Musings From Abroad

US/Africa plan suffers further blow as Niger ends military ties with Washington

Published

8 months ago

March 17, 2024

Niger Republic, one of the West African countries burdened with terrorist operations in the Sahel, has announced an end to military ties with the United States, dealing a blow to Washington’s recent push for a renewed global influence in Africa.

Niger’s ruling military spokesman, Colonel Amadou Abdramane, announced that the West African country had suspended its military agreement with the US “with immediate effect.”

Speaking on local television, Abdramane claimed that the US delegation had broken diplomatic protocol by not informing Niger about the delegation’s makeup, arrival date, or agenda.

The decision was made on Saturday following a visit to the West African nation earlier this week by top US officials to discuss democratic transition. Among them were US Africa Command head, General Michael Langley, and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Molly Phee.

“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism,” Abdramane said.

“The American presence on Niger’s territory is illegal and violates all constitutional and democratic rules,” Abdramane said, adding that the citizens of Niger must be consulted before having a foreign army on their territory.

According to the US military, there are more than a thousand American soldiers stationed in Niger. Additionally, the US has a drone base in the northern part of the nation, which is essential for tracking extremist organisations in the Sahel region— a region of Africa that lies just below the Sahara desert.

The hub of US operations in west and north Africa is Niger, particularly at Air Base 201, one of the most costly building projects the US government has ever undertaken outside it soil. Although it is there to support counterterrorism efforts, it is widely believed that the project represents strategic positioning against US global rivals, China and Russia, both of which African countries have tilted towards in recent years for economic and military relations.

Niger has been at the receiving end of regional and international sanctions following a coup in which president Mohamed Bazoum was ousted. The US essentially stopped providing military support to Niger, and the base’s operations were restricted to surveillance to keep an eye on US forces.

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

4 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

1 week ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”