Turmoil in Niger

[Bill Ryan]

From Niger: (here's the text)

More footage from protests in Niamey, Niger. Supporters of military junta, now in front of French embassy protestors are shouting "Long live Putin", "Long live Russia", "Down with France."

https://twitter.com/NationalIndNews/status/1685604998724415488
1685604998724415488

[Bill Ryan]

Just a note about the above video, and much else that's happening in Africa. As many readers will know, African countries have been under the weight and influence of British and French colonialism for 150 years or more. The British retreated several decades ago, but the French are still there. And no-one likes or wants them any more.

Russia (now very publicly) and China (much more quietly) have been supporting and investing in Africa for quite a while. Of course, the western media is supporting the old colonial regimes. France may go into Niger militarily to 'restore order', but if so they'll come face to face with highly motivated, well-equipped and highly trained Russian Wagner troops. So all this could easily escalate quite a lot further.

:flower:

[Bill Ryan]

We might need a separate Turmoil in Africa thread. (Really.) But for now, this may belong here:

The text:

The Minister of Finance of Niger burst into tears due to the fact that the military gave him 48 hours to explain where the money had gone.
If he does not clearly report on the financial situation, he will be shot.

https://t.me/CyberspecNews/37476
CyberspecNews/37476

[Bill Ryan]

And more. The text:

The military regime in Niger has with immediate effect, banned the export of uranium to France. Over 50 per cent of the uranium ore extracted from Niger is used for fuelling French nuclear power plants. 24% of EU uranium imports come from Niger.
In France, 1 in every 3 lightbulbs is powered by Uranium from Niger. Meanwhile in Niger, 80% of people do not have access to any electricity.

https://t.me/CyberspecNews/37531
CyberspecNews/37531

[Ewan]

Just a note about the above video, and much else that's happening in Africa. As many readers will know, African countries have been under the weight and influence of British and French colonialism for 150 years or more. The British retreated several decades ago, but the French are still there. And no-one likes or wants them any more.

Russia (now very publicly) and China (much more quietly) have been supporting and investing in Africa for quite a while. Of course, the western media is supporting the old colonial regimes. France may go into Niger militarily to 'restore order', but if so they'll come face to face with highly motivated, well-equipped and highly trained Russian Wagner troops. So all this could easily escalate quite a lot further.

:flower:

We are trapped, for now, in this dimension and experience and for all that it sounds harrowing, chaotic and abysmal - it is needed, it is about time the wheel turned back and set things anew..

[Ravenlocke]

Just a note about the above video, and much else that's happening in Africa. As many readers will know, African countries have been under the weight and influence of British and French colonialism for 150 years or more. The British retreated several decades ago, but the French are still there. And no-one likes or wants them any more.

Russia (now very publicly) and China (much more quietly) have been supporting and investing in Africa for quite a while. Of course, the western media is supporting the old colonial regimes. France may go into Niger militarily to 'restore order', but if so they'll come face to face with highly motivated, well-equipped and highly trained Russian Wagner troops. So all this could easily escalate quite a lot further.

:flower:

YesterdayI posted some Niger news here,
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?108995-Turmoil-and-Chaos-all-over-the-Planet&p=1569794&viewfull=1#post1569794

as I didn’t know where else to put it.

[Ravenlocke]

July 27,

Text:
BREAKING: Coup in Niger Republic! France loses yet another colony in Africa! Like Burkina Faso, Mali, CAR, the coup plotters in Niger Republic are said to be angry that the now reportedly ousted Nigerien president was too close to France whilst his people wished for all colonial ties with France severed, like their brother countries - Burkina Faso, Mali, etc. Sound familiar? We are living through a historic moment in our lives as Africans. Say hello to. #Multipolar world!

https://twitter.com/jcokechukwu/status/1684524303214170113

1684524303214170113

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1686082238008508418

1686082238008508418

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/niger-puts-an-end-to-uranium-and-gold-export-to-france

Niger puts an end to uranium and gold export to France
With immediate effect, the Republic of Niger under the leadership of General Abdourahamane Tchiani, and supported by the people of the Republic, announced the suspension of the export of uranium and gold to France on Sunday.

In parallel to the decision, protestors were surrounding the French Embassy in Niger calling for the end of French colonial practices repeating the slogan “Down with France!” and reaffirming their support to the coup leader, Tchiani.

Wazobia Reporters, a Nigerien news website, reported on protestor proclaiming “We have uranium, diamonds, gold, oil, and we live like slaves? We don’t need the French to keep us safe."

Simultaneously the Nigerien coup leader has faced condemnations and threats from African governments that maintain ties with the European linked institutions such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the EU as well as the African Union. In that regard, Tchiani said, "We want to once more remind ECOWAS or any other adventurer of our firm determination to defend our homeland.”

Read more: AU asks military in Niger to ‘return to their barracks’ within 15 days

It is also worth noting that Niger, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), is the world's seventh-biggest producer of uranium. The WNA also confirms that Niger, in 2022, produced 2020 tU which would be considered just over 4% of world uranium output.

Currently, uranium production in Niger occurs mostly through a French majority-owned company called Orano which owns 63.4% of Société des Mines de l’Aïr (SOMAÏR). The remaining 36.66% of this is owned by Niger's Société du Patrimoine des Mines du Niger, known as Sopamin.

In 2021, the European Union utilities purchased 2905 tU of Niger-produced uranium making Niger the leading uranium supplier vis-a-vis the EU.

Earlier, on July 28, Orano released a statement arguing that "the situation remains unstable" in Niger following the overthrowing of French ally and President of Niger Muhammed Bazoum. The company then added that it has "set up a crisis unit to prioritize the safety of its employees" and underscored that "this event to have any immediate impact on its activities in Niger or on the value of its assets."

The coup in Niger follows a pattern of coups across the African continent such as Burkina Faso and Mali.

[Ravenlocke]

In solidarity with Niger🇳🇪, three neighboring countries, Guinea🇬🇳, Burkina Faso🇧🇫, and Mali🇲🇱, have decided not to enforce the sanctions imposed by the ECOWAS.

These nations, themselves facing sanctions under pressure from Western powers, have chosen not to take punitive measures against the Nigerian people. The embargo, labeled as "inhumane and immoral," has also been rejected by Algeria🇩🇿 and Libya 🇱🇾, expressing their disapproval of the controversial decision by ECOWAS.

This united stance reflects these African countries' willingness to support Niger amid external pressures, raising questions about potential impacts on regional relations within ECOWAS and highlighting tensions surrounding policies of sanctions imposed by foreign powers.

DDGeopolitics

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1686134162162376704

1686134162162376704

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
The coup in Niger caused the West to lose its last ally in the region - Sabah

The possible orientation of the new authorities of Niger to cooperation with Russia caused a real panic in the West, which is losing its last ally in the Sahel region, the Turkish newspaper writes.

"Many experts see the coup in Niger as the transition of this most staunch ally of the West in the Sahel region under the influence of Russia," the article says.

According to the author, after the coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic, these countries moved away from the West and built strong relations with Russia, which became "a tragedy for the US and the EU."

https://twitter.com/SpriterTeam/status/1686165514148536320

1686165514148536320

[shaberon]

In solidarity with Niger🇳🇪, three neighboring countries, Guinea🇬🇳, Burkina Faso🇧🇫, and Mali🇲🇱, have decided not to enforce the sanctions imposed by the ECOWAS.


ECOWAS is the 1975 Treaty of Lagos, which has long suspended Niger, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. For Niger, it was a 2009 coup, which, evidently, the ousted elected government was not good enough to restore them.


I am not going to cite this, but, I am going to strongly suggest a 2.5 hour transcript from Michael Hudson (https://michael-hudson.com/2023/07/global-economic-history-in-2-5-hours/).


One of the things he discusses is Debt Jubilee. He explains a good bit about how the Babylonian system worked, and how it spread towards western countries. When it had problems in Greece, it was restored by Tyrants. Rome effectively crushed it.

The thing was done by any king, and, if he reigned long enough, again in about thirty years.

Because it is a chat, it is not terribly technical; his conclusion is that the options for the U. S. are collapse or revolution. The latter is unlikely, because depressed populations do not revolt. Almost all revolutions are led by minor aristocracy.


It says a lot about privatization, about increasing real estate value and its regressive taxes, and lacerates Obama and the Chicago (Jesuit) School, and basically invalidates "Economics" saying it should be taught in the literature department as speculative fiction about alternate realities.

The only thing I might criticize is he should have said "privately-owned central bank" when referring to countries.

It is a polemic against what I call the Capitalist class, which, again, is not hermetically-sealed as a definition. There can of course be investment banks who stay in business by making productive loans. I use it because the LSE/Chicagoans use it for themselves, as the modernization of what came from Rome, and the truth is more in the spirit of the story than the letter of the word.


Perhaps one quick quote:



And a democracy is a country that does what the United States tells it to and essentially runs the country for US investors, US bankers, and US bondholders. An autocracy is a country that works for its own people and for its own prosperity, instead of becoming a colony.

So that’s part of the double think, the Orwellian language, that American politics uses. And to sort of reflect the double think that economic terminology uses.

[Bill Ryan]

A 13 minute update from The Duran, just published:

France desperate to hold on to Niger, and its uranium


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_GvlDGd4-c

[arwen]

And there is growing sentiment for other French controlled African nations to do the same:

Text:

The people of Ivory Coast must rise against their French puppet President Alassane Ouattara.

The man came to power through a French sponsored coup that overthrew Laurent Gbagbo, who was to free his country from French colonialism.

1687104644911448066

Text:

Breaking!!! Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria openly declaring support for Niger against any military action. ECOWAS failed to read the room!!

1686120612996034560

Text:

“What France did in Algeria, Rwanda, Mali, all of this is in all the archives of the world” - Erdogan presents a “memory pill” to Western society about the deeds of “civilized” Europe in Africa
“Africans remember it very well. Now they have completely cut off the supply of gold and uranium to France. This is a response to the oppression that these countries have been subjected to for many years,” the Turkish leader said.

1687712244124000256

[arwen]

Text:

Watch Africa closely. As NATO prepares to confront Russia from Ukraine the chess pieces are getting moved into position.

Guinea joins Mali and Burkino Faso with pledges of potential military assistance and mutual defence of Niger against NATO imposed economic sanctions.

1687048130687086592

Text:

The Russian 🇷🇺 Embassy in Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 Reopens after being closed for 31 Years.

Burkina Faso President, Captain Ibrahim Traore recently addressed The Russia-Africa Summit where he called for Partnership with Russia.

Just last night Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso held a meeting in Mali to discuss the possibility of a "rapid deployment of WAGNER forces to the country.”

1687313683045883904

Text:

World War Africa.
Quick thread🧵

Its looking like a huge proxy war between US/France and Russia/BRICS is about to start in west Africa, about 14 countries could be involved plus Algeria, which has a large Mediterranean coast opposite France.

Niger has just experienced a Russian backed coup, and has banned all Uranium sales to France, which could send France into a death spiral. Niger was a puppet of France, like many former French colonies in the area.

Nigeria has sent troops to the northern border, as Nigeria is aligned with the US. The rest of the Russian backed nations are pledging military support to Niger. Knowing African countries, this could kick off without the consent of BRICS or the West.

This is a very serious issue. If this war goes off the way its implying at the moment, half of Africa could be at war, probably meaning large scale intervention from western nations as Europe and the US cannot afford to lose African resources from their puppets.

The US has puppets throughout central Africa which may aid in the fight, but I would say that would be disadvantageous as African nations consistently rebel against their leaders, if the bulk of their militaries move, BRICS will swoop in with rebellions.

This needs to be deescalated or thousands of Western citizens will be conscripted to fight in a war larger than we've ever seen. Logistical nightmare.

- Green are Western aligned. Might as-well consider Algeria as red.

1686560564267655168



Text:

Protestors in Niger support Russia, not France.

Why? Because people in Niger are fully aware of what France has done to their country.

France exploits their resources, and under-develops their country through a puppet government.

🇷🇺 is a symbol of freedom in Africa.

1685992984607596544

[arwen]

Interesting map if accurate:

Text:

Slava Rossii!

Latest map showing military agreements between 40 #Africa nations & #Russia

Global trends you should pay attention to

Denazification in Ukraine

Decolonization in Africa

Dedollarization on global trade

Dewesternization in global media

#Niger #BurkinaFaso #Mali

1687244605471744000

[arwen]

Actually there probably will be need of a "Turmoil in Africa" thread. While this does not pertain to Niger specifically, it has been a major factor in Africa.

7 minute video in the link below from a recent Congressional Hearing inquiring into CIA operations in Africa, with 4 star General Langley caught rather off guard by the questions of Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Four Star US Marine General Langley caught flat footed (https://archives.lovinglifetv.com/video/1866/four-star-us-marine-general-langley-caught-flat-footed-when-cross-examined-by-congressional-committee-on-cia-operations-in-africa?channelName=Scott)

[Bill Ryan]

Two telegram posts, back to back:

1) Text:

France is not going to withdraw its military from Niger in the near future said the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Catherine Colonna.

https://t.me/africaintel/4676
africaintel/4676

2) Text:

Niger gives France 30 days to vacate the country in accordance with the 1977 Agreement of Technical Military Cooperation.

https://t.me/africaintel/4687
africaintel/4687

[Kryztian]

An excellent interview by Kim Iversen of Simon Ateba, a journalist for Today News Africa who covers the White House (White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is trying to have him ejected from the White House Press Room and has walked out on him while he was asking questions.)

1CTyvDffUXs

Ateba explains how the French have involved from colonialists that sold people into slavery to modern post colonialists who find ways to extracts the vast mineral wealth of Niger in a way in a manor that keeps most of Niger's population in abject poverty. He also discusses some of the geo-politics of the region, including the relation with Mali and Burkina Faso as well as how Russia and China are involved. 26 minutes.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1687932657123143680

1687932657123143680

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1687915421050011648

1687915421050011648

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1687915918775455746

1687915918775455746

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1687917000461271040

1687917000461271040

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Text:
🚨 Putsch at Niger : several sources confirm the presence in Niamey of "instructors" of the group of Russian mercenaries, Wagner, from Mali. As was the case when Captain Ibrahim Traoré took power in BurkinaFaso , Colonel Assimi Goïta “advises” and provides “logistical support” to the putschists in Niamey with the aim of “consolidating” their power.

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1687864863165440005

1687864863165440005

[Ravenlocke]

Text:

🚨Les chiffres de la production mondiale d'uranium :

🇰🇿 Kazakhstan : 45%
🇳🇦 Namibie : 11%
🇨🇦 Canada : 9%
🇦🇺 Australie : 8.6%
🇺🇿 Ouzbékistan : 7,2
🇷🇺 Russie : 5,4
🇳🇪 Niger : 4,6
🇨🇳 Chine : 3,9
🇮🇳 Inde : 1.2%
🇺🇦 Ukraine : 0,9
🇿🇦 Afrique du Sud : 0,8
🇮🇷 Iran : 0.1%
🇵🇰 Pakistan : 0,09%
🇧🇷 Brésil : 0,06%
🇺🇸 ÉTATS-UNIS : 0.02%

(Association nucléaire mondiale)

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1687866067438247936

1687866067438247936

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
Foreign Influence in Africa Sahel. Basic map of Russia, US, Turkey, France and other security positions in the region.

Reasons behind foreign interest?

uranium supply
preventing forced migration
more trade & north-south corridors
global proxy-conflict
defence contracts
good governance & stability

https://twitter.com/mazzenilsson/status/1687892340738854912

1687892340738854912

[shaberon]

Does anyone have some insight to the ECOWAS, or, the regional power, Nigeria?


I grabbed a little info from the ECOWAS website because it really doesn't have much, or, not up front, anyway. The similarly-appearing East African one pretty clearly represents a Swahili nation which is mixed with Indians and Arabs from trade relations that go back a long time; it is a "thing". Their website was pretty reasonable, and, it turns out that the 2000s drive towards a Federation is a re-launch of an aborted process back from the 1960s, i. e. shortly after "independence".

The western ones sound inherently more violent, it was only a year or so ago that the president of one of them, Guinea I think, openly called for a death penalty on homosexuals. These are places that demolished weaker villages and put slaves on the market and Europeans basically just showed up to buy them, from Mali in particular, it is a quite old kingdom. Nigeria is consistently ranked at one of the highest levels of corruption known to man. Obviously, US/FR don't belong, but, this western treaty has already evicted members for coups, and no big standoff was ratcheted about those. I have no idea what to even think about these places since they are not known for making favorable impressions.

The only thing I see right now about the Finance Minister (https://dubawa.org/man-crying-in-viral-video-not-ex-nigerien-finance-minister/) is that the video is not even the right guy. Normally you don't do a 48-hour death squad thing unless it was a field court martial, and a minister is not even in the military.

[Bill Ryan]

This seems to be an important update, as of 12 hours ago.

Text:

The Nigerian Senate rejects the army’s military intervention in Niger under ECOWAS mandate.

https://t.me/CyberspecNews/38018
CyberspecNews/38018

[Bill Ryan]

Does anyone have some insight to the ECOWAS, or, the regional power, Nigeria?
This update seems interesting and useful.

