country‘s export revenues.