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Tag: Coups d'etat

  • Activist in Niger with ties to junta tells the AP region needs to ‘accept new regime’ or risk war

    Activist in Niger with ties to junta tells the AP region needs to ‘accept new regime’ or risk war

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    NIAMEY, Niger — The only way to avoid conflict between mutinous soldiers that ousted the president in Niger and regional countries threatening an invasion to reinstate him is to recognize the new regime, a rights defender with ties to the junta told The Associated Press.

    In his first interview with Western media Friday, Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who supports Niger’s new military rulers in its communications and says he is in direct contact with them, said there will be no dialogue with regional countries until they acknowledge the new head of state.

    Nearly three weeks ago mutinous soldiers led by the head of the presidential guard, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, overthrew the West African country’s democratically elected president, claiming they could do a better job of securing the nation from growing jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Tchiani was declared in charge of the country.

    The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, has threatened to use military force if President Mohamed Bazoum, who took office two years ago, is not released and reinstated. However, the junta has dismissed its warnings and refused most attempts at dialogue.

    “There is only one option, accepting the regime or war,” said Saidou. “It is finished for Bazoum, you must forget about him. It is finished, it is a waste of time trying to restore him. It is not possible,” he said.

    On Thursday, ECOWAS said it had directed the deployment of a “standby force” to restore democracy in Niger after its deadline Sunday to reinstate Bazoum expired. It’s unclear when, or where the force will be deployed, but analysts say it could include up to 5,000 troops from countries including Nigeria, Benin, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

    While the bloc says it wants mediation to prevail, multiple attempts by ECOWAS, as well as others, have yielded little.

    Last week a proposed visit by ECOWAS, the United Nations and the African Union was rejected citing “evident reasons of security in this atmosphere of menace” against Niger. A day prior, top U.S. diplomat, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, met some members of the junta but was unable to speak with Tchiani or see Bazoum. Representatives of the junta told her during the visit that Bazoum would be killed if ECOWAS invaded Niger, according to two Western military officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

    Many Western nations saw Niger as one of the last democratic countries in the Sahel region, the vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert, that they could partner with to beat back the growing jihadi threat. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into providing equipment and training for Niger’s military by specialized French and U.S. forces, all of which could now be used by the junta to tighten its grip on power.

    The military regime is already entrenching itself, appointing a new government and stoking anti-French sentiment toward its former colonial ruler, to shore up its support.

    On Friday, hundreds of people protested outside the French military base in the capital, Niamey, chanting “down with France” and waving Russian flags.

    Mercenaries from the Russian-linked Wagner group, already operate in a handful of other African countries and are accused of committing human rights abuses. Earlier this month during a trip to neighboring Mali, which is also run by a military regime and cooperates with Wagner, the junta reportedly asked the mercenaries for help.

    “We don’t agree with France. We want France to leave our country and go to their country. This is Niger, not France,” said Souleymane Djibo a demonstrator.

    Days after ECOWAS’ order for the standby force to deploy, it’s still unclear what that entails or if they’ll invade. The African Union Peace and Security Council could overrule the decision if it felt that wider peace and security on the continent was threatened by an intervention, say analysts. The African Union is expected to meet Monday to discuss Niger’s crisis.

    Some Sahel experts say the insistence on force is a cover to spare ECOWAS from the embarrassment of having made a threat with no real capacity or notion of how to execute it. “The bloc is acting like a poker player who tried (to) bluff and, when called on it, raised the stakes to buy time. In both card games and in geopolitics, when one tries to bluff, one is rarely so lucky as to have an opponent fooled into folding,” said Peter Pham, former U.S. special envoy for West Africa’s Sahel region and a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council.

    Still, if fighting does ensue the most battle-experienced and best-equipped militaries in West Africa, either belong to Niger, or are sympathetic to it, such as Mali and Burkina Faso. Both countries have opposed the intervention and sent delegations to Niger to discuss joint defense efforts.

    Saidou, the activist who supports the junta, said no matter how ECOWAS plans to invade, be it by land through neighboring Benin or Nigeria or by air, any attack on the palace will result in Bazoum’s death. While he didn’t confirm a deliberate plan to murder the now-ousted president, he said that if an invasion began soldiers would kill him, he said. “There is no one among the soldiers still loyal to Bazoum.”

    He dismissed reports that Bazoum’s conditions under house arrest in his presidential compound were dire and said he had access to medical care if needed and still had his phone, a sign that no one wanted to harm him. He did not say how he had knowledge of the president’s condition. Saidou said he was being kept for his own security and the only way for Bazoum to be released was for ECOWAS to accept that his time in office was finished.