The text:

In these times, we have to remember that ECOWAS generally does not joke around interventions.

List of interventions by ECOWAS :

1990 -> Liberia
1998 -> Sierra Leone
1999 -> Guinea-Bissau
2003 -> Ivory Coast
2013 -> Mali
2017 -> Gambia

Any intervention against Niger is going to be different though, because out of the 6 listed, only 2 were against the ruling government, the rest being peacekeeping efforts between rebel groups and governments.

Niger is also objectively the strongest country (outside of Ivory Coast) that ECOWAS will have to face. This war, if it happens, may turn bloody really soon.


https://t.me/CIG_telegram/34145
CIG_telegram/34145

[shaberon]

List of interventions by ECOWAS :

1990 -> Liberia
1998 -> Sierra Leone
1999 -> Guinea-Bissau
2003 -> Ivory Coast
2013 -> Mali
2017 -> Gambia


Okay. Here is a bit more meat on those bones from Al Jazeera (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/1/timeline-a-history-of-ecowas-military-interventions-in-three-decades). Now of course, to even begin to understand it, you have to get a lot more information behind these names and the stories from both sides in the conflict. Sometimes A. J. is a Hasbara, but here there is no value-added commentary. Without knowing any further context, one might guess that the relatively small forces involved would not hold a candle to multiple Wagners from different directions. The issue of rebel vs. government cannot explain anything about better or worse, especially to outsiders. The best thing I can say right now is that out of all of them, I have met a single Nigerian who impressed me as a true "gentle lion" of a man, to the extent that no modern Americans that I have known would even begin to compare to.

I would not extrapolate that to mean that all west Africans are outstanding individuals.

Here is the summary:




The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), the military arm of ECOWAS, was formed in 1990 to regularly intervene in conflicts within the region.

Here is a list of those interventions.

1990: Liberia

In 1989, Charles Taylor led a militia against the Liberian government, leading to the outbreak of civil war there. Consequently, the regional bloc made an unprecedented move to intervene in 1990. The initial 3,000-man ECOMOG contingent was formed with personnel drawn from Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, and Sierra Leone with additional soldiers contributed by Mali.

The mission was controversial due to a trail of human rights violations committed by its personnel, especially against women, but it secured peace. The troops were present in the country until 1996 when the war ended.

1997: Sierra Leone

ECOMOG’s next stop was the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, in 1997 following the overthrow of the elected civilian government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah by Major Johnny Paul Koroma in a military coup.

The force, under the command of Nigerian troops, moved part of its personnel from Monrovia, the Liberian capital, to recapture Freetown from the rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF). In February 1998, ECOMOG launched an attack that led to the fall of the military regime and Kabbah was reinstalled as leader of the country.

1999: Guinea Bissau

The next stop for ECOMOG was a ceasefire mission in Guinea Bissau after hostilities broke out following an attempted coup in 1998. The fight was between government forces backed by neighbouring Senegal and Guinea against coup leaders who had control of the armed forces.

The hostilities were resolved after a peace agreement was put in place in November 1998 on the conditions of a national unity government and new elections in 1999 but a new outbreak of conflict in May 1999 scuppered the agreement.

In November, a peace accord was signed in Abuja which, in part, stated the withdrawal of Senegalese and Guinean troops and the deployment of ECOMOG forces to ensure peace.

2003: Côte d’Ivoire

After Ivorian armed forces and rebel groups came to a ceasefire agreement in 2003, ECOWAS deployed troops as ECOWAS forces in Côte d’Ivoire (ECOMICI) to complement the United Nations and French troops.

2003: Liberia

The second Liberian civil war also necessitated a return of regional troops. While the first civil war brought Charles Taylor to power, the second civil war between 1999 and 2003 led to his exit.

This time, ECOWAS deployed troops under ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL) with some 3,500 soldiers, with the most coming from Nigeria. They served as an interposition force, keeping the warring parties apart and facilitating the arrival of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

2013: Mali

A 2012 coup in Mali led to a breakdown of order and armed groups immediately took advantage of the coup that followed to overrun the north of the country.

ECOWAS led the Africa-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) to support the Malian government in the fight against rebels in 2013.

The mission was authorised by a UN Security Council resolution and its initial mandate was one year. Nigeria contributed most of the troops, but a host of other West African countries, including Gabon, Ivory Coast, Niger and Burkina Faso, also backed the mission.

AFISMA eventually gave way to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation in Mali (MINUSMA).

2017: The Gambia

Codenamed “Operation Restore Democracy”, an ECOWAS operation led by Senegal sent troops into Banjul to force Yahya Jammel who had refused to concede an election loss to Adama Barrow in the 2016 election.

Barrow was sworn in as president at the Gambian embassy in Dakar and requested an ECOWAS military intervention. The troops ensured the transition within three days.

The name of the mission was later changed to ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) and lasted until December 2021.

[arwen]

Niger closes airspace due to perceived threat of intervention (https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/niger-closes-airspace-due-to-perceived-threat-of-intervention-7-august-2023/)

(Caveat - this article is informative but is biased against the current claimants on leadership referring to them as a "junta" and clearly favoring the French/US/ECOWAS position - arwen)

by
Agence France-Presse
07-08-2023 14:44

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/air-fotor-20230807153053-800x529.jpg

Extract:



As the junta defied a deadline from the ECOWAS to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, Niger closed its airspace...

Niger closed its airspace due to the “threat of intervention” as the junta defied a deadline from the West African bloc ECOWAS to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible military action.

ECOWAS issued its ultimatum a week ago, demanding the generals relinquish power by midnight Sunday 6 August 2023 (2300 GMT). Bazoum was overthrown on July 26 when members of his own guard detained him at the presidency.

FOR LONG WILL THE NIGER AIRSPACE REMAIN CLOSED?
“Faced with the threat of intervention, which is becoming clearer through the preparation of neighbouring countries, Niger’s airspace is closed from this day on Sunday… for all aircraft until further notice,” the junta said in a statement released shortly before the deadline passed.

Any attempt to violate the country’s airspace would meet with an “energetic and immediate response”, the statement added. Early Monday, there were no aircraft operating in Niger’s skies, according to the flight tracking website Flightradar24.

In a separate statement, the now-ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) said there had been a “pre-deployment in preparation for intervention” made by two Central African countries, without naming them.

“Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent,” it warned. Thousands of coup supporters had gathered Sunday in the capital Niamey to cheer on the CNSP.

Full article here (https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/niger-closes-airspace-due-to-perceived-threat-of-intervention-7-august-2023/)

[shaberon]

...this article is informative but is biased against the current claimants on leadership referring to them as a "junta" and clearly favoring the French/US/ECOWAS position

Perhaps so but actually, it is a junta, Spanish for "group that seized power".

Along with terms such as regime, autocrat, or tyrant, these are all morally-neutral descriptions.

"Democratically elected" may be redundant, unless contrasting the American President, installed by Electors, who are not compelled to obey a majority of constituents. Without knowing how it works, one should say President Bazoum was "elected".

The U. S. Confederation was almost a "junta" since the military President brought in by force was elected by, I think, eleven senators.

A "tyrant" can be installed, without, himself, necessarily being the military commander. Off the top of my head, I am not sure that in English we have a more specific word than "junta" that would mean "the state is now controlled by a General". They are not "claiming" leadership, they are "taking" it, or "have taken it". Even Oliver Cromwell was put in as Lord Protector by a type of governmental act, similar to G. Washington. Modern English lacks any context for an unqualified military coup, which is probably the basis for using the Spanish word.

[Kryztian]

1688673270403305472

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇺🇸🇳🇪Media: Nuland met rebels in Niger, negotiations were frank and difficult

US Deputy Secretary of State Nuland met with rebel leaders of Niger, the talks were "frank and at times quite difficult" - TV

🇺🇸🇳🇪🇷🇺Victoria Nuland: After I warned them, the Putschist Leaders in Niger are well aware of the dangers of allying with Russia

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1688670256053760000

1688670256053760000

Text:

Part of Victoria Nuland statements:

▫️I wanted to point out to the Putschist leaders the impact of not restoring democracy on the relationship between United States and Niger

▫️I asked to meet the detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, but I was not given an opportunity to meet him by the Military Junta

▫️I did not have the opportunity to meet with the coup leader, General Abd al-Rahman Tianyi

▫️My meeting with the coup leaders in Niger opened the way for further talks

▫️I stressed to the Putschist Leaders of Niger the dangers of allying with Wagner Group
https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1688706258952749058

1688706258952749058

[shaberon]

Nuland met rebels in Niger, negotiations were frank and difficult...

Status -- true! That means we can smoke the government's own crack pipe (https://www.state.gov/acting-deputy-secretary-of-state-victoria-nuland-on-the-situation-in-niger/) here and I can stuff it with value-added commentary. Snipped from maybe a ten-minute teleconference before she got on a plane and they closed the skies.




UNDER SECRETARY NULAND: Thank you, Vedant. Hello, everybody, from Niamey. As some of you may know, this is my third visit to Niger in the two years that I have been under secretary for Political Affairs and now acting deputy, and the Secretary was here in March. That level of attention reflects the value that we place in this bilateral relationship and the huge amount of work we do together to support and strengthen the economy, prosperity, hopes, security, and the work we do together in counterterrorism.


That means the third time they wish she would just stay away, plus, the Secretary himself was probably the tipping point.




And all of this has been rooted in our shared values, including the sense of democracy, which was why it was so difficult, and remains difficult, to see the current challenge to the democratic order which began on July 26. The Secretary, as you have seen, has made repeated calls of support to the elected president of Niger, President Bazoum, to check on his welfare and to talk about the road ahead. He’s also been in regular touch with President Tinubu of Nigeria, who is currently head of ECOWAS, with AU Chairperson Faki, and with a number of European allies with whom we work in Niger, particularly on counterterrorism. And Assistant Secretary Phee has also worked tirelessly along with our chargé and our team here in Niamey.


All you all did was swarm them with "your" democracy. No wonder the General didn't want to talk.




The Secretary asked me to make this trip – as you may know, I was in the neighborhood last week and then in Jeddah – because we wanted to speak frankly to the people responsible to this challenge to the democratic order to see if we could try to resolve these issues diplomatically, if we could get some negotiations going, and also to make absolutely clear what is at stake in our relationship and the economic and other kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored. You have probably seen we have already had to pause our assistance.


Jeddah was another failure to tell Russia to surrender in Ukraine. Because you keep going back to "your" democracy. How many times has she said this so far? Nevermind.



So today we had a chance first to sit with a broad cross-section of Nigerien civil society. These are long-time friends of the United States. They are journalists. They are democratic activists. They are human rights activists. A number of them I had met on previous trips, as had the Secretary. And so we had a frank exchange about the situation here.

And then we met with the self-proclaimed chief of defense of this operation, General Barmou, and three of the colonels supporting him. I will say that these conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult because, again, we were pushing for a negotiated solution. It was not easy to get traction there. They are quite firm in their view on how they want to proceed, and it does not comport with the constitution of Niger. So again, we were very frank about what’s at stake. We kept open the door to continue talking. But again, it was difficult today, and I will be straight up about that.


Of course not. They just broke the Constitution of Niger. Why would anyone think this is an option?



UNDER SECRETARY NULAND: Look, the overall tone, Shaun, was workmanlike. We rolled up our sleeves. I can’t remember exactly, but I believe we were in the room with General Barmou and his people for more than two hours, and then there was some side conversations. After that, I hope they will keep the door open to diplomacy. We made that proposal. We’ll see. As I said, they have their own ideas about how this goes forward. They do not – their ideas do not comport with the constitution, and that will be difficult in terms of our relationship if that’s the path they take. But we gave them a number of options to keep talking and we hope they take us up on it.

Of course I raised the – Wagner and its threat to those countries where it is present, reminding them that security gets worse, that human rights get worse when Wagner enters. I would not say that we learned much more about their thinking on that front.


You said the same thing again and then over-wrote "CIA" with "Wagner". They're not thinking about it because it is like you said gravity goes up.



UNDER SECRETARY NULAND: Sorry, Vedant. With regard to the – to us, interestingly, General Barmou, former Colonel Barmou, is somebody who has worked very closely with U.S. Special Forces over many, many years. So we were able to go through in considerable detail the risks to aspects of our cooperation that he has historically cared about a lot. So we are hopeful that that will sink in.


Yeah. These guys already have your American training on coups and espionage and all that good stuff. Did they really need it? No, probably not, they were just probably checking out how things go on the "inside". He *used* to care, which probably means he was fronting it. I can't speak for him, but you can't even speak to him.

Not that you were democratically elected, you were appointed by the Executive Branch, who is not democratically elected either. That's how our Constitution works!

They're no longer rebels, either, they are in charge.


Since independence, Niger already had Two Coups and Seven Constitutions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Niger). It was under a military council from 1974-1989, which has been its longest form of government. This third coup has overthrown:


President Mamadou Tandja was ousted on 18 February 2010 by a military coup d'état. The junta, called "Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy" and led by Salou Djibo, organised the transition. On 31 October 2010, a new constitution was adopted by referendum with 90.19% in favor and a 52.02% turnout (official results of 25 November).

Meaning it effectively had 47% popular support. This transition:

Niger's military coup is condemned by France and Africa


They stepped in because the sixth government:

...was declared illegal by the Constitutional Court but Tandja dissolved the Court and assumed emergency powers.

The Constitution that has just been deleted is fully readable on a 47 page pdf (https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Niger_2010.pdf).


It includes referendum, state health care, environmental protection, obligatory military service, moral background check for the presidency...it looks like their own thing, rather than a copy. Chances are that it might not exactly be the Constitution that is opposed, but, either the persons in office, or, the body of legislation that derives from its authority. We don't know. The American did not say anything about asking them what they want, or what they disagree with that is in this document.

French is just the "educated" language and looking at the multiplicity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Niger#:~:text=Niger%20has%2011%20national%20languages,Saharan%20and%20Niger%E2%80%93Con go%20families.) spoken in this country, they are hardly related. This is too complex for an outsider to just step in and say let me tell you what to do. If you don't wear out your shoulder trying to break the Sahara with a shovel, why would they care what you have to say?

[Tintin]

On a lighter note, and I really hope that this is true. Even if it proves not to be it's still very funny:

Source: https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1688718553174745088

1688718553174745088

Text:



🇳🇪🇺🇸 BREAKING: The revolutionary government of Niger has responded to the suspension of US aid by telling the US: “We don’t want your money, use it to fund a weight loss program for Victoria Nuland.”

[Kryztian]

On a lighter note, and I really hope that this is true. Even if it proves not to be it's still very funny:

Source: https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1688718553174745088

1688718553174745088

Text:



🇳🇪🇺🇸 BREAKING: The revolutionary government of Niger has responded to the suspension of US aid by telling the US: “We don’t want your money, use it to fund a weight loss program for Victoria Nuland.”

Hilarious, but I doubt that they would say that in Niger, where fat is seen to be an attribute of beauty, and women who can afford it take steroids to become larger.

Maradi Journal; On the Scale of Beauty, Weight Weighs Heavily
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/12/world/maradi-journal-on-the-scale-of-beauty-weight-weighs-heavily.html

Perhaps we should credit the now ruling powers of Niger for realizing that beneath this beautiful American woman and the generous padding of cellulite that surrounds her, there lurks a fundamentally dishonest and treacherous person.

[shaberon]

No, actually I don't think we have gotten real quotes or the right pictures so far.

The "French embassy" picture is a Nigerien government building.

In a few cases those can be simple mistakes, whereas something like the guy crying has to be an intentionally-fabricated story based on a two-year-old picture of someone else in another place which was described as "tears of joy".

I can understand, perhaps, a reporter mis-identifying a facility in the heat of a crisis, but I am pretty sick of this syndrome of real pictures from other situations being given a new false story.

The stuff posted by the State Dept., Congress, etc., is all pretty much true, it is just truth of a nature that you may disagree with.

[Bill Ryan]

Another update from The Duran, just 14 minutes. Alexander Mercouris is emphatic that Russia wants to keep its neutral distance from all this. He also states, I think correctly, that if ECOWAS were to intervene militarily (presumably backed by US and France), that'd be a very risky and destabilizing move for all kinds of obvious reasons. (The last thing the world needs is a major regional war in West Africa. :flower:)

My own comments:


It seems it'd be a very smart move for the Niger coup leaders to hold an election (or even a referendum) soonest, asking international observers to attend. That might help legitimize the new regime as being strongly democratically supported. (Current polls suggest there's a 70+% approval rating for the coup.)



Russia has very good relations with many African states (including Nigeria and Senegal, which are both pro-intervention), and also the African Union itself. I could easily see a time, sooner rather than later, when they might host a peace conference, maybe with the Chinese in a prominent role as well. No-one I'm aware of has mentioned either of these two points.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X0lGBkM7QE

[ExomatrixTV]

Breaking: The Military Government Of Niger Has Sign A Contract With Russian Wagner Group In Africa For Security, To Protect Niger Because Coup In Niger Has Enter A Point Of No Return, The Military In Niger Say Niger Will No Longer Be European Colony:

643745744388068

[shaberon]

Bizarre use of the French language:


https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/08/1112466671_0:0:2952:1662_1280x0_80_0_0_30fa269d37f008a411dc80cc37d8ca06.jpg.webp



Translated by K. Kouafkou (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230809/russian-flag-in-hands-of-african-anti-colonialists-has-spooked-west-1112464634.html):



The visit to Niger this week by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland — the architect of the 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine — has failed to intimidate the country's new rulers into restoring Bazoum to the presidency or lifting their embargo on uranium supplies to France.

