Politics

Mali breaks another defence relations, opts-out of regional force, G-5 Sahel

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2022

After breaking defence alliance with the French, Mali’s junta has announced that it will quit a West African anti-jihadist, G-5 force after it was blocked from assuming the presidency of the regional group.

The new move deepens Bamako’s recent choice of isolationism in defence relations. Recall that its neighbours, through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) hit it with sanctions in January over perceived foot-dragging in restoring civilian rule.

The G5 Sahel or G5S is an institutional framework for the coordination of regional cooperation in development policies and security matters in West Africa. It was formed at a summit of five Sahel countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.

The Mali War is an ongoing armed conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. According to a UN report, jihadists, armed militias and the armed forces in Mali killed close to 600 civilians in 2021.

There have been efforts outside Bamako to end the war. France, Mali’s former colonial ruler, has been drawn deeply into the conflict there. The Malian government requested help from Paris in 2013, and a mission the French military initially expected to only last a few weeks has now become what some analysts call France’s “forever war”

But Mali’s ruling military junta has announced that the country would break off from its defence relations with France citing “flagrant violations” of its national sovereignty.

The decision to leave the G5 Sahel security force was announced on Sunday in a statement. “The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force.

“The opposition of some G5 Sahel member states to Mali’s presidency is linked to manoeuvres by a state outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali,” it added, without naming that country.

The group’s heads of states were supposed to assemble in Bamako in February to see Mali assume the G5 presidency, but nearly four months later, this meeting “has still not taken place”, the junta said.

Politics

African leaders seek change in fight against terrorism at Nigerian summit

Published

1 day ago

April 22, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

At a security summit in Nigeria, African leaders have called for a revamp of institutions that fight violent extremism on the continent.

The leaders also began to push to set up a standing military force and give the government more power over efforts to keep the peace.

Attacks on citizens and the military have been happening all the time in Africa, including in the Sahel, Somalia, and Mozambique, by groups with ties to Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo said that coastal states like Togo were facing more threats, even though people were being attacked the most in the Sahel.

“I say this with prudence and regret, but I think the institutions that have been in place for several decades are no longer able to respond to the security situation that we face,” said Gnassingbe.

Moussa Faki, chairman of the African Union Commission, reported that between 2017 and 2021, there were four attacks and 18 deaths a day in Africa. Last year, there were eight attacks and 44 deaths a day.

The AU chief added that last year 7,000 citizens and 4,000 military members were killed stressing that the situation was being used in some countries as a reason for military coups. The Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Amina Mohammed, said that half of all terrorist deaths happened in the Sahel.

Until a military coup in July that called for France to leave, Niger was the West’s last major ally in the central Sahel area south of the Sahara Desert. In July, France pulled out 1,500 troops from Niger.

Faki said that Africa needed more money to help stop the spread of terrorism. Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria, said that more needed to be done to stop the spread of small guns and weapons. He also called for the creation of a regional standby force whose job it would be to fight terrorism.

“I am mindful of the funding, legal and logistical complexities that face the proper establishment of such a force. Such a force can stand as a strong deterrent to large scale and protracted terrorist operations and the capture, occupation or disruption of strategic land and resources,” Tinubu said.

Politics

Togo’s civil society, opposition plan mass protests following constitutional review

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Some of Togo’s opposition parties and civil society groups have called for mass protests again on Saturday following lawmakers’ approved changes to the country’s constitution a week ago.

The legislation is widely believed to enhance the continued stay of President Faure Gnassingbe in power after 19-year rule. The opposition group Dynamique Pour la Majorité du Peuple (DMP) and other signatories said in a statement that the changes to presidential term limits and how presidents are chosen were just a political move to let Gnassingbe stay in office forever.

“What happened at the National Assembly yesterday is a coup d’etat,” they said in the statement that reiterated calls for the population to mobilise against the changes.

“Large-scale action will be organised over the next few days to say ‘no’ to this constitution,” they said. In Friday’s vote, lawmakers unanimously approved an amended charter under which the president will no longer be elected by universal suffrage, but by members of parliament.

The amendments also set up a parliamentary system of government and cut presidential terms from five years to four years, with a maximum of two terms. Since the changes don’t consider time already spent in office, Gnassingbe could stay in power until 2033 if he is re-elected in 2025. This is very likely because his party controls the parliament in Togo, where his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, took power in a coup in 1967.

The most valuable company in Abu Dhabi has made an offer of more than $1 billion to buy a 51% stake in Vedanta Resources’ copper assets in Zambia, according to two people who know about the situation.

In the past few years, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, the Congo Republic, the Ivory Coast, and Guinea are just a few of the African countries that have changed their constitutions and other laws to allow leaders to serve longer terms.

In the last three years, there have been eight military coups in West and Central Africa as well. As they were during his father’s long rule, violent police crackdowns on political protests have been common in Togo under Gnassingbe, who was returned in a landslide in 2020 that the opposition says was rigged.