Musings From Abroad

UK sanctions persons, businesses linked with Russia’s Wagner in Africa

Published

1 year ago

July 20, 2023

The United Kingdom has announced sanctions on persons and businesses connected to the operations of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner in three African countries.

The sanction was meted out on 13 persons and companies in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Sudan with links to Wagner.

Wagner has been accused of extra-judicial killing and rights abuses in its operations in Africa. The most notable being different allegations from the United Nations, the European Union, and some Western states over Mali and Wagner’s handling of the fight against insurgency in Moura village where hundreds of civilians were reportedly killed.

The 13 persons in the sanction lists top Wagner officials including one it described as the “right-hand man” of the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Newly sanctioned according to a statement from the British authorities, Konstantin Pikalyov, who is currently facing asset freezes and a travel restriction in the UK, is Prigozhin’s key advisor in addition to serving as the operational head of Wagner in the CAR.

Britain’s minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell said, “Wherever Wagner operates, it has a catastrophic effect on communities, worsens existing conflicts, and damages the reputations of countries that host them.”

Along with Ivan Maslov, the leader of the Wagner Group in Mali, the sentence was also applied to Vitaly Perfilov in the CAR and Alexander Maloletko, whom it described as Prigozhin’s close friend.

Mikhail Potepkin, who Britain said was affiliated with the Wagner Group and served as a director of the mining firm, Meroe Gold, was placed on the Sudanese list.

The statement added that Meroe Gold was one of three companies it had sanctioned in Sudan for serving as fronts for the Wagner Group and endangering peace and security. It claimed that Meroe Gold had imported military vehicles, helicopters, and weaponry.

According to reports, Wagner has operated in at least eight different African countries over the past ten years, including Mali, Libya, and Burkina Faso, among others.

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Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

17 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.