"If you take a serious assessment of Western legacy, especially France and the UK and Europeans and now the United States... if you take a look at the assessment of their legacy of colonialism, 'the relationship,' it's just not been positive at all," Kouakou said.

The academic said the series of military takeovers in France's former colonies in West Africa was not unsurprising — or unpopular.

"There's a combination between a rising movement of discontented civil servants, civilians and population saying: 'we have just had enough, we really don't want you here anymore, we can deal with our own issues,'" Kouakou noted. "And the military is probably one of the rallying points of force, of power, that the populace are now saying: 'We're going to use you to really help us get rid of most of these colonialists.'"

"When we hear about the United States in Niger or in the Sahel, it's about building military bases. When was the last time you heard that the US is building a serious infrastructure, railroad, manufacturing to build different plants and helping people do serious commerce?"

"One of the practicalities is it seems those who are raising the flags, at least across the Sahel, are now saying to themselves: 'my goodness, we need somebody else to help us, we are so weak, we're not strong enough and we can't go back to the whole Stockholm Syndrome, were we are continuously praising those who are oppressing us,'" Koakou explained.



This looks healthier than anything I have seen around here in my life:

https://cdn-media.tass.ru/width/1020_b9261fa1/tass/m2/en/uploads/i/20230809/1398505.jpg




The outgoing government was birthed by:

The junta, called "Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy"...


Note the eight-month gap before transiting back to a Constitution.

The new one is called (https://tass.com/defense/1658565):



The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland

The coup, the seventh in a string of military takeovers across West and Central Africa within the past three years, has raised a web of interconnected issues that extend far beyond Niger's borders...



Its [Niger's] vulnerability, Gulf News remarks, is exacerbated by the fact that 70% of the energy it consumes comes from Nigeria. Observers agree that the main reasons for the coup were "grievances over governance and the government's response to security threats posed by extremist groups."


Meanwhile, the French military has rejected the Nigerien rebels’ demand to leave the African country, Antinekar Al-Hassan, the political adviser of ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, told Sputnik.


There are no rebels, you might call it the military, but he is still speaking anachronistically. That "sanctions" are being riled up, rather than force to obliterate this military, will just continue to erode confidence in Petrodollarism. The only way you can get your face out of the gutter is to learn how to do real diplomacy. Americans have no ability at this; the British do, aside from the fact that it is made of lies, at least they know how to have a deceit-based discussion.

"Safeguard" is a different issue than "Democracy"--safe from what?? "National" is also a very different intent than "Supreme".

Right now I am not going to pursue the "attack on the national guard", which peripherally sounds like France released terrorists from the jail of a neighboring country and sent them to the borders. Whether or not they flew over with some airplane would be easily trackable by one of the independent radar websites. Not that important.

France is, to an extent, commendable, for helping itself to a large amount of nuclear power, which, as far as I know, has never caused meltdowns. To be stagnant, the plant near me which came online around 1978 provides about 1.3 MW, which is nearly useless, like a machine in its "working prototype" level of development. The lack of France returning any kind of electrical infrastructure, so that Nigerian power is imported to such a degree, explains what is going on. Almost exactly the same as Iran being milked for its oil a hundred years ago.

The poll that says only 6% of Nigeriens think of China as a benefactor, reflects the fact that the Chinese have never really worked there. Why would they? It's in French hands, right?

Pivot to Russia likely reflects that Wagner is a relatively recent arrival, which makes sense in the light of seven recent coups, which are reflective of the long-term western influence there. They either foment the stuff such as Maidan, or install vampire regimes that probably deserve to be kicked out. It's much faster than voting.

[shaberon]

Here are two different essays that tell me something about why the East African organization looks up-front and understandable, and why ECOWAS is so murky and is not worth looking into, since it is disposable as a piece of historic rubbish.

Zuesse's articles look weird because he archives stuff in multiple countries. Not copying all those links, but what he says today (https://southfront.org/united-states-of-africa-forming-to-lead-world-against-u-s-allied-empire/) is:


A potential United States of Africa is now in early stages of formation after a mutiny by Niger’s Presidential Guards immediately expanded into a coup by Niger’s Army on July 26th and overthrew that country’s ‘democratically’ elected U.S.-and-French stooge — and very corrupt — President Mohamed Bazoum. The Nigeran public immediately responded to this coup with massive cheering demonstrations throughout the country, supporting as their liberators the team that was freeing their land from the exploitative grip of the imperialists: France backed by America. Niger, like the other African countries that use the French franc as their currency, has been funding France’s Government and Niger’s own aristocracy, by means of a complex mechanism called “the CFA franc” in which, as the CNN U.S. propaganda network buried in one of their news-reports,

Françafrique has often been criticized for perpetuating neo-colonial practices. For example, few things have sparked more controversy than the Central African franc or CFA, a currency which is used by 14 nations in West and Central Africa including Niger.

Countries using CFA francs are required to store 50% of their currency reserves with the Banque de France, and the currency is pegged to the euro. While Paris asserts that the system promotes economic stability, others say it allows France to exert control over the economy of the countries using it.

So, basically, whatever is shipped abroad by any of those countries, the proceeds, in effect, go 50% to France, and only the other 50% goes to Niger or the other source-country.

As the U.S. regime’s own Brookings Institution had earlier obliquely put it:

Some African economists consider the broader dependency on European monetary policies as a restriction to growth due to a hyper-fixation on inflation. However, African elite and wealthy individuals, the primary beneficiaries of the CFA franc zone configuration, support its continuation.

The only beneficiaries are the individuals who control the international corporations — especially the ones that are headquartered in France and in America, and that have subsidiaries in the given African colony. As a scholar at the British aristocracy’s London School of Economics surprisingly admitted:

The CFA franc also encourages massive capital outflows. In brief, membership of the franc zone is synonymous with poverty and under-employment, as evidenced by the fact that 11 of its 15 adherents are classed as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), while the remainder (Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon) have all experienced real-term economic decline.

Finally, they maintain that membership of the franc zone is inimical to the advance of democracy. To uphold the CFA franc, it is argued, France has never hesitated to jettison heads of state tempted to withdraw from the system. Most were removed from office or killed in favour of more compliant leaders who cling to power come hell or high water, as shown by the CAEMC nations and Togo. Economic development is impossible in such circumstances, as is the creation of a political system that meets the preoccupations of the majority of citizens.

In the subsequent days, after the coup, Niger entered into discussions with Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, which already previously had had coups for freedom from their imperialist masters that the U.S. Government leads. Meanwhile, the U.S. regime’s efforts — which are being led by Victoria Nuland, who had masterminded the U.S. regime’s successful coup that in February 2014 grabbed and absorbed Ukraine into the U.S. empire (and here is the smoking-gun piece of evidence on that) so as to get it into NATO as the nearest bordering country from which to attack The Kremlin and decapitate Russia, which is only 317 miles away from Ukraine — appear thus far to be running into an unwillingness of Governments near to Niger, to shed their peoples’ blood to invade Niger, whose public are determined to achieve freedom from their foreign exploiters and will not give up short of a very bloody war, which would embarrass America and its ‘democracies’ and so strip away that ‘democratic’ mask, which the U.S. regime uses in order to fool publics everywhere.

On August 3rd, CNN headlined “Africa’s latest coup is a headache for the West and an opportunity for Russia”, and pretended that the aggression here, and the opposition to democracy, came from Russia against the United States, instead of from the United States against Russia.

I have previously explained these events in my 6 March 2023 “The Transformative Present Moment in History”.

Whatever the outcome will be from the current events in Niger, it will be a part of that story, and maybe a very important part of it. However, the time is too early to predict what that outcome will turn out to be. In any case, that story began in 1945, when the anti-imperialist U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt became replaced by the pro-imperialist President Harry Truman, who shaped the post-WW-II international order, which has lasted till now, and which appears to be soon reaching its climax.

If Victoria Nuland will not be able to turn the screws against Niger’s new leaders in the way that her bosses, Antony Blinken, and, above him, Joe Biden, are hoping — nor to get ‘the free world’ to invade and conquer Niger as they hope — then a successful model will have become established which might be copied by other slave-nations, by means of which they, too, might likewise break away, and free themselves, from their imperial masters, the U.S.-and-‘allied’ (vassal-nation) empire: the U.S. aristocracy, and its foreign dependency ones. If so, it would terminate the hegemon’s hegemony. It would end the Truman-initiated global system (which aspires to conquer — absorb into its imperial web — all nations, and especially Russia and China). So: the stakes are huge in Niger now.



Similar to this from Peter Koenig (https://southfront.org/niger-the-liberation-from-independence/):


THE LIBERATION FROM “INDEPENDENCE”

Abas La France! Vive le Niger!

Down with France, Down with ECOWAS, Down with the European Union!

Thousands of people demonstrate in the streets of Niamey, the capital of Niger. They do not want an ECOWAS intervention. ECOWAS stands for Economic Community of West African States. And ECOWAS stands for western influence.

On 26 July 2023, Niger’s official French-supported President, Mohamed Bazoum, was over-thrown by a military junta, led by General Abdourahamane Tiani.

ECOWAS, France, the European Union (EU) and other western governments may be thinking they are domineering over the sovereignty of other nations. They slammed down sanctions on Niger. Among the “sanctioning” countries was also the United States.

Reuters reported that one participant was seen carrying a sign that read

“Long live Niger, Russia, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Down with France, ECOWAS, and the EU.” “We are demonstrating [against] all the countries of ECOWAS and all who are taking inhumane and unpopular measures toward Niger.”

The creation of ECOWAS in 1975 via the Treaty of Lagos was prompted by Europe and the US, to keep a closer grip on the 15 resources-rich member countries. The official reason was free trade and economic integration. ECOWAS members include, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

A little anecdote. When US President Biden threatened to withhold US aid to Niger due to the military coup, the Niger military leader said,

“they should keep their aid money and give it to their millions of homeless people in the US. Charity begins at home.”

This clear vision can only be congratulated.

ECOWAS continues to be strongly influenced by the west, notably France and the EU. It has lost the trust of many members, all those which defy the western impositions and colonial standards.

ECOWAS has threatened with military intervention in Niger if the military junta under General Abdourahamane Tiani does not re-instate the “legitimately and democratically” elected President, Mohamed Bazoum, who is apparently detained in the Presidential Palace. They gave the junta a deadline until 6 August 2023.

The country will not submit to threats no matter where they come from, the junta’s president General Tiani has said.

General Tiani insists that the military takeover “remains the safeguard of [the] homeland, Niger.”

An ECOWAS military intervention would never work, unless it was fully driven by the west – God forbid, by NATO. All is possible, since dearly sought-after resources of Niger’s are at stake.

Mr. Putin has already said that non-regional powers interfering in Niger will not help the situation would undoubtedly enlarge the conflict far beyond Niger’s frontiers.

So far, nothing has happened. Most likely nothing will happen. ECOWAS is not united and has no common front. The ECOWAS members of Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, have recently had a military coup, for basically the same reason, the military stood up against western-implanted and western-favoring leaders, to finally free themselves from the chains of western new-colonial slavery.

The only reaction so far, as of 7 August, Niger has closed her airspace and Air France, possibly other airlines, have stopped flying to nearby countries.

General Tiani, the former head of Niger’s presidential guard, the coup’s mastermind, has since created a coalition of different civil society groups. He also has the support of the neighboring military juntas of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. They all had recently similar military coups of liberation.

When the west talks of “democratically” elected West African leaders, they are lying, the same way they are lying when talking about free and democratic elections in Europe or even the United States for that matter.

These ex-French colonies’ heads of states were all groomed by the west, especially by France, and very likely by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Many of them emanate from the WEF’s academy for Young Global Leaders (YGLs), so that they are in line with western thinking and most notably with the western agendas, i.e., The Great Reset, alias UN Agenda 2030 which are basically identical and in pursuit of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The real meaning of the 17 SDGs can be found by the proper interpretation behind the colorful SDG insignias. See this.

No wonder that Africans are waking up. In a first go, it appears West Africa has had enough of French usurpation and decided to exit the bond. Others may follow.

Niger preceded her 63rd anniversary of independence on 3 August 2023 by about a week – with a coup to liberate themselves from “Independence” which they never really had, since like most other “former French colonies”, they were never free, economically free, politically free to ally with whom they chose, and free to trade with whomever they desired.

As of this day, France has more than 1,000 military personnel stationed in Niger. General Tiani has said they must go, and France responded that they will be withdrawn. But why were they there in the first place – 63 years after “independence”? And there were many more in earlier years, the same as in other former French colonies.

USAFRICOM operates the Niger Air Base 201 close to Agadez. “It is owned by the Nigerien military but built and paid for by the United States”. Air Base 201 is allegedly designed to fight Islamic insurgents in coordination the the Niger military.

According to USAFRICOM, the US has some 1,100 U.S. special forces in Niger “to carry out military missions and the training of Niger troops”. See this.

The official version is to protect the countries from Islamic terrorists – “terrorists” which ever so often are conveniently engaged to cause upheavals, when anti-French “instability” could be sensed in Niger or other former French colonies. And, foremost, to protect French and European enterprises interests, while exploiting the riches of these former colonies.

Western Interest in Niger

Niger is the world’s seventh biggest producer of uranium, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA).

The radioactive metal is the most widely used fuel for nuclear energy. It is also used in treating cancer, for naval propulsion, and in nuclear weapons.

Niger, which has Africa’s highest-grade uranium ores, produced 2,020 metric tons of uranium in 2022, about 5% of world mining output according to the WNA.

The world’s three biggest producers are Kazakhstan, Canada and Namibia.

Niger has one major mining operation in the north operated by France’s state-owned Orano, another major mine is under development. For more details, see this.

Niger has also other western-coveted economically valuable raw materials, such as crude oil, natural gas, coal, tin, and columbite (an iron-bearing mineral that accompanies tin). Petroleum, first discovered in 1956, is the most important source of government revenue and foreign exchange.

The CFA Franc Zones

The key to Niger’s true independence – as well as that of the other 13 Central and West African nations — is breaking loose from their dependence on French imperialism, by cutting the chain of their CFA currency to the French Treasury.

Niger and all 14 of the West (8 nations) and Central African (6 countries) sub-Saharan former French colonies remained tied and monetarily enslaved to France through the Franc CFA (CFA = Communauté Financière Africaine or African Financial Community) – which remains guaranteed by the Bank of France without any justification. To get this guarantee they must deposit 50% of their reserves in a special account of the Bank of France. Thereby the CFA-countries are not free of moving CFA currencies as they wish and find advantageous to themselves and their people. They need the Bank of France’s approval to use their own money!

For more flexibility and monetary stability (France’s stability), France created two CFA zones. Each of the 14 countries is affiliated with one of two monetary unions. Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo comprise the West African Economic and Monetary Union, or WAEMU, founded in 1994 to build on the foundation of the West African Monetary Union, founded in 1973. The remaining six countries — Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon — comprise the Central African Economic and Monetary Union, or CAEMU.

These two unions maintain the same currency, the CFA franc. West African CFA countries belong to the West African Monetary Unions (WAMU); and Coopération Financière en Afrique Centrale (Financial Cooperation in Central Africa), or the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). WAMU and CAMAC account for 14 percent of Africa’s population and 12 percent of the Continent’s GDP.

While both CFA francs have the same exchange value against the Euro (CFA 655.74 = 1 Euro – [6 August 2023]). Yet, the two CFA francs are not inter-changeable and the two monetary units have two separate Central Banks, the Central Bank for West African States (BCEAO – French acronym – 8 countries) and the Bank for Central African States (BEAC – French acronym – 6 countries).

If all of this sounds confusing, it is because it is confusing.

CFA Franc – History and Future

The CFA franc was created in December 1945 when the French government ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement; it became the currency of the “French Colonies of Africa”. Today, the French Treasury guarantees the currency under a fixed exchange rate but requires a deposit of 50% of CFA franc reserves into the French central bank. Immediately following independence, this figure stood at 100 per cent (and from 1973 to 2005, at 65 per cent).

Imagine, all their reserves were blocked at the French Central Bank until 1973. They could not use any of their reserves, without the approval of the French Treasury or Central Bank. Today it is down to 50% without any justification. Today, there is absolutely no need for a French guarantee of the West and Central African currencies.

The Frech argue, this arrangement is a quid pro quo for the French ‘guarantee’ of convertibility. The accords stipulate that foreign exchange reserves must exceed money in circulation by a margin of 20 per cent. Before the fall in oil prices, the money supply coverage rate (the ratio of foreign exchange reserves to money in circulation) consistently approached 100 per cent, implying that Africans could dispense with the French ‘guarantee’.

