Musings From Abroad

US Secretary of State Blinken in Egypt for talks over Gaza hostage deal

Published

10 months ago

February 6, 2024

The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, landed in Cairo on Tuesday for his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

The meeting takes place as the US attempts to push for a hostage agreement and a Gaza truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt.

Shortly after dawn, the top United States ambassador left Riyadh for what is expected to be a long day of visiting Egypt and Qatar before taking a plane to Israel to talk about preparations for Gaza after the war, negotiations over hostages, and the possibility of normalising relations between Arab nations and Israel.

Blinken is making his fifth trip to the area since October as the US continues its campaign of retaliation against a group affiliated with Iran that attacked and murdered US Marines in a military outpost in Jordan last month.

Washington believes that progress on other issues, like the governance of post-war Gaza, a route to Palestinian statehood, and an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalise their relationship, depend on a potential truce to release the last hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7 and to halt hostilities in Gaza.

The US is keen to reclaim its waning influence in the continent in order to highlight the significance of Africa and counter any risks China and Russia may pose to US interests in this crucial region.

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Musings From Abroad

EU withdraws Niger diplomat after junta accuses it of mismanaging aid

Published

17 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The European External Action Service (EEAS) has announced that the European Union would return its ambassador from Niger after the governing military in the nation questioned how an EU team handled humanitarian supplies intended for flood victims.

In a statement released on Friday, the junta in Niger accused the EU ambassador in the West African nation of distributing a 1.3 million euro flood relief grant to many foreign nongovernmental organisations in an opaque way and without working with the government.

Consequently, it mandated an audit of the fund’s administration.

“The European Union expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations and justifications put forward by the transitional authorities,” the EEAS said.

“Consequently, the EU has decided to recall its ambassador from Niamey for consultations in Brussels.”

Niger has been under military rule since the junta seized power in a 2023 coup.

Musings From Abroad

Mpox remains health emergency, WHO insists

Published

18 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has insisted that the Mpox epidemic remains a public health emergency.

WHO first declared an emergency when a new strain of mpox spread from the severely affected Democratic Republic of the Congo to neighbouring countries in August.

The WHO Director-General has decided that the increase in mpox still qualifies as a public health emergency of worldwide significance after the WHO called a meeting of its Emergency Committee and followed its recommendations.

According to WHO, the decision was made in light of the growing number and ongoing geographic dispersion of cases, field operating difficulties, and the requirement to establish and maintain a coordinated response across nations and partners.

Mpox is a virus that is spread by close contact and usually manifests as pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms. Although it is typically minor, it can be fatal.

More than 1,000 suspected deaths and more than 46,000 suspected cases have been reported this year throughout Africa, primarily in Congo.

The WHO’s highest level of warning, known as a “public health emergency of international concern,” was previously used to describe a worldwide epidemic of a different type of mpox in 2022–2023.

This year’s notice was issued in response to the transmission of a novel viral variation known as clade Ib. Among other nations, cases of this variation have been verified in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and India.

Following criticism for moving too slowly on vaccinations, WHO approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine in September and listed Japan’s KM Biologics vaccine for emergency use earlier this month.