Politics

African leaders agree coup, terrorism part of African problems, want permanent seat in Security Council to fix things

Published

2 years ago

May 29, 2022

African heads of state at the just concluded extraordinary summits in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea agreed that insecurity and coup are a part cause of humanitarian challenges in the continent.

The summit which ended on Saturday, with leaders pointing out at terrorism, bad governance, and coups d’état could have connections with the humanitarian challenges bedeviling the continent.

One of the leaders, João Lourenço, President of Angola, said “the current conflict in Europe teaches us that security issues are always at the center of international cooperation, in the first place, each continent must have its own common defense strategy. This conflict also confirms the deep inequalities in the treatment of countries and peoples in the face of wars, pandemics, and natural disasters,”

President Lourenço’s position agrees with that of the AU commission president Moussa Faki Mahamat’s calls for reorganization and regrouping of the African military. He also called upon the inclusion of African countries as permanent members of the United Nation security council.

“This unjust and shameful situation once again raises the need for a reformulation of the United Nations Security Council that does not only circumscribe the victorious great powers of the Second World War, but that considers the entry of representatives of countries from Africa and Latin America, the Indian subcontinent of the Middle East as permanent members with full powers,” Lourenço, President of Angola.

West Africa has been rocked by two coups in Mali, one in Guinea and one in Burkina Faso since August 2020. Representatives from the three countries were excluded from the summit.

Beyond the recent wave of coups in Africa, countries like Nigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea amongst others are facing lingering insurgency-related challenges for about a decade now while others like Ethiopia and Sudan are challenged with serious political instability and separatist threats.

Related Topics:African Union Featured João Lourenço

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

10 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.