So far, the French do whatever they can to avoid “letting go” of their former colony. It warrants their continued grip on the colonies in terms of controlling trade as well as natural resources. And the former French colonies, through this usurping monetary arrangement, contribute significantly, directly and indirectly, to the French economy. Rough unproven estimates range from 15% to 25% of France’s GDP stems from the former French colonies. Maybe more.

In 2015, Chad’s President Idriss Debby said, he considers the CFA as “pulling African economies down,” and that “time has come to cut the cordon that prevents Africa to develop.” He called for a restructuring of the currency in order to “enable African countries which are still using it to develop.”

French President Macron ignored the statement. Nothing has happened to change, or abandon altogether the CFA arrangement between France and their former West- and Central African colonies.

Earlier this year, Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s former deputy prime minister and current minister of foreign affairs, raised the controversy about the role of the CFA franc on Africa’s development with an even more provocative statement, than the one of Chad’s President in 2015:

“France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the [Mediterranean] Sea or arrive on our coasts.”

It is time that the former French colonies take their lives and economic development and prosperity under their own control. Perhaps the recent military coups against French-imposed leaders are the first steps – and may be replicated in other former French colonies. Not that military governments are ideal, they are not. But it is hoped and expected that eventually these military juntas will call for public elections, as democratic as possible, without foreign interference.

Africa, as part of the Global South has a major role to play in the structure of our future world order. To do so, they need economic and political independence.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1689618253759320064

1689618253759320064

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇳🇬 🇳🇪Nigerian Religious Leader warns US President Biden against invading Niger

“If the US invades Niger Republic, it will be a satanic and terrorist move. It means Joe Biden is looking for God’s anger, ” the leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church in Nigeria, Primate Elijah Ayodele quoted by the local media as saying.

Ayodele warned that an invasion of Niger would be "amount to fighting God", adding that it could "lead to the third world war".

The warning followed comments by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who urged the military coup leaders to restore ousted President Bazoum to power

sputnik_africa

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1689647315236356097

1689647315236356097

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Text:
🇪🇺 🌍 EU to follow ECOWAS in imposing sanctions on Niger, EU spokesman says

"We are behind all decisions and actions by ECOWAS, including potential sanctions," lead spokesman for the EU’s external affairs Peter Stano said, adding that any potential curbs will be discussed confidentially by EU member states

sputnik_africa

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1689646574375497728

1689646574375497728

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ArthurM40330824/status/1689510377808109569

1689510377808109569

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1689635083131723776

1689635083131723776

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1689630653476708352

1689630653476708352

[Ernie Nemeth]

A worker from Niger told me 6 months ago that they were about to throw off the chains of colonialism very soon.
I guess he wasn't kidding.

[shaberon]

Not yet knowing who or how, there has become some kind of agreement (https://tass.com/world/1659029):


PRETTORIA, August 10. /TASS/. Leaders of member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have agreed to begin a military operation in Niger as soon as possible, the president of Cote d’Ivoire said on Thursday upon his return from the organization’s summit in Abuja, Nigeria.

"Chiefs of staffs will hold a few more meetings to finalize the details, but there is consent among [ECOWAS] leaders to begin the operation as soon as possible," Agence France-Presse quoted Alassane Ouattara as saying.



So, yes, Niger would need some kind of decree to work with, um...former ECOWAS militaries against the current ones.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1689813942355259392

1689813942355259392

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Nigers-Military-Junta-Forms-New-Government-20230810-0020.html

Niger’s Military Junta Forms New Government

Niger's military junta announced Wednesday night the appointment of 21 ministers, forming a new transitional government.

The president of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP), Brigadier General Abdourahamane Tiani, signed a decree on the appointment of the new cabinet members, in which six are military.

The Prime Minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, will head the new government and will also hold the Economy and Finance ministry.

CNSP generals will head the Ministries of Defense and Interior, with Generals Salifou Mody and Mohamed Toumba, respectively. Major Colonel Amadou Abdramane, CNSP spokesman, will hold the Youth and Sports portfolio, while the ministries of Health, Transport and Water, Sanitation and Environment are also held by military men.
The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) met Thursday in extraordinary session in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, to discuss a response to the military coup in Niger.

On this occasion, the president of the organization, Omar Alieu Touray, gave the order to activate the regional military force for a possible intervention in Niger following the coup d'état perpetrated at the end of last July 26.

For his part, the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, highlighted the need to find a peaceful solution through dialogue. "It is crucial that we prioritize diplomatic negotiations and dialogue as the basis of our approach," Tinubu said, adding that the process must involve "all parties, including the coup plotters, in serious discussions to convince them to relinquish power and reinstate President Bazoum."

The ultimatum given by the regional bloc to Niger's coup plotters to restore constitutional order expired last Sunday. Ecowas threatened with a possible regional military intervention.

[shaberon]

Here is some more context.

Today's lines in the sand are not from 1960, but, rather, the Berlin Conference (https://www.dw.com/en/130-years-ago-carving-up-africa-in-berlin/a-18278894#:~:text=In%201885%20European%20leaders%20met,that%20exist%20to%20this%20day.):


In 1885 European leaders met at the infamous Berlin Conference to divide Africa and arbitrarily draw up borders that exist to this day.


The map on the wall in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin was five meters (16.4 feet) tall. It showed Africa with rivers, lakes, a few place names and many white spots. When the Berlin Conference came to an end on February 26, 1885, after more than three months of deliberation, there were still large swathes of Africa on which no European had ever set foot.

Representatives of 13 European states, the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire converged on Berlin at the invitation of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to divide up Africa among themselves "in accordance with international law." Africans were not invited to the meeting.

The Berlin Conference led to a period of heightened colonial activity by the European powers. With the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, all the states that make up present day Africa were parceled out among the colonial powers within a few years after the meeting. Lines of longitude and latitude, rivers and mountain ranges were pressed into service as borders separating the colonies. Or one simply placed a ruler on the map and drew a straight line. Many historians, such as Olyaemi Akinwumi from Nasarawa State University in Nigeria, see the conference as the crucible for future inner African conflicts.

"In African Studies, many of us believe that the foundation for present day crises in Africa was actually laid by the 1884/85 Berlin Conference. The partition was done without any consideration for the history of the society," Akinwumi told DW.

Traditional boundaries not considered

New borders were drawn through the territories of every tenth ethnic group. Trade routes were cut, because commerce with people outside one's colony was forbidden. Studies have shown that societies through which new frontiers were driven would later be far more likely to suffer from civil war or poverty.

"The conference did irreparable damage to the continent. Some countries are still suffering from it to this day," Akinwumi said.

In many countries, such as Cameroon, the Europeans rode roughshod over local communities and their needs, said Michael Pesek, a researcher in African colonial history at the University of Erfurt. But historians, he explained, were now less inclined than they were to regard the arbitrary redrawing of Africa's borders as the root cause of conflicts in postcolonial Africa.

"People had learnt to live with borders that often only existed on paper. Borders are important when interpreting Africa's geopolitical landscape, but for people on the ground they have little meaning."

Scared to re-open Pandora's Box

In the 1960s, as African countries gained their independence, African politicians could have changed the colonial borders. But they desisted from doing so.

"A large majority of politicians said around 1960 'if we do that we will open up Pandora's Box'," Pesek said. They were probably right. Looking at all the problems Africa has had over the last 80 years, there have been numerous conflicts within states but hardly any between states.

When examining African conflicts, the colonial power that occupied a particular tract of land - the Belgians, French, British or Germans - is less relevant than the significance of belonging to specific ethnic groups which colonial powers often pitted against each other.

Ethnic allegiances were far more open and flexible in the 19th century than they are today, Pesek said. In pre-colonial Rwanda, the Hutu and Tutsi were social groups and it was possible to switch from one to the other. It was colonial rule that cemented the division of the population, of which one of the consequences was the 1994 genocide.

In 2010 - on the 125th anniversary of the Berlin Conference, representatives from many African states in Berlin called for reparations for the colonial era. The arbitrary division of the continent among European powers, which ignored African laws, culture, sovereignty and institutions, was a crime against humanity, they said in a statement. They called for the funding of monuments at historic sites, the return of land and other resources which had been stolen, the restitution of cultural treasures and recognition that colonialism and the crimes committed under it were crimes against humanity.

But nothing has come of all this. The historians from Nigeria and Germany are not surprised. "There is much talk of reparations for the slave trade and the Holocaust. But little mention is made of the crimes committed by the European colonial powers during the hundred years or more they spent in Africa," said Pesek.

Olyaemi Akinwumi doesn't believe there will ever be any reparations, of any sort shape or form.

https://static.dw.com/image/18280903_906.gif





The dividing of groups and clustering of different ones can be seen within the coup's success (https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/experts-react/did-the-niger-coup-just-succeed-and-other-questions-answered-about-whats-next-in-the-sahel/):




Nigeria is struggling with its own insurgencies in northern Nigeria, and northern Nigerians and southern Nigeriens are more or less the same people. There is a great deal of cross-border movement and commerce, which sanctions disrupt.

ECOWAS’s failure to effect any change will be a blow to its influence. There will be important ramifications in terms of ECOWAS’s relations with Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali, which all have juntas that ECOWAS has been pushing to transition to civilian rule. ECOWAS has forced them to accept “transition timetables” for holding elections and has been trying to push these juntas to comply. ECOWAS’s ability to do so is much reduced by this affair. The region’s juntas, I am sure, feel emboldened.

ECOWAS violated the first rule of diplomatic engagement: never make a promise or a threat unless you are prepared to follow through. ECOWAS has never successfully intervened to reverse a coup.

In the end, only two members, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, would even say that they would support a military intervention with forces and they offered no specific commitments.

Tinubu soon found that the Nigerian senate, where his party holds the majority, would not back intervention and both the main Muslim umbrella organization led by the sultan of Sokoto and the Nigerian Catholic Bishops’ Conference came out against the use of force.

In the aftermath of the 2021 Mali military coup, when the junta opted for cooperation with the Wagner group, France and its European partners had to withdraw their forces from the country. As Burkina Faso suffered a military coup soon after, Niger appeared as the best option for Europeans to continue helping local governments in fighting against terrorism. Importantly, Russia had no presence in the country.

...there has not been a single protestor at the new US Embassy nor any call for the departure of the more than 1,000 US military personnel on the two air bases in Niger.




So neither the ECOWAS enforcers nor the "Nigerien allies" are in a position to do much of anything. After a few days, without a visible military or popular resistance, a coup is typically a sealed deal. A small internal dissent is unlikely to accomplish anything: CRR (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/9/former-niger-rebel-launches-anti-coup-movement-as-impasse-continues), ex-Tuareg rebels.


It turns out that what they want to get rid of is not the U. S. (https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-military-mission-niger-focus-after-coup-2023-08-10/):


More than 2,000 French troops left Mali last year and a 13,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force is due to shut down by the end of the year after the junta abruptly asked it to leave.

U.S. troops are largely staying on their bases and U.S. military flights, including drones, are being individually approved, according to the U.S. officials.

"The only way this mission ends is if the Nigerien government asks us to leave," the first U.S. official said. "It's too important for us to abandon."



Well, Syria does not get that same respect, even with an invited Russian presence rubbing elbows with U. S. aircraft every day. This African "drone base against extremists" is so far getting a pass. The U. S. did not colonize the place, so, it is essentially just financially disfavored. Whereas the ECOWAS itself is a French financial vampire. I knew they had physically stayed behind since forever; I did not realize how outrageous the policy was until learning just a tiny amount about that treaty.

As to the questionable role (https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/role-peacekeeping-africa) of U. N. Peacekeepers, here is more or less where they are:


https://cdn.cfr.org/sites/default/files/styles/large_l/public/image/2021/10/peacekeeping_map%20%281%29.png.webp


And the disparity between the revenue sources and who they are:


https://cdn.cfr.org/sites/default/files/styles/large_l/public/image/2021/10/peacekeeping_funding_personnel.png.webp

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) has activated a standby force for intervention in Niger against the new military government.

ECOWAS is led by Nigeria and heavily supported by France and the United States. Both the US and France have military personnel stationed in Niger.

In response to this escalation, groups have set fire to the Nigerian embassy in Niamey, the capital of Niger, today.

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1689987516827422720

1689987516827422720

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Somali_ICS/status/1690001041029300225

1690001041029300225

https://twitter.com/its_maria012/status/1689997182806474752

1689997182806474752

[shaberon]

ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) has activated a standby force for intervention in Niger against the new military government.


Says him (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230811/wests-concern-for-democracy-in-niger-masks-lust-for-uranium-1112533031.html):


The military intervention plan was floated by Alassane Ouattara, president of Cote d'Ivoire — who himself came to power in a coup d'etat led by French troops in 2010.


and this army (https://tass.com/world/1659029):


The president said his country will send a force of 850-1,100 people to participate in the operation. Other countries, including Nigeria and Benin, will join.



Being a bit late in backing up their own threat, they might be able to cobble together about 3,000 who, historically, have never reversed such a state of affairs. Will it be a cakewalk? Would neighbors such as Mali respond? Wagner look the other way?

Senegal, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, and Nigeria may assemble some kind of invading force. Okay. And this will simply re-instate the former President/Constitution when? As soon as they move, won't their own countries be taken over by ISIS/Boko Haram?

We'll see. There is already not really such a thing as ECOWAS; I am not sure what you call a treaty with multiple non-participants, other than a shadow of its former glory, which seems to only consist of the fattened hands of French banking.

Let them try.

[Bill Ryan]

As best I know, this is the first time Chris Martenson has spoken up about affairs in Africa. As usual, he gets things exactly right.

His video title asks an excellent question, but considering the points he makes in the video the title could have been far stronger. :muscle: It's all about colonialism — and natural resources.

Why has Revolution Come to Africa?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJ4Ux5NaXU

[syrwong]

My thoughts about WW3. Instead of a fight for world dominance, could it be a war more characterized by Revolution? This word seemed to have disappeared into history, but not so in Africa. The African countries are in fact still under colonial rule because most are defacto controlled by their colonizers. It is just a new form of colonialism. These countries are the last remains of colonial oppressions. As Mao said, where there is oppression, there is resistance. I may say that the African people are experiencing continual oppression, and so there will be revolutions. I think they generally lead a simple life and not drugged by the cellphone and this revolution will spread to all of Africa. I heard that France is going to bomb Niger. Will the focus suddenly turn to Africa? If so, I remember a prophecy said that WW3 will start from a most unexpected place on Earth. This might be it.

[shaberon]

Instead of a fight for world dominance, could it be a war more characterized by Revolution? This word seemed to have disappeared into history, but not so in Africa. The African countries are in fact still under colonial rule because most are defacto controlled by their colonizers.


Well, that was the saga of Europe--revolutions led to the Entente which led to the first two world wars, and this had some central planning involved, for sure.

In Africa, Ethiopia was never colonized. The Swahili countries + DRC are about a step shy of making their own federation. Total opposite of ECOWAS, which, evidently, is French banking.

The ECOWAS itself has already experienced so many coups = revolutions that it would be hard to mark any point where a revolutionary era begins.

I don't think a WWIII is even possible, since the United States lacks the capability to "project dominance" against its peer rivals.

A painful transition off of the Petrodollar and the vestiges of colonialism, yes, that seems very likely.

The example here would be a fight between Russians and French inside Niger. Even so, that does not mean that the country of France actually declares war on Russia. Those are two very different things. It wouldn't invoke NATO because nothing happened on French territory. It is not out of the question that NATO and the U. S. vanish due to oppressing their own people.

[Ewan]

It is not out of the question that NATO and the U. S. vanish due to oppressing their own people.


Is it wrong of me to think....

Perfect!

[shaberon]

Is it wrong of me to think....

Perfect!


Speaking as an American, I would say "not quite ideal" because:


The Constitution was suspect and heavily opposed in the first place.

The Declaration of Independence refers to altering or abolishing the form of government, and Jefferson expected, if not recommended, this to happen every generation.

The failed war of secession resulted in Lincoln's Empire, which is the American financial corollary to the Bank of England, partly owned by William and Mary, I am not sure what the appropriate slur for that would be. "The City" or "The Mile" is not quite Irish enough in summarizing that scene of affairs.

NATO permits exit by anyone.

Should the U. S. Constitution prove unsatisfactory and get hit by a successful revolt, or, financial collapse, it would have unavoidable and terrible consequences world-wide.


I expect that dismantling NATO would largely get the U. S. "out of your hair", since it was not quite so bothersome before this and the Truman Doctrine.

A relatively slow approach of legally dismantling the union of our states, *might* work out as the best possible compromise; but the so-called inevitable results of "revolution or collapse" loom large, and unfortunately seem more likely to actually happen.

The irony of Americans not being asked to leave Niger, despite them perhaps having a hand in stirring up the very radicals they are there to oppose, and, providing the bleed-through of weaponry from the Ukraine transfers, is hard to figure out. In this situation, they perhaps are seen as "small fish", compared to France still scarfing 50% of the cash reserves and not returning much of value.

[shaberon]

So far, ECOWAS (https://tass.com/world/1659647) is stuck:


The parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has so far been unable to come to terms over the invasion into Niger amid serious disagreements in its ranks, Al Jazeera reported late on Saturday.

Earlier, Reuters reported that the ECOWAS parliament planned to send a delegation to Niger for talks with rebels.


