Musings From Abroad

France to withdraw forces from West and Central Africa

Published

5 months ago

June 17, 2024

According to three sources quoted by AFP, France intends to scale back its military deployment in West and Central Africa to about 600 soldiers in keeping with President Emmanuel Macron’s intentions to lessen France’s military footprint in the area.

Given the strong anti-French sentiment in several former colonies and the competition for influence from nations like Russia, Macron declared in February 2023 that there would be a “noticeable reduction” in the number of French troops stationed in Africa.

A strategy being discussed with allies in Africa indicates that France intends to significantly scale back its so-called “pre-positioned” forces in the continent.

Two government-affiliated sources, as well as a military source, claim that France will only maintain about 100 troops in Senegal, West Africa, down from 350 currently, and about 100 in Gabon, Central Africa.

Paris intends to maintain about 300 troops in Chad, in north-central Africa, down from 1,000 currently, and about 100 troops in Ivory Coast, on the southern coast of West Africa.

According to the three sources, the diminished presence can occasionally be increased in response to the demands of regional partners. The French General Staff was contacted by AFP, but they declined to comment.

Up until two years ago, France maintained around 5,000 troops in the Sahel region of Africa as part of the Barkhane anti-jihadist campaign, in addition to the about 1,600 forces that were pre-deployed in Gabon and West Africa. However, the juntas that took over in Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023 have been steadily driving it out.

Now, all three nations have security agreements in place with Russia, which has been looking to increase its influence throughout the continent. The final nation in the Sahel to get French forces is Chad, which is led by Mahamat Idriss Deby, the son of Idriss Deby Itno, a former president who served for more than 30 years.

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Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

9 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

1 day 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.