French troops (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230812/french-troops-in-niger-restricted-to-niamey-base-1112558781.html) are stuck:


French forces have not left the base or ventured into the streets of the western African city for days, the correspondent said. Rebel military convoys have been routinely passing the facility without incident.

Thousands of anti-French demonstrators rallied outside the base on Friday to demand that Niger’s former colonial master end its military presence in the country.


And French emigrants (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230812/six-migrants-dead-and-50-rescued-after-boat-crash-off-french-coast-1112556771.html) are dead in the water:


Six migrants died and about 50 were rescued after their boat capsized as they attempted to cross the English Channel, the French maritime department said on Saturday.

A commercial vessel passing by the French commune of Sangatte spotted a boat overnight that appeared to be idle and reported it to the Regional Operating Surveillance and Rescue Center.

France sent five ships and a helicopter to the rescue. They picked up 43 people, including six in serious condition. One person was airlifted to a Calais hospital. Two British vessels came to assist in the rescue effort, bringing some 13 people to safety. The migrants were transferred to the port of Calais, while the 13 picked up by British ships were taken to the port town of Dover.
"Unfortunately, the person transported to the Calais hospital and the five people rescued by the Notre Dame du Risban [rescue ship] have been pronounced dead," the press release read.




Who were they? Who knows?? Guess!

[shaberon]

Here we don't go.


Guinea (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230813/niger-rebels-ask-west-africas-guinea-for-help---reports-1112567610.html) is in a stance of support or assistance to Niger. It is not said what this means in material terms, but, it is uncooperative with ECOWAS.


The U. N. is accelerating withdrawal from Mali (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230813/un-mission-to-mali-speeds-up-pullout-as-attacks-intensify-1112570362.html), since it was just attacked, although they don't say by who. I am not sure how you even run a peacekeeping militia without defending yourself. Are these missions cosmetic?

The not-going is being done by Nigeria (https://tass.com/world/1659803):


According to the newspaper, Nigeria’s army command has ordered commanders of units to inform the Defense Headquarters about their personnel, equipment, logistics and financial spending. The newspaper noted that this indicates a preliminary stage in the process of preparing an intervention in Niger.

The Punch said, citied some document, that Nigeria will need around two battalions of from 300 to 1,000 soldiers to take part in a military operation against the rebels in Niger. At the same time, a military source told the newspaper that to launch a military operation in Niger, ten times as many troops as the enemy’s will be needed.


They are obviously not in a state of readiness, and, if they could be, they already know they can't accomplish the purpose.

This is the "regional power" making good on its expired threats?

Give this, um, coalition, a few months, and it may band together some 4-5,000 troops.


The former Constitutional (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_Armed_Forces) plan was:


The National Assembly of Niger passed a statue for the Army of Niger on November 2020, planning that the army's size should increase from 25,000 personnel in 2020, to 50,000 in 2025 and finally 100,000 in 2030.


If we generously admit that may not *all* of the standing army backed the coup, then, there would be a reasonable estimate of about 20,000 troops. For general purposes, to defeat them would take about 60,000, and, if you are Nigeria and ECOWAS, better make that 200,000.

The French air force could of course plow it laissez-faire, since Charles de Gaulle cannot really command something named after him. The U. S. just exposed 3,000 people to certain death last week by sailing the Red Sea. Being near Iran is good for ratings. Physically, if Iran can deploy a ship 1,000 km, and that ship carries missiles that have a further 1,000 km range, the best thing for American forces is to stay 2,000 km away from Iran at all times. So, if they abandon this deployment where they cannot do anything, then, perhaps, they could go to west Africa.

Without some big French or American hardware, Nigeria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Rebel_groups_in_Nigeria) has two internationally-backed terror squads, and seventeen local insurgencies that may keep their hands tied. Those are "rebels". Niger currently has a government. It was not exactly elected, but, I have not noticed anything that mentions opposition, fragmentation, looting, or other forms of disruption that would indicate civil unrest in Niger. Just the one Tuareg, which says little, since none of them have ever accepted any kind of government, nor have they succeeded at making a Tuareg state.

[shaberon]

I had a twinge of conscience after posting about the Tuareg guy as if he didn't matter.

It was meant in the military sense of being too small of a group to impact the situation.


As with many people, it is a geographic exonym (https://en.qantara.de/content/the-tuareg-literature-language-and-culture-the-journey-of-the-princess):


The term "Tuareg" refers to tribes and nomads who speak dialects of Tuareg and live in Targa, an area in south-west Libya recently renamed Wadi Al-Hayat but previously known as Wadi Ajal.

Where (https://en.qantara.de/content/tuareg-fusion-desert-cats):


The south of Libya was already underdeveloped under Gaddafi and, since his overthrow, it has become a no man's land in which various tribes control their own territories according to their own rules. Despite its oil fields, the region has not experienced any economic development. Smuggling, including that of migrants, has therefore become the most important source of income.

And (https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-are-the-tuareg-people-of-the-sahara.html):


They however refer to themselves as "freemen", or “Imohag.” Their origin is somehow unknown but they were first identified in the Sahara desert in Libya. An ancient Tuareg queen was credited to have united all the Tuareg tribes in the 4th Century. Historical records by prominent geographers and historians from the 10th Century all have written accounts about the Tuareg people. Ibn Khaldûn, a 14th Century historian has recorded a most complete historical account of the Tuareg nation.

The 1960s brought independence to Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria, and Niger from France, and to Libya from French and British oversight. This resulted in the Tuareg people's territories being broken up into several independent countries. Some Tuareg groups staged minor revolts against their countries as a result of claims over rights to access resources such as water and grazing lands. France and Algeria intervened, but nevertheless the Tuaregs still suffer from poverty and inequality. Today, some Tuareg groups have settled into stationary lifestyles in cities or conducting crop agriculture, and less moving about crossing territories. Meanwhile, in northern Niger, the Tuaregs have not been able to do anything about the uranium-rich deposits in their land which are being extracted by a French firm. Mining the precious uranium has affected the water resources in the desert, and the Niger government has refused access to environmental groups.


Historically (https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/#:~:text=The%20Tuareg%20inhabit%20the%20Saharan,they%20arrived%20in%20the%20Sahara.):


Tuareg camel caravans played the primary role in trans-Saharan trade until the mid-20th century when European colonial infrastructure - railways and roads - were introduced. Until then, there were five principal trade routes which extend across the Sahara from the northern Mediterranean coast of Africa to the great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara.

Tuareg merchants were responsible for bringing goods from these cities to the north. From there they were distributed throughout the world. Because of the nature of transport and the limited space available in caravans, Tuareg usually traded in luxury items, things which took up little space and on which a large profit could be made.

Tuareg were also responsible for bringing enslaved people north from west Africa to be sold to Europeans and Middle Easterners.


Between 1916 and 1917 the Tuareg rebellion was a reaction to French colonialism. Between 1961 and 1964 it was a reaction to the Mali government land reforms infringing upon traditional Tuareg areas. Between 1990 and 1995 the Tuareg in Niger sought autonomy from the government, ending in a peace deal which promised them a bigger share of the region's mineral wealth. In February 2007, again because of unequal distribution of mineral wealth - the uranium deposits - fighting has resumed.

The central government in Niamey has shown itself unwilling to cede control of the highly profitable mining to indigenous clans; the Tuareg are determined not to relinquish the prospect of substantial economic benefit; the French government has independently entered the fray to defend a French firm, Areva, established in Niger for fifty years and now mining the massive Imouraren deposit.



https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/photographs/map.png




Tuareg are not part of Chad, a region consisting of 200 minorities, inhabited since the seventh millenium B. C. E.. This is only explainable by force. Once there was the Sao, and then the Kanem-Bornu Empire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanem%E2%80%93Bornu_Empire) until 1900.

When you call yourself a "freeman"--Frank, or Imohag--this is usually in distinction to a Slav, or slave.

That is to say that pinning slavery on white racists is one of the most intellectually dishonest moves known to man.

It was white slavery, or Bedouins or other blacks capturing blacks, and Europeans simply designed large ships which could haul more than camels.

Tuareg are not currently united by a queen or anyone else, and perhaps have an association of independent chieftains. Although they can easily cross the imaginary borders, this does not make them a unit.

The intra-Saharan security issues took a nosedive after the United States destroyed Libya.


Here is a small portion of the State Department's (https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report/niger/) view on the Democracy its employee went to discuss recently:


The Government of Niger does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.

The government reported minimal law enforcement action to address hereditary slavery and child forced begging, and courts convicted fewer traffickers. Niger’s law did not prescribe penalties for adult sex trafficking commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape. Victim services, especially outside of the capital, remained insufficient.

Despite continued reporting that hereditary slavery practices, including the enslavement of children, and child forced begging remained prevalent, the government reported minimal law enforcement action to address these issues. The government did not report law enforcement statistics on investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of traffickers exploiting victims in hereditary slavery, traditional chiefs who perpetuated hereditary slavery practices, or corrupt Quranic teachers who forced children to beg. Officials reported some hereditary slavery victims refused to testify against their traffickers due to fear of retribution and cultural stigma, which may have impeded law enforcement efforts.

The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained concerns, and may have inhibited law enforcement action. Some border officials were complicit in migrant smuggling, which may have included human trafficking operations. Observers reported some law enforcement demanded bribes from women in commercial sex, which may have included potential trafficking victims. Some law enforcement, prosecutors, and judicial officials may have declined to investigate or prosecute hereditary slavery or forced begging crimes involving traditional chiefs or marabouts. Although not explicitly reported as human trafficking, an international organization reported there was one new allegation, submitted in 2022, of alleged sexual exploitation with trafficking indicators by a Nigerien peacekeeper deployed to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There were also five pending cases of alleged sexual exploitation with trafficking indicators by Nigerien peacekeepers deployed to UN peacekeeping missions between 2015 to 2018. In three cases, the government had not yet provided the UN the information it needed to complete its investigation. The UN substantiated allegations in three cases, but the government had not reported the accountability measures taken, if any, by the end of the reporting period.


That is less than half of what they have to say, but, I think, we get the point.

[Kryztian]

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blasts the French and their President Macron for his predatory treatment of Niger and other African nations. (5 minutes)
VzfrvfoM2Cs

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/wyattreed13/status/1690403547383214080

1690403547383214080

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/08/05/bagman-ecowas-chairman-invade-niger/

From Chi-Town bagman to ECOWAS chairman: meet the former money launderer leading the push to invade Niger
Alexander Rubinstein and Kit KlarenbergAugust 5, 2023

Since the overthrow of Niger’s US-friendly government, West African nations of the ECOWAS bloc have threatened an invasion of their neighbor.

Before leading the charge for intervention, ECOWAS chair Bola Tinubu spent years laundering millions for heroin dealers in Chicago, and has since been ensnared in numerous corruption scandals.

Hours after Niger’s Western-backed leader was detained by the country’s presidential guard on July 28, Nigerian President and chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Bola Tinubu leapt into action, warning that the group of nations “will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically-elected government.”

“As the Chairperson of ECOWAS…I state without equivocation that Nigeria stands firmly with the elected government in Niger.”

Two days later, ECOWAS imposed severe sanctions on Niger, and the bloc issued a stark ultimatum: if the newly-inaugurated junta won’t reinstall the ousted president in a week’s time, the group’s pro-Western African governments will — by military means, if necessary.

On Saturday, July 6 — one day before the deadline — ECOWAS leaders approved a plan to invade the country, with the ominous caveat that they are “not going to tell the coup plotters when and where we are going to strike.”

If ECOWAS gets its way, member states Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sénégal and Togo will be pressured to send their soldiers to invade Niger.

These developments have thrust the typically-overlooked West African country of Niger into the Western media spotlight. But if hostilities break out, it wouldn’t just be one single impoverished African state in the crosshairs.

Neighboring Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, which are also governed by military administrations that recently seized power by force, have all warned that any attack on Niger will be viewed as an attack on them too. If their ECOWAS rivals make the first move, the nations which mainstream media have dubbed Africa’s “coup belt” have pledged to unleash their military forces as well — an announcement which should end any illusions that restoring the country’s previous president would be a painless process.

Leading the pro-Western coalition is the president of its most powerful country, Nigeria: Bola Tinubu. One of Nigeria’s wealthiest men, the source of the scandal-plagued president’s fortune remains unclear.

Documents reviewed by The Grayzone reveal Tinubu as a longtime US asset who was named as an accomplice in a massive drug running operation that saw him launder millions on behalf of a heroin-dealing relative.

Bola Tinubu’s career marred by drug-trafficking, corruption allegations

For over 30 years, Bola Tinubu has been a major force in Nigeria’s political scene and the country’s economy, with local nicknames ranging from “the Mother of the Market” to “the Godfather of Lagos” and “the Lion of Bourdillon.” But his power inside Nigeria went largely unnoticed by international audiences until 2023, when he became ECOWAS chair after winning the presidency in an election closely tracked by the US government.

As president, Tinubu quickly instituted a regime of economic reforms backed by the US-controlled International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Over the course of Tinubu’s political career in Nigeria, the African operator has cultivated a close relationship with the US embassy. According to a slew of classified State Department cables released by WikiLeaks, American officials relied heavily on Tinubu’s assessments of the domestic political landscape.

The ECOWAS chair’s early life is shrouded in mystery, and even his exact age is unknown. Nearly every detail of Tinubu’s personal history — prior to his appearance in Chicago on a student visa — is in dispute, including his legal birth name.

Records from Chicago State University show that Tinubu received a degree in Business Administration in 1979. In the following years, media reports indicate that Tinubu was employed in some capacity at a number of major US-based multinationals, including Mobil Oil Nigeria, consulting firm Deloitte, and GTE, which was the largest communication and utilities company in the US at the time.

Of the few details about the Nigerian President’s early exploits which can be confirmed, many are derived from a 1993 court docket naming Tinubu as an accomplice in a massive midwestern drug smuggling operation.

As journalist David Hundeyin has detailed, court documents from the US District Court’s Northern District of Illinois make it clear that Tinubu amassed a small fortune laundering money for a heroin-trafficking relative in Chicago, and that US government officials ultimately seized well over a million dollars from various bank accounts registered under the current Nigerian president’s name.

A 1993 report by IRS Special Agent Kevin Moss explained that “there is probable cause to believe that funds in certain bank accounts controlled by Bola Tinubu… represent proceeds of drug trafficking; therefore these funds are forfeitable to the United States.”

In the documents, Moss describes an extremely close working relationship between the future Nigerian president and two Nigerian heroin dealers named Abiodun Olasuyi Agbele and Adegboyega Mueez Akande, the latter of whom was listed as Tinubu’s cousin on an application for a vehicle loan.

“According to bank employees, when Bola Tinubu came to First Heritage Bank in December 1989 to open the accounts, he was introduced to them by Adegboyega Mueez Akande, who at that time maintained an account at the bank.” What’s more, bank records indicate that “Bola Tinubu also opened a joint checking account in his name and the name of his wife, Oluremi Tinubu,” who had “previously opened a joint bank account also at this bank with Audrey Akande, the wife of Adegboyega Mueez Akande,” Moss explained. In several of the applications, the addresses used by Tinubu exactly matched those previously used by Akande.

https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/tinubu5.png?w=1065&ssl=1
48. For the reasons set forth above, there is probable cause to believe that the funds in tho accounts, held by Pirst. Heritage Bank, Citibank, Na. and citibank, International, in the names of
Bola Tinubu and Compass Finance and Tovestment Company, Ltd.,
represent proporty that was involved in transactions in violation of 18 U.S.C. 5$ 1956 and 1957, or is property traccable to such
property or represents the proceeds of drug trafficking making the
fund in the accounts forfeitable to the United states pursuant to
18 U.S.C. 6981 and 21 U.s.C.

“According to bank records… Tinubu opened an individual money market account and a NOW account” at First Heritage Bank in December 1989, the special agent noted. “In the application, Tinubu stated that his address was 7504 South Stewart, Chicago, Illinois” — “the same address used previously by Akande.”

47. On
January 30-31,
1992,
Tinuba advised agents
investigating this matter that ho had no business association or
financial relationship with Abele or Akande. This information
contradicted his prior statements on January 13, 1992, when he advised law onforcement officers that the money used to open the
account at First Heritage Dank hail cone from Akande.

“Bank records disclosed that five days after the account was opened, on January 4, 1990, $80,000 was deposited into the NOW account at First Heritage Bank by wire transfer through First Chicago from Banc One Houston,” the report continues. According to the IRS, the money was sent by Akande.

But the Nigerian president’s financial dealings with the heroin traffickers went even further, according to the IRS special agent. He wrote that Citibank records documented “two additional corporate accounts held in the name of Compass Finance and Investment Company, Ltd. which were controlled by Bola Tinubu.”

“When Bola Tinubu opened these accounts,” he provided “a memorandum of association and articles of association” which “identified Mueez Adegboyega Akande and Abiodun Olasuyi Agbele as directors of Compass Finance and Investment Company, Ltd.,” Moss wrote.

In the end, Tinubu somehow managed to deposit over $660,000 in his First Heritage Bank account in 1990, and more than $1.2 million the next year — all while claiming to take home just $2,400 a month from his position at Mobil Oil Nigeria.

As the investigation into the money laundering scheme began to gain traction, Tinubu left the US and returned to Nigeria. Ultimately, Moss was able to speak to Tinubu by telephone on a number of occasions, and the special agent reported that the future president initially acknowledged his personal and financial dealings with the pair of drug traffickers.

But in late January of 1992, “Tinubu advised agents investigating this matter that he had no business association or financial relationship with Abele or Akande,” Moss wrote. “This information contradicted his prior statements on January 13, 1992, when he advised law enforcement officers that the money used to open the account at First Heritage Bank had come from Akande.”

Back in Nigeria, Tinubu had already begun to transition into the political arena. By 1992, he’d been elected to the Senate, and in 1999 he became the Governor of Lagos State, a position he retained until 2007. At some point in his tenure, Tinubu established a relationship with the US Embassy which would last for years to come, according to a trove of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks.

But even his State Department allies couldn’t help noticing Tinubu’s penchant for dishonesty. One particularly noteworthy cable pointed out that the politician was “known to play fast and loose with the facts” and “has been caught in the past embellishing his educational achievements.”

In the end, however, Tinubu’s usefulness seemed to outweigh his casual relationship with the truth, and the future Nigerian president went on to provide American officials with a near-continuous assessment of the political situation in his country. One typically intimate meeting with Tinubu ended with the US ambassador to Nigeria commenting: “as always, we found his take on the national political scene to be insightful.”

When the cables came to light in 2011, many Nigerians were shocked at the candor with which their elected officials spoke to Washington’s envoys. “The willingness of our elites to divulge unsolicited information about the nation to U.S. officials betrays an infantile thirst for a paternal dictatorship,” Nigerian-American professor and columnist Farooq Kperogi wrote.

Though Tinubu appeared to have escaped justice for his alleged role in a heroin trafficking conspiracy, accusations of corruption would continue to dog the ECOWAS chair throughout his political career in Nigeria. Since leaving office as governor of Lagos in 2007, Tinubu “picked every subsequent winning candidate,” according to German broadcaster DW, which noted earlier this year that the tycoon “is believed to be one of Nigeria’s richest politicians but the source of his wealth is unknown.”

In recent years, clues about the origins of the fortune amassed by one of Africa’s leading political players have begun to come to light.

In 2009, Tinubu came under investigation by the Metropolitan Police of London, who were probing allegations that the politician had pooled money with two other Nigerian governors to create a front company known as the “African Development Fund Incorporation.”

Investigators alleged the unusual business arrangement was actually a joint effort to illegally acquire shares of ECONET, a telecommunications firm founded by US intelligence asset and Gates Foundation trustee Strive Masiyiwa. But attempts to probe the legitimacy of the transactions in question were sidelined when the Nigerian federal government stonewalled the British investigation, which ultimately concluded without a single arrest. To this day, Nigerian authorities have yet to release the evidence requested by UK authorities.

In 2011, Tinubu was tried before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Nigeria for illegally operating 16 foreign bank accounts. Eager to avoid the embarrassment he’d previously suffered when being photographed in court, the ECOWAS chair reportedly refused to take his place at the dock in a judicial hearing.

But the unwelcome attention appears to have done little to rein in the politician’s extravagant taste, and Tinubu once again found himself embroiled in a corruption scandal following an investigation into the luxurious 7,000-square foot mansion where the Nigerian president stays when receiving medical care in London.

According to Nigerian outlet Premium Times, the massive villa in London’s exclusive Westminster borough was picked up for a song by Tinubu’s son, who somehow managed to purchase the property at a discount of approximately $10 million from a wealthy fugitive – even though the seller’s assets, including the mansion in question, had been frozen by a Nigerian court. Photos published on social media in 2017 show Tinubu posing inside the villa alongside Nigeria’s president at the time, Muhammadu Buhari.

The current and previous president worked closely for decades, and Tinubu has publicly claimed sole credit for Buhari’s presidency while campaigning. “If it were not for me standing before you leading the army, saying ‘Buhari, go ahead, we’re behind you,’ he could never have become the president,” he told supporters at a rally last year.

But the suspicious confluence of money and influence didn’t end with the mysterious mansion in London. During Nigeria’s 2019 general election, footage of armored trucks entering Tinubu’s residence went viral on social media, and the incident was widely seen as proof that the politician was engaged in a fraudulent vote-buying scheme. But Tinubu remained defiant, telling reporters, “I keep money wherever I want.”

“Excuse me, is it my money or government money?” he asked. “If I don’t represent any agency of government and I have money to spend, if I have money, if I like, I give it to the people free of charge,” he insisted.

This January, the official explanation for the episode evolved again when one of his party’s representatives told a Nigerian TV station that the armored trucks in question had simply “missed [their] way” and arrived at the wrong address. Asked why Tinubu had seemingly admitted to dispensing cash to the public, the party’s organizing secretary in Lagos offered the bemused presenters an equally improbable explanation: “he said that jokingly.”

ECOWAS as a neocolonial weapon

While ECOWAS was officially founded via the Treaty of Lagos in 1975, its official history notes the bloc’s origins date back to the creation of the CFA Franc in 1945, which consolidated France’s West African empire into a single-currency union. Publicly, the move was described as a benevolent attempt to shield these colonies from the consequences of the French franc’s sharp devaluation in 1945, following the creation of the US-dominated Bretton Woods system. As the French finance minister said at the time:

“In a show of her generosity and selflessness, metropolitan France, wishing not to impose on her faraway daughters the consequences of her own poverty, is setting different exchange rates for their currency.”

In reality, the introduction of the CFA Franc meant that Paris was able to maintain highly unequal trading relationships with its African colonies, at a time when its economy was ravaged by World War II and its overseas empire was rapidly disintegrating. The currency made it cheap for member states to import from France and vice versa, but prohibitively expensive for them to export anything anywhere else.

This forced dependency in Francophone West Africa created a captive market for the French, and by extension the rest of Europe. That dynamic, which has stunted regional economic development for decades, persists to this day. The CFA Franc’s continued dominance ensures West African states remain under the economic and political control of France. Those African nations are powerless to enact meaningful policy changes, as they lack control over their own monetary policy.

That the currency features so prominently in the authorized history of ECOWAS is instructive, because the bloc has long-been criticized as an extension of French imperialism. It was not for nothing that in 1960, then-French President Charles de Gaulle made membership of the CFA Franc a precondition for decolonization in Africa.

Though ECOWAS is theoretically meant to maximize member states’ collective bargaining power by fostering “interstate economic and political cooperation,” such harmonization makes it easier for former imperial powers like France to exploit and enfeeble their constituent countries. The bloc imposes a strict, Western-approved legal and financial framework upon its members, and any state deviating from these rules is harshly punished.

In January 2022, ECOWAS imposed strict sanctions on Mali, prompting thousands to take to the streets in support of the military government that seized power in January the previous year. The new government’s efforts to purge the country of malign foreign influence saw a complete ban on French media imposed, a decision which was slammed by the UN but cheered by average Malians.

ECOWAS applied similar measures to Burkina Faso in response to a September 2022 military coup, which saw Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba removed after just eight months in power. Though Damiba himself seized via military coup, there was little condemnation from Western officials and few suggestions that ECOWAS impose sanctions — perhaps due to the ousted leader’s pro-Western orientation and status as a graduate of multiple elite US military and State Department training courses.

Since 1990, ECOWAS has waged seven separate conflicts in West Africa, in order to protect the West’s preferred despots across the region. Meanwhile, between 1960 and 2020, Paris launched 50 separate overt interventions in Africa. Figures for clandestine activities conducted during this time are unavailable, but the country’s fingerprints are plastered all over multiple rigged elections, coups, and assassinations that have sustained compliant, corrupt governments in power throughout the continent.

As President Jacques Chirac remarked in 2008, “without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power.” This perspective was reaffirmed in a 2013 French Senate report, Africa is Our Future. Indeed, the mere existence of anti-imperialist governments anywhere in the region is intolerable to Paris.

Luckily for the French elite, compromised figures like Bola Tinubu are still on hand to do their dirty work for them.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/thesiriusreport/status/1690981844378943488

1690981844378943488

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20230813-niger-military-regime-says-will-prosecute-president-bazoum-for-high-treason


🔴 Live: ECOWAS condemns Niger junta’s threat to prosecute President Bazoum for 'high treason'
West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Monday condemned Niger coup leaders’ threat to prosecute ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for "high treason". Niger’s junta earlier slammed West African leaders for imposing sanctions on the country. Follow our live blog for the latest updates. All times are Paris time

7:34pm: US 'incredibly dismayed' by plan to try detained Niger president

The United States on Monday voiced outrage over threats by Niger's military rulers to try detained President Mohamed Bazoum, saying the move would worsen tensions.

"We are incredibly dismayed by reports that President Bazoum's unjust detention has gone even a step further," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

"This action is completely unwarranted and unjustified and, candidly, it will not contribute to a peaceful resolution of this crisis."

6:38pm: Niger junta plan to charge president is 'very worrying', says UN

An attempt by Niger's junta to bring charges of high treason against democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum is "very worrying", United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.

"We remain extremely concerned about the state of being, the health and safety of the President and his family, and again we call for his immediate and unconditional release and his reinstatement as head of state," Dujarric told reporters.

6:09pm: ECOWAS condemns Niger junta attempt to prosecute Bazoum

West Africa's main regional bloc ECOWAS said on Monday it was shocked to learn of attempts by Niger's junta to bring charges of high treason against President Mohamed Bazoum.

The move is a form of provocation by Niger's coup leaders and contradicts their reported willingness to find a peaceful solution to the current crisis, the bloc said in a statement.
5:44pm: Niger scraps jail sentence for head of group supporting military

A Niamey court on Monday scrapped a nine-month jail sentence handed to Abdoulaye Seydou, head of a leading activist group which supports the ruling military, his entourage said.

Seydou, head of the M62 group, had been behind bars for seven months in a case involving an army air strike on suspected jihadists in the south of the country.

"The Niamey Court of Appeal has cancelled the decision of the High Court... which had sentenced our comrade Abdoulaye Seydou to nine months in prison", said M62 Secretary General Sanoussi Mahaman.

"We have always said that Abdoulaye Seydou's detention is an arbitrary decision... orchestrated from start to finish".

The M62 movement, set up a year ago, is a coalition of around 10 groups and NGOs opposed to the presence of French military forces in Niger.

In recent weeks, it has led calls for rallies to support officers who on July 26 toppled the country's elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.

3:36pm: Military junta in Niger 'very resistant to any diplomatic engagement', says analyst

The parliament of West Africa's regional bloc ECOWAS aims to send a committee to Niger to meet coup leaders who took power last month and have so far resisted diplomatic pressure to restore civilian rule.

Niger's military last month imprisoned President Mohamed Bazoum and assumed power, drawing condemnation from international powers who have threatened military action as a last resort while also saying they aim to resolve the situation peacefully.

For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective on the coup in Niger and the ensuing standoff with ECOWAS, click on the video player below.

1:39pm: Military-appointed PM says Niger ‘will overcome’ ECOWAS sanctions

Niger will be able to thwart sanctions imposed by West African bloc ECOWAS in response to last month's coup, new Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, who was appointed by the country’s military leaders, said in an interview released on Monday.

"We think that even though it is an unfair challenge that has been imposed on us, we should be able to overcome it. And we will overcome it," Zeine told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed sanctions on Niger following the coup and has not ruled out using force against the army officers who ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

The bloc has severed financial transactions and electricity supplies and closed borders with landlocked Niger, blocking much-needed imports to one of the world's poorest countries.

The military leaders earlier said the sanctions had made it difficult for people to access medicine, food and electricity, describing the measures as "illegal, inhumane and humiliating".

But Zeine also expressed optimism about a visit by a Nigerian delegation and talks with ECOWAS, and stressed the importance of Niger's ties with Nigeria as well as the West African bloc.

"We have a great interest in preserving this important and historical relationship and also in having ECOWAS work on purely economic issues first," he said.

1:26pm: African Union holding meeting on Niger crisis at Ethiopia headquarters

The African Union (AU) said it was holding a meeting on Monday on the crisis in Niger following the coup on July 26 that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

"AU's Peace & Security Council meets to receive an update on the evolution of the situation in Niger and the efforts to address it," the pan-African body said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The meeting was taking place at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, it said.

Those attending include AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat as well as representatives from Niger and the West African bloc ECOWAS.

Last week, Faki expressed "deep concern" at the reported poor conditions of Bazoum's detention, calling his treatment at the hands of coup leaders "unacceptable".

5:00am: Six Niger soldiers, 10 suspected jihadists killed in fighting

Six Niger soldiers and 10 "terrorists" were killed on Sunday during fighting in the west of the country, authorities said.

Suspected jihadists on motorbikes ambushed the troops near the western town of Sanam on Sunday, according to a statement issued by the National Guard High Command.

Sanam is in the Tillaberi tri-border area where Niger meets Mali and Burkina Faso, a region where jihadist attacks are common.

2:12am: Niger regime slams ECOWAS sanctions as 'illegal, inhumane and humiliating'

Niger's coup leaders said late Sunday they denounced the "illegal, inhumane and humiliating sanctions" imposed by a West African regional bloc, in a statement broadcast on national television.

The military regime said the people of Niger "have been hard hit by the illegal, inhumane and humiliating sanctions imposed by ECOWAS," according to one of the members of the regime, Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane, who added that people were being deprived of medicines, food and electricity.

ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Niger in response to the coup and has not ruled out using force against the army officers who toppled the democratically elected Bazoum on July 26.

1:42am: Niger military regime says it will 'prosecute' President Bazoum for 'high treason'

Niger's coup leaders that toppled Mohamed Bazoum said late Sunday they would "prosecute" the deposed president for "high treason" and "undermining the security" of the country, according to a statement read out by a member of the junta on national television.

"The Nigerien government has so far gathered... evidence to prosecute the deposed president and his local and foreign accomplices before the competent national and international bodies for high treason and undermining the internal and external security of Niger," said Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane.

7:40pm: Mediator talks with Niger coup leaders 'constructive'

Talks between the religious delegation of mediators and the Niger junta, including leader General Abdourahamane Tiani, have been "constructive", said FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent.

Coup leaders in Niger have expressed willingness to resolve the current crisis and standoff with West African regional bloc ECOWAS diplomatically, she said.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ArthurM40330824/status/1690877049496301568

1690877049496301568

[Bill Ryan]

My own comment:

Russia has very good relations with many African states (including Nigeria and Senegal, which are both pro-intervention), and also the African Union itself. I could easily see a time, sooner rather than later, when they might host a peace conference, maybe with the Chinese in a prominent role as well. No-one I'm aware of has mentioned either of these two points.
I may have been on to something there. From Zero Hedge a few hours ago:


https://zerohedge.com/geopolitical/west-alarmed-putin-has-begun-mediate-niger-coup-crisis

West Alarmed as Putin has begun to Mediate Niger Coup Crisis

Western nations are alarmed at the prospect of Russia deepening its presence and influence in West and Central Africa, particularly following the tumult in Niger late last month, which culminated in the July 26 coup against democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

The West-friendly group of surrounding nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has since threatened military intervention towards restoring Bazoum, and there have been persistent rumors that France is encouraging concrete action. Mali has played a key role in all of this given it stands on the other side, and is dead set against any interference in Niger, with fresh reports that Mali’s military leader Assimi Goita has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone.

Goita announced (https://news.yahoo.com/putin-stresses-peaceful-resolution-niger-134823714.html) that in the Tuesday call Putin "stressed the importance of a peaceful resolution of the situation for a more stable Sahel" - and the sides confirmed it was initiated by Mali.

According to a Kremlin statement, "The parties specifically focused on the current situation in the Sahara-Sahel region and emphasised, in particular, the importance of settling the situation in the Republic of Niger solely through peaceful political and diplomatic means."

Putin separately told Tuesday’s Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) that "The countries of the Sahara-Sahel region, such as the Central African Republic and Mali, were under direct attack from numerous terrorist groups after the US and its allies unleashed aggression against Libya, which led to the collapse of the Libyan state."

The handful of regional supporters of the Niger junta have emphasized the same point of late...

https://twitter.com/sethharpesq/status/1689131587617599488
1689131587617599488

Niger is known for having uranium, but it is the significant gold and oil resources which likely of greater interest to the large powers of Russia, China, the US, and Europe.

The West's concern is likely to grow given Putin's mediation with Mali's leadership. Russia's Wagner Group also has an extensive presence across the African continent, having long had security and counterterrorism contracts with multiple governments.

So far, there's still not been openness to negotiations on the part of the Niger coup leaders and Bazoum remains under hose arrest. Per the latest update in Reuters, "West African army chiefs will meet (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/15/west-african-military-chiefs-to-discuss-niger-crisis-thursday-and-friday) on Thursday and Friday in Ghana to prepare for a possible military intervention, which the main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened to launch if diplomacy fails."

Any external military intervention could spark a broader war across the Sahel, and would also be seized upon by regional terrorist groups. In this scenario Wagner fighters would likely enter the fray.

[Bill Ryan]

The African Union has now stated that they're against military intervention in Niger. But the US neocons are pressuring ECOWAS to do just that. (Why does Victoria Nuland want war in West Africa??)

Here's The Duran with an update on this very dangerous situation, which is beginning to look like a major standoff.

Pressuring ECOWAS to intervene in Niger


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISDU-bOV_Cg

[shaberon]

This was originally posted with the wrong picture (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/mali-burkina-faso-send-warplanes-to-niger-in-response-to-potential-military-intervention/2971456) and statement:


"Mali and Burkina Faso turned their commitments into concrete action by deploying warplanes to respond to any attack on Niger," it said, noting the planes were Super Tucano fighter jets.


It's a BrazilianEmbraer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_314_Super_Tucano), and if they send their full inventories, they have:


Burkina Faso Air Force – 3 aircraft delivered in September 2011

Mali Air Force – 4 A-29 delivered in July 2018


Mauritanian example:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Mauritania_AF_Embraer_A-29B_Super_Tucano_5T-MAW_PAS_2013_02.jpg/800px-Mauritania_AF_Embraer_A-29B_Super_Tucano_5T-MAW_PAS_2013_02.jpg



The Brazilian machine is made with Canadian engines and Israeli avionics, and is outfitted for a variety of mostly American munitions.

The idea is that it is cheap and effective in low-risk operations--most notably, Colombia has ground on FARC several times with these planes.

If you are Nigeria, you must obtain permission:

In April 2017, the United States indicated that it would be moving forward with a deal to sell up to 12 of the aircraft for up to US $600 million, ending delays that had been caused by human-rights concerns. In August 2017, the US Department of State approved of the sale of 12 aircraft and associated supplies and weapons.


It wouldn't be much of a fighter, except against others of its kind.

Does this...make much difference? Who knows, but it is a material support.

[chrifri]

Maybe an interesting development

Fabian
@fabsenbln
#Mali🇲🇱- Yesterday evening around 07:00pm Moscow time, a few hours after the #Wagner private jet crash, a "Ministry for Emergency Situations" Il-76 (reg. RA-76841) took off from Zhukovsky Airport to Damascus🇸🇾 (2h stopover), until the flight continued & just arrived in Bamako.

https://twitter.com/fabsenbln/status/1694624770141081752
1694624770141081752

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1695205396346962130

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https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1695193101017497608

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Text:
❗️ France did not accept Niger's request, as the illegitimate government does not have the authority to demand something from them - AFP

Paris is aware of the decision of the rebel authorities to expel the ambassador from the country and took note of this.

✖️ However, France is not going to follow the instructions, as it does not recognize any decisions of the rebellious government as legal.

Also Ambassador to Niger - 🗿

Ostashko! Important - subscribe

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1695177395358122145

1695177395358122145

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
ECOWAS forces have fully completed preparations for military intervention in Niger.
About 12,000 military and hundreds of armored vehicles are ready to invade at any moment.

Comment: Fck'em they are slower that the UA offensive. Guys just stay home and let it be...

#source (https://t.me/new_militarycolumnist/115833)

@Slavyangrad

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1695146176377434193

1695146176377434193

[shaberon]

Apparently it is not just France, there are others being ejected. Niger is the tip of the iceberg for a rapid pivot in the think tanks on the accumulated results of no strategy (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230827/how-us-military-failed-in-africa-1112932032.html):



The latest study by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, titled "Less is More: A New Strategy for US Security Assistance to Africa" and released earlier this week, arrived at the uncomfortable conclusion that US military assistance in Africa "does not work."

The report was released in the wake of the military takeover in Niger, which has received around $500 million in US security aid since 2016. To add to the embarrassment, the takeover was conducted by at least five former US military trainees. Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland's trip to Niger earlier this month proved futile. On Friday, Niger's military leaders reportedly gave the French, German, Nigerian, and US ambassadors 48 hours to leave the country.



There is more in the article about the obvious entry of BRICS into the vacuum, but, the realization is that military intervention has simply given some training to people who are going to do whatever they want:




US Cannot Win Its 20-Year War on Terror in Africa

The report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is far from the first assessment of Washington's security failures in Africa.
Back in October 2022, Rolling Stone shed light on a Pentagon report that was "quietly released" a month earlier and unveiled systemic US flaws across Africa. The report indicated that despite sending forces to at least 22 countries in Africa, the US had not reached its objectives over the past two decades in degrading and disrupting violent extremist organizations (who continue to gain ground across the continent).

Commenting on the Pentagon's paper, CIA veteran Larry Johnson told Sputnik at the time:

"[T]here's an assumption, I think, at large in the world that the United States has a clear plan and objectives in what is happening on the ground there, when in fact, it's just the opposite. It's almost reactive. There is no grand strategy. There is no long-term plan. It is more like putting out grass fires that spring up. I know from my own experience working with AFRICOM from its inception for about 10-15 years, that AFRICOM was always focused on getting training experience in the region but has not reflected any broad political strategy."


Washington's supposed patchy African strategy has resulted in protracted violence with US African trainees using their skills and modern weapons to foment regime changes.

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a DC-based think tank, has found that at least 15 US-supported officers have been involved in 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel during the “War on Terror.” The think tank's list includes military personnel from Burkina Faso (2014, 2015, and twice in 2022); Chad (2021); Gambia (2014); Guinea (2021); Mali (2012, 2020, 2021); Mauritania (2008); and Niger (2023).

"The total number of US-trained mutineers across Africa since 9/11 may be far higher than is known, but the State Department, which tracks data on US trainees, is either unwilling or unable to provide it," the think tank pointed out.



Africa meet Afghanistan. The War on Terror has been designated a failure.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:

🇳🇪🇫🇷 The military government in Niger threatens the French ambassador with "force"

The military junta in Niger threatened the French ambassador, Sylvain Itte, with force if he does not leave the country immediately.

"Who are you to refuse to leave?" military government spokesman said, addressing the ambassador.

africaintel

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1695817566466306307

1695817566466306307

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
Times basically up for France in Niger.

The people are already peacefully gathered around the French Embassy. The next few hours could be critical.

They French could have evacuated their embassy, maybe they still can, but will the popular military government back down?

Very hard to say, they need to assert their independence but they also don't want to trigger a massive war.

Hopefully the French come to their senses and leave peacefully.

https://twitter.com/BenFRubinstein/status/1695890499628851618

1695890499628851618

https://twitter.com/Sprinter99800/status/1695896578265940386

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[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/status/1695909172389245437

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[Bill Ryan]

A good 17-minute analysis by Alexander Mercouris of the current situation, which is changing daily and sometimes by the hour. It's both volatile and dangerous.

There's nothing much here that those following this closely probably don't already know, but as one might expect, the analytical insights are most interesting and valuable.

Neocon adventure in Niger risks big conflict in West Africa


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UahcGfhWy20

[Tintin]

A good 17-minute analysis by Alexander Mercouris of the current situation, which is changing daily and sometimes by the hour. It's both volatile and dangerous.

There's nothing much here that those following this closely probably don't already know, but as one might expect, the analytical insights are most interesting and valuable.

Neocon adventure in Niger risks big conflict in West Africa


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UahcGfhWy20

Without having listened to this - yet - it's been reported that the Niger authorities have cut electricity supply, water and food supplies to the French Embassy in the country. This apparently follows the decision of French-controlled states bordering Niger to block food and medical aid into Niger. Also reported here (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?121634-Turmoil-in-Niger&p=1574219&viewfull=1#post1574219) in what I'd suggest is a pretty serious escalation.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇳🇪🇫🇷 Niger police obstruct the installation of an electric generator at the French embassy

A tractor with an electric generator drove up to the French Embassy in the Niger capital Niamey on Tuesday, but police officers did not allow entry into the territory of the diplomatic mission, RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

By all external signs, the buildings on the territory of the French embassy are de-energized. An attempt to transport a large generator to the territory indirectly confirms interruptions in power supply or its complete absence.

Earlier, local media reported that the city authorities cut off the supply of state electricity to the French embassy, ​​and the water supply was also turned off. The same measures were taken against the French Consulate General in Zinder. It was also reported that the military council asked all companies to stop supplying fuel and food to the French diplomatic mission.

The French TV channel TF1, citing its diplomatic source, in turn, reported that the French embassy in Niamey did not turn off electricity and water, despite large-scale anti-French demonstrations, the embassy was not attacked and continues to function.

The authors of the TF1 report suggest that rumors of a communal blockade of the embassy arose from a communiqué issued by activists from the Support Committee of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP). This statement, in particular, said that suppliers who continue to provide the French side with goods and services will be considered “enemies of the sovereign people.”

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed earlier on Monday that the French ambassador would remain in Niger despite pressure from the rebel government.

On Friday, the Niger Foreign Ministry decided to deprive the French ambassador of Agrément and asked him to leave the country within 48 hours. In Paris, in turn, they said that they took note of the request, noting that the rebels do not have the authority to ask for it. On Monday, a number of media outlets, citing social networks, reported that the new Niger authorities had disconnected the diplomatic mission from life support systems.

At the end of July, the military of Niger announced on national television the removal of President Mohamed Bazoum from power and the formation of the National Council for the Defense of the Fatherland (CNSP). The leaders of most Western countries and the regional organization ECOWAS condemned the coup. In early August, the participants in an emergency meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of the ECOWAS countries, held in Abuja (Nigeria), adopted a plan in case of military intervention in Niger.

https://twitter.com/apocalypseos/status/1696627631222071327

1696627631222071327

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇫🇷🇳🇪 France's Military Presence Declared Occupation in Niger - Al Hadath

The new government of Niger has nullified all security agreements with France, rendering the continued presence of European military contingents tasked with overseeing uranium and other resource shipments impossible.

❗️Sky News Arabia reports that France has been given 30 days to withdraw its troops.

☢️ Recall that Niger was a supplier of up to 40% of France's total uranium volume. The loss of this vital source of affordable energy puts Macron in a position where he may have to participate in a military intervention in Niger to secure uranium supplies. Macron has already approved French participation in ECOWAS' (Economic Community of West African States) invasion of Niger.

Earlier, ECOWAS members had quietly agreed on a date for military action in Niger but kept it confidential. The new government of Niger is preparing for defense.

This is a developing situation. Stay tuned for updates.

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1696884954024624540

1696884954024624540

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Antiwarcom/status/1697340507230449906

1697340507230449906


https://news.antiwar.com/2023/08/31/niger-orders-police-to-expel-french-ambassador/

Niger Orders Police to Expel French Ambassador
France ignored a deadline for its ambassador to leave and is threatening military action
by Dave DeCamp Posted on August 31, 2023Categories NewsTags Niger
Niger’s military junta has ordered police to expel the French ambassador from the country and revoked his diplomatic immunity.

Ambassador Sylvain Itte was ordered to leave the country within 48 hours last Friday, but Paris ignored the deadline. The order for Itte to leave was made in response to his refusal to meet with the new post-coup government that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.

Despite the junta’s new order for Itte to be expelled by the police, France is still refusing to comply. The French Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the ambassador will stay put and that the junta, led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, has no authority to make such an order.

According to Al Jazeera, a French military spokesman threatened military action if the situation became too tense. “The French military forces are ready to respond to any upturn in tension that could harm French diplomatic and military premises in Niger,” the spokesman said. “Measures have been take to protect these premises.”

France has about 1,500 troops in the former French colony and has strongly backed threats from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene in Niger if Bazoum is not reinstated. French President Emanuel Macron said this week that Paris would support such military action, which could spark a major regional war.

[Kryztian]

France to withdraw from Niger – Macron
French troops will depart the west African nation in “the months to come,” the president said
https://www.rt.com/africa/583491-france-wthdraw-troops-niger/

https://mf.b37mrtl.ru/files/2023.09/l/65109da520302772f96374ce.jpg

France will pull its military and diplomats from Niger after a successful coup by anti-French forces, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday. The move will see around 1,500 soldiers leave by the end of the year.

“France has decided to withdraw its ambassador. In the next hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France,” Macron told France 2 television on Sunday. “And we will put an end to our military cooperation with the Niger authorities,” he continued, adding that French troops would return home in “the months to come.”

Niger’s pro-French president, Mohamed Bazoum, was ousted in a military coup in July. Capitalizing on widespread public dissatisfaction with France’s decade-long anti-insurgent operation in the region, the coup leaders immediately suspended a military cooperation agreement with the French government and demanded that French troops leave the country.

The military leaders of Niger then demanded in August that French ambassador Sylvain Itte leave, revoking his diplomatic immunity when Paris refused. Last week, Macron claimed that the Nigerian military was holding Itte “hostage” by blocking food deliveries to the French embassy.

Around 1,500 French soldiers are currently based in Niger, after Paris suspended military operations in Mali and Burkina Faso following similar coups d’etat in both countries. The French base in Niger was one of the largest in the Sahel region, and when the withdrawal is complete, only several dozen French troops will remain in Chad.

With French influence waning, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso announced the formation of a military alliance last week. Mali and Burkina Faso both informally committed to backing Niger in the event of an invasion by the regional ECOWAS bloc after the coup, and the signing of the defense pact formalizes this agreement.

Malian Defense Minister Abdoulaye Diop told Reuters that the Alliance of Sahel States, as the three-nation bloc will be known, will also work together to fight terrorism and secure their shared borders.

Despite acquiescing to the coup plotters’ demands, Macron insisted that France continues to recognize Bazoum as Niger’s “sole legitimate authority.”

[Bill Ryan]

And a further update. :thumbsup:

The text:

Thousands celebrate departure of French ambassador from Niger
Thousands of Nigerians gathered near France’s military base in Niamey to celebrate the departure of Paris’ ambassador earlier this week, about a month after the military junta ordered him to leave. But anti-French activists say the battle is not yet over.
"This victory is not, if you like, a total victory for this revolution, it's only the beginning. We call on the entire population of Niger to mobilise as one until the last French soldier leaves Niger, said demonstrators.
"We’re overjoyed. But just because the ambassador has gone doesn't mean that we're going to stay at home and say 'It's over, we've won'. No, we are going to continue the fight."
They are now waiting for France to withdraw its around 1,500 soldiers from Niger, which Paris says will take place before the end of the year.

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/83452
DDGeopolitics/83452

[shaberon]

As ECOWAS does their thing (https://southfront.press/military-situation-in-mali-on-october-21-2023-map-update/):


On October 19, the deposed President of Niger Mohamed Bazoum reportedly tried to escape from his place of detention in Niamey. The attempt failed. He and some of his accomplices were arrested.


while the neighbor:


The Malian Army and Wagner PMCs regained 17 towns, villages and military bases in the north-east of the country from the Azawad movement and other insurgent groups

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/baronitaigas/status/1737161261450670544

1737161261450670544

[Bill Ryan]

No more Turmoil in Niger... we all hope. :fingers crossed:

Here's an 8 minute good-news update from The Duran:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHMtFPfQEv0

[shaberon]

This and the fact the non-democratic government has been "recognized". Did we put that? I didn't because it sounded like the end of turmoil.

As far as the region, no, I would not think it is all hunky dory, but, in terms of its potential government vs. ECOWAS or whatever grease was to be thrown on the fire, I am glad it did not escalate.

[grapevine]

Patrice Lumumba, Former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrTh7lTwrpM (1:03)
George Galloway pays homage to Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated on 17th January 1961.

[Kryztian]

A interesting anecdotal story of what it was like to be a journalist trapped in Niger during the coup from last summer.

What I found interesting that many Americans were trapped in the middle of nowhere in the Sahel in a dangerous yet they just happened to be two miles from a U.S. military base, Niger Air Base 201 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_Air_Base_201). While the French, Portuguese and others were evacuating their citizens, the U.S. military base refused to do so, and even interfered when they hired a private plane to take them out of where they were.

We are told the U.S. needs overseas military bases for the security of the citizens of the U.S. One has to wonder how a military base in the middle of the Sahel is actually useful to protect U.S. citizens, and yet, when the people on the base had the opportunity to be useful to actual U.S. citizens right there at their doorstep, they failed miserably. :facepalm:

v479gvc

[Bill Ryan]

An interesting update regarding Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso vs ECOWAS (https://www.ecowas.int/) (the Economic Community of West African States).

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/100957

The text:
Mali says it will not respect ECOWAS treaty's withdrawal notice period

Mali said on Wednesday that it would not wait a year to leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as is required by the bloc's treaty.

Mali and its neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso announced last month that they were immediately leaving ECOWAS.

All three formally notified the ECOWAS Commission of their decisions to leave the bloc in written notices dated January 29, which according to the treaty means that they would still be bound by membership until one year from that date.

Mali's foreign ministry said that ECOWAS had violated its own texts by closing its borders to Mali when it imposed sanctions on the military regime.

"Consequently, the Government of the Republic of Mali is no longer bound by the deadline constraints mentioned in Article 91 of the Revised Treaty," the statement said.

DDGeopolitics/100957

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/narrative_hole/status/1769184250895409262

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[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1769291145987989933

1769291145987989933

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/MoonofA/status/1782453986596888818

1782453986596888818

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/04/state-department-to-delay-withdrawal-of-us-troops-from-niger.html

State Department To Delay Withdrawal Of U.S. Troops From Niger

This Washington Post headline as well as the first paragraphs of the story are not really backed by facts.

U.S. agrees to withdraw American troops from Niger

NAPLES, Italy — The United States informed the government of Niger on Friday that it agreed to its request to withdraw U.S. troops from the West African country, said three U.S. officials, a move the Biden administration had resisted and one that will transform Washington’s counterterrorism posture in the region.
The agreement will spell the end of a U.S. troop presence that totaled more than 1,000 and throw into question the status of a $110 million U.S. air base that is only six years old. It is the culmination of a military coup last year that ousted the country’s democratically elected government and installed a junta that declared America’s military presence there “illegal.”

“The prime minister has asked us to withdraw U.S. troops, and we have agreed to do that,” a senior State Department official told The Washington Post in an interview. This official, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation.

The decision was sealed in a meeting earlier Friday between Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger’s prime minister, Ali Lamine Zeine.

The U.S. drone base in Niger is used by the Pentagon and CIA to keep control of ISIS in the region.

So are U.S. troops really leaving Niger?

Of course not - at least not yet.

The next paragraph reveals what was really agreed upon. It makes it obvious that the U.S. wants to delay the issue as long as possible:

“We’ve agreed to begin conversations within days about how to develop a plan” to withdraw troops, said the senior State Department official. “They’ve agreed that we do it in an orderly and responsible way. And we will need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey to sit down and hash it out. And that of course will be a Defense Department project.”
- "We have agreed to begin conservations" - (we didn't really agree to pull out troops, just to talks)
- "about how to develop a plan" - (should we write a plan for something-something in Excel or Word?)
- "in an orderly and responsible way" - (we see absolutely no time pressure or deadline)
- "need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey" - (there will be many delays and the team will change often)
- "that of course will be a Defense Department project" - (We, the State Department, will hardly be involved. When the **** hits the fan the Pentagon will be to blame for it.)

A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately offer comment.
The United States had paused its security cooperation with Niger, limiting U.S. activities — including unarmed drone flights. But U.S. service members have remained in the country, unable to fulfill their responsibilities and feeling left in the dark by leadership at the U.S. Embassy as negotiations continued, according to a recent whistleblower complaint.

There have since been more protests in Niger demanding the exit of U.S. troops:

In the town of Agadez, home to a US air base, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to demand the departure of American forces.
The protests were organised by a coalition of civil society groups that have supported the current military regime since it came to power last year.

It seems to me that the new regime in Niger can and will have to escalate this.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇳🇪🇺🇸 NIGER: AMERICA GET OUT RUSSIA IS MOVING IN

The U.S. is set to withdraw its troops from Niger as the Sahel region shifts its alliances toward Russia.

About 1,000 U.S. troops will leave following the strategic pivot of the West African nation, which has leaned increasingly towards Moscow following a military coup in July 2023.

This move comes after Niger suspended a military agreement with the U.S. and is part of a broader realignment in the region, where countries like Mali and Burkina Faso have also expelled European forces and sought Russian support.

The withdrawal underscores the changing geopolitical landscape in West Africa and the growing influence of Russia in the area.

Source: Reuters

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1782189354825232659

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https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/1781741282483737048

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https://x.com/thehill/status/1782442016376238576

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https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4611590-us-forces-withdraw-niger/

US plans to withdraw forces from Niger

The United States has begun talks with Niger to withdraw the roughly 1,000 American troops in the country, a State Department official confirmed Monday.

The development comes after Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met with Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine on Friday, with the two on Monday committing “to initiate conversations in Niamey to begin planning an orderly and responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger,” the official told The Hill.

The New York Times first reported on the coming withdrawal.

And CNN reported the Defense Department would send a small delegation from the Pentagon and U.S. Africa Command to participate in the discussions.

The presence of U.S. forces in Niger seemed to be coming to a close since last month, when the military junta that rules the country revoked a military cooperation agreement with Washington. That accord gave American forces a major foothold to fight against extremist groups — predominately an Islamist insurgency — in the region.

The development is a major setback for U.S. efforts in the Sahel, where just six years ago, Washington spent $110 million to open a base in northern Niger used to fly surveillance drones.

Niger’s demands to leave also followed a high level U.S. delegation trip to the country to “raise a number of concerns” about Niamey growing closer to Russia and Iran, the Pentagon said at the time.

An American military presence in Niger has also been in question since a military junta in late July put the country’s president on house arrest and took control of the government.

The State Department officially declared the takeover as a coup in October, cutting back on U.S. aid and pausing security operations in the country.

Niger’s decision follows a recent trend by countries in the Sahel: turning to Russia as a partner over Western nations.

Last week, Russia delivered military equipment and 100 instructors to equip Niger with the “latest generation of anti-aircraft defense systems,” Nigerien state broadcaster RTN said Thursday.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/desert____lion/status/1782480093966713160

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[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/Obs_Dave/status/1782144628398891160

1782144628398891160

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/04/21/the-us-military-will-begin-plans-to-withdraw-troops-from-niger/

The US military will begin plans to withdraw troops from Niger

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United States will begin plans to withdraw troops from Niger, U.S. officials said Saturday, in what experts say is a blow to Washington and its allies in the region in terms of staging security operations in the Sahel. The planned departure comes as U.S. officials said they were trying to find a new military agreement.

The prime minister of Niger, appointed by the ruling military junta, Ali Lamine Zeine, and U.S. deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell, agreed on Friday that the two nations would begin to plan the withdrawal of American troops, the U.S. State Department told The Associated Press in an email Saturday.

A U.S. official said there was no timeline for withdrawal besides talks set to start in the coming days about next steps. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail the private diplomatic discussions. An American delegation to coordinate the details of the withdrawal process will be dispatched soon.

Niger plays a central role in the U.S. military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region, an area on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Washington is concerned about the spread of jihadi violence, where local groups have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups. Niger is home to a major U.S. air base, in the city of Agadez, about 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital, Niamey, using it for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. has also invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military since it began operations there in 2013.

But relations have frayed between Niger and Western countries since mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president in July. Niger’s junta has since told French forces to leave and turned instead to Russia for security. Earlier this month, Russian military trainers arrived to reinforce the country’s air defenses and with Russian equipment to train Nigeriens to use.

There was an attempt on the behalf of the U.S. to revise the military agreement with Niger that would allow them to stay, U.S. officials told the AP. But the agreement between Zeine and Campbell shows that the effort has failed.

A separate senior U.S. State Department official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to speak about sensitive diplomatic talks, told the AP on Saturday that Niger’s junta made a decision that they don’t want any foreign forces in the country, including the U.S. and that the security partnership was ending for the time being. The junta told the U.S. that Russia’s presence was to train Nigeriens on how to operate the equipment. The official said that the U.S. had valid concerns about some of the choices the junta was making, specifically about the potential for Russian and American troops to be colocated.

The loss of access to air bases in Niger is a major setback for the U.S. and its allies in the region because of its strategic location for security operations in the Sahel, said Peter Pham, former U.S. special envoy for the Sahel region.

“In the short term, they will be hard to replace,” said Pham, adding that remaining European Union military presence would likely pull out of Niger following the news of a U.S. departure.

The rupture of relations between the two nations would impact the development and humanitarian aid funds destined for Niger, a country at the bottom of many indicators of well-being, Pham said.

Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who assists Niger’s military rulers with their communications, told the AP that American troops could potentially return after negotiations and that the ruling Niger junta, the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, wants to maintain a good working relationship with the U.S.

The U.S should find a new mode of engagement that departs from the failed counterterrorism cooperation model of the past decade, and continues to press other states in the Sahel region on accountability and human rights abuses, said Hannah Rae Armstrong, a senior consultant on Sahel peace and security.

The two officials said that Niger and the U.S would continue to work together on areas of shared interest.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://x.com/Antiwarcom/status/1782115255533060290

1782115255533060290

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇳🇪🇧🇯 Niger's First Oil Reaches Benin

A quite significant event has occurred in the Sahel region - the construction of the pipeline between Niger and Benin has finally been completed. The US and ECOWAS actively threatened the Nigerien junta with sanctions over this project.

However, contrary to the unsubstantiated claims of Western media, the Niger-Benin oil pipeline has not only been built, but has also been successfully put into operation. Oil from the Agadez field has reached Seme-Kraké in Benin, near the capital Cotonou.

Currently, Niger is producing 20,000 barrels per day, with the mediation of the Chinese CNPC, with whom a new export contract was recently signed.

According to plans, by 2026 Niger will be producing 200,000 barrels per day, making it one of the largest oil exporters in Africa.

For Benin, this pipeline is important, as it is planned to create about 2,000 new jobs for its maintenance. In addition, the Nigerien authorities will pay transit fees for access to Benin's ports.

The commissioning of the pipeline and the supply of oil through it indicates the final settlement of the crisis in relations between Niamey and ECOWAS.

And all the past threats against the current Nigerien authorities have remained just threats: there was no invasion of Niger, nor a global economic crisis due to the imposed sanctions.


https://x.com/dana916/status/1783493593031721156

1783493593031721156

Against the backdrop of deteriorating security situation in Benin, one can expect an intensification of military cooperation, for example, in joint border patrols.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
This is an amazing story about why Niger ejected US troops.

The reason is because the US threatened Niger by telling its leaders "to refrain from engaging with Iran and Russia in ways objectionable to Washington if Niger wanted to continue its security relationship with the United States".

The result? US troops expelled, Niger decided to end the "security relationship" on its own initiative 😅

The Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine recounts the story himself: “When she finished, I said, ‘Madame, I am going to summarize in two points what you have said. First, you have come here to threaten us in our country. That is unacceptable. And you have come here to tell us with whom we can have relationships, which is also unacceptable. And you have done it all with a condescending tone and a lack of respect.”

That's the thing about the multipolar world we now live in: the US believes it can still behave as a bullying superpower but that's over, countries have choices now. This type of behavior only seems to still work on Europe and maybe a handful of other diehard US vassal states who somehow haven't yet gotten the memo...

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1790416639181328576

1790416639181328576


https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/1790390114377400351

1790390114377400351

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
The opening ceremony of the non-governmental organization Ensemble Main dans la Main Niger-Russie (Together hand in hand Niger-Russia) was held in Niamey, Niger, organizers of the event told a Sputnik correspondent.

“In recent years there has been a surge of interest in Russia in Niger. Now it is time to take concrete steps and bring the peoples of Niger and Russia closer together,” said one of the founders of the group.

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1790502661298467296

1790502661298467296

[Bill Ryan]

No turmoil this time, just a celebration. :russia: :)

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/113115

Hundreds of motorcycles draped in the Russian flag to honor Russia Day in the capital of Niger
DDGeopolitics/113115

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1801597521204064558

1801597521204064558

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/niger-revokes-immunity-of-ousted-president-mohamed-bazoum

Niger revokes immunity of ousted president Mohamed Bazoum
Niger's top court revoked the immunity of ousted president Mohamed Bazoum on Friday, opening the door for a possible trial following his removal in a military coup in July 2023.

"The court orders the lifting of Mohamed Bazoum's immunity," said Abdou Dan Galadima, president of the court, created in November by Niger's new military government.

Nigerien authorities accused Bazoum of treason, financing terrorism, and plotting to undermine the state.

He and his wife Hadiza have been held at the presidential residence since July 26.

A team of lawyers representing Bazoum told AFP that the decision "clearly condones serious violations of the rights of the defense and marks the start of legal proceedings against the president, who is held illegally." One of the lawyers, Moussa Coulibaly, described the decision as "the advent of the arbitrary," noting its "extremely serious consequences."

Bazoum, 64, is accused of asking French President Emmanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for support for "an armed intervention" during the coup.

Niger undoes what colonialists established

In the late 1890s, France began colonizing Niger. The Sahel nation won independence in 1960 as part of a broader decolonization movement triggered by political upheavals and Paris' surrender of African territories.

France retained its colonies in Africa roughly until the 1960s, exercising its dominance over North, Western, and Equatorial Africa. Shortly after the formation of the Fifth French Republic in 1958, countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Congo, Chad, and the Central African Republic gained independence.

Despite this fact, Paris failed to completely abandon the region, continuing to intervene in its internal affairs, including by military means.

Since the start of his political career, Bazoum has maintained a moderate stance concerning former colonial powers.

But on June 23, Niger's parliament approved a new national anthem, marking the first steps to free the country of any relics of French colonization.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇳🇪 Inmates escape Niger prison holding militants

Niger's interior ministry said it had ordered search units to be on alert after inmates escaped on Thursday from the high-security Koutoukale prison whose inmates include Islamist militants.

The ministry statement did not say how many prisoners had escaped Koutoukale, which lies 50 km (30 miles) northwest of the capital Niamey, or how they had done so. In 2016 and 2019, attempted jail breaks at the facility were repelled.

The prison's inmates include detainees from the West African country's conflict with armed groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State and suspected Boko Haram insurgents.

Local authorities imposed an overnight curfew in the urban commune of Tillaberi, which is in the same region as the prison, but did not give further details.

Niger and its neighbours in the central Sahel region are on the frontlines of the battle to contain a jihadist threat that has steadily grown since 2012, when al Qaeda-linked fighters first seized parts of Mali.

africaintel

https://x.com/dana916/status/1811787957843476847

1811787957843476847

[shaberon]

Here, the country deals with what it considers its actual security (https://en.mehrnews.com/news/236711/At-least-34-terrorists-killed-in-Niger-Military-Op-Army):



Niger's Defense and Security Forces killed at least 34 terrorists during two operations conducted in the past week in the western regions of Dosso and Tillabery, according to an official announcement.

According to the army's weekly bulletin broadcast Saturday on national television, the first clash took place on Wednesday near Doubalma in the Dosso region, when a patrol from Soukoukoutane was attacked by about 50 armed terrorists on motorcycles, Xinhua reported.

The army said its forces, backed by air support, killed at least 22 assailants and wounded many others, while the remaining attackers fled toward the Malian border. Seven soldiers were killed and two others wounded in the ambush, it added.

On Friday, another air-land operation targeted a group of terrorists on motorcycles transporting stolen livestock near Mangaize in the Tillabery region, the army said. The operation killed at least 12 terrorists, destroyed six motorcycles, and enabled the recovery of all stolen livestock.

There's no telling how many such gangs are out there roaming the uncontrollable Sahara borders, and, as far as I know, it is the locals' responsibility how to deal with it, not Washington's.

[Bill Ryan]

Reported on DD Geopolitics:

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/171781
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/171782
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/171785
An armed attack is reportedly taking place in Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, capital city of Niger.
This is an ongoing situation.

Air defense activity was reported at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger.

Scenes from inside Diori Hamani International Airport.
As reported by several sources, the shooting has now stopped. No official statements have been issued by the authorities, but it appears to be linked to earlier warnings about JNIM terrorist cells possibly infiltrating the vicinity of the airport in recent weeks.


DDGeopolitics/171781
DDGeopolitics/171782
DDGeopolitics/171785

[sdv]

Cynical perhaps, but Niger has a long history of military coups and the current president gained power in 2023 via a military coup. I would not call these armed groups terrorists but how politics tends to operate in Niger.

[shaberon]

Cynical perhaps, but Niger has a long history of military coups and the current president gained power in 2023 via a military coup. I would not call these armed groups terrorists but how politics tends to operate in Niger.


That could be true to a considerable extent.

The last one was somewhat noteworthy as being an actual political platform that resulted in the ouster of colonialists. This leaves us curious as to what really changed or have they improved their conditions.

The way I, at least, use terrorism, is to refer to a non-state actor with a political demand.

If you just attack people, it's just murder.

I have no idea what is going on here or have knowledge of small inner African groups. There is an element of caution about the Tuareg, in the sense they are effectively stateless and sometimes have rebellious issues, whereas they are traditional practitioners of child trafficking. From combing through CIA reports on how the, eh, western systems like used to be in Niger, how were they working in the host countries, most of them had never improved in the "human rights" category. I don't think that's politicized (except maybe select cases). I think it actually does measure multiple forms of abuse which seem to be entrenched all over the place. Conceivably, voting by gun is more normal than might be anticipated.

[sdv]

Complicated ... in some African countries, elections are the means to elect government at all levels (no matter how flawed the electoral system may be). So, in places like Mozambique and Nigeria, armed groups make no sense and they do seem to be shunning the electoral system and using violence. But, Niger does not have a functioning electoral system at present. Maybe the new Sahel group will lead the country in that direction, but Niger may end up like Mozambique and Nigeria anyway. Western interference does not solve the problem, despite Trump's grandiose claims. Nor does demonization of the country and employing sanctions, bombing it, or arming whatever group Westerners think will be in their interest to have in the presidency.

terrorism: the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims

So, Bill is 100% correct in using that term, but most governments, and especially the West, use the term to exclude groups. If a group is shut out of government and the political system, or using violence as a defence against government violence, perhaps the use of violence is resistance rather than terrorism?

I do think Americans especially should think deeply about this term because the Trump administration is using it to demonize and shut down legitimate protest against government actions. Tucker Carlson has made a video in full support of this agenda, and it is spine chilling ... straight out of the Israeli playbook. ICE agents are being threatened and their lives are in danger! People must comply and not resist!