    Those close to the president, however, paint a much starker picture.

    Since the July 26 coup, Bazoum’s been confined with his wife and son to the basement of his presidential compound, which is surrounded by guards and is now cut off from resupplies of food, electricity, water and cooking gas. Niger’s ambassador to the United States, Mamadou Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, told the AP that the junta is trying to starve him to death.

    On Friday, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said he was extremely concerned about Bazoum’s rapidly deteriorating condition, calling the family’s treatment “inhuman and degrading” and in violation of international human rights law.

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    Associated Press reporter Jamey Keaton in Geneva, Switzerland contributed

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  • Allies of Niger president overthrown by military are appealing to the US and others: Save his life

    Allies of Niger president overthrown by military are appealing to the US and others: Save his life

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    WASHINGTON — After nearly three weeks of appealing to the United States and other allies for help restoring Niger’s president to power, friends and supporters of the democratically elected leader are making a simpler plea: Save his life.

    President Mohamed Bazoum, leader of the last remaining Western-allied democracy across a vast stretch of Africa’s Sahara and Sahel, sits confined with his family in an unlit basement of his presidential compound, cut off from resupplies of food and from electricity and cooking gas by the junta that overthrew him, Niger’s ambassador to the United States told The Associated Press.

    “They are killing him,” said the ambassador, Mamadou Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, a close associate who maintains daily calls with the detained leader. The two have been colleagues for three decades, since the now 63-year-old president was a young philosophy instructor, a teacher’s union leader, and a democracy advocate noted for his eloquence.

    “The plan of the head of the junta is to starve him to death,” Liman-Tinguiri told the AP in one of his first interviews since mutinous troops allegedly cut off food deliveries to the president, his wife and his 20-year-old son almost a week ago.

    “This is inhuman, and the world should not tolerate that,” the ambassador said. “It cannot be tolerated in 2023.”

    Bazoum sits in the dark basement, the ambassador said. He answers the phone when a call comes in that he knows to be his friend or someone else he wants to speak to. The beleaguered president and his ambassador, whom junta members have declared out of a job, talk one or more times a day.

    Bazoum has not been seen out in public since July 26, when military vehicles blocked the gates to the presidential palace and security forces announced they were taking power. It is not possible to independently determine the president’s circumstances. The United States, United Nations and others have expressed repeated concern for what they called Bazoum’s deteriorating conditions in detention, and warned the junta they would hold it responsible for the well-being of Bazoum and his family.

    Separately, Human Rights Watch said Friday it had spoken directly to the detained president and to others in his circle, and received some similar accounts of mistreatment.

    However, an activist who supports Niger’s new military rulers in its communications said the reports of the president’s dire state were false. Insa Garba Saidou said he was in contact with some junta members but did not say how he had knowledge of the president’s lot.

    “Bazoum was lucky he was not taken anywhere,” Saidou said. “He was left in his palace with his phone. Those who did that don’t intend to hurt Bazoum.”

    Niger’s military coup and the plight of its ousted leader have drawn global attention — but not because that kind of turmoil is unusual for West Africa. Niger alone has had about a half-dozen military takeovers since independence in 1960. Niger leaders have suffered in coups before, most notably when a military-installed leader was shot down in 1999 by the same presidential guard unit that instigated the current coup.

    Niger’s return to reflexive armed takeovers by disgruntled troops is reverberating in the U.S. and internationally for two key reasons. One is because Bazoum came to power in a rare democratic presidential election in the Africa’s unstable Sahara and Sahel, in the only peaceful, democratic transfer of power that Niger has managed.

    The United States alone has invested close to $1 billion in Niger in recent years to support its democracy and deliver aid, in addition to building national forces capable of holding off north and west Africa’s al-Qaida- and Islamic State-allied armed groups.

    The U.S.-backed counterterror presence is the second key reason that Niger’s coup is resonating. Americans have a 1,100-strong security presence and have built bases in Niger’s capital and far north into its main outposts to counter West Africa’s armed jihadist groups. The Biden administration has yet to call what has happened in Niger a coup, citing laws that would obligate the U.S. to cut many of its military partnerships with the country.

    Niger’s region is dominated by military or military-aligned governments and a growing number of them have entered security partnerships with Russia’s Wagner mercenary groups.

    The soldiers who ousted Bazoum have announced a ruling structure but said little publicly about their plans. U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with Niger’s junta members in the capital this week but called them unreceptive to her demands to restore Niger’s democracy.

    “They were quite firm about how they want to proceed, and it is not in support of the constitution of Niger,” Nuland told reporters after.

    The junta also told Nuland that Bazoum would die if the regional ECOWAS security bloc intervened militarily to restore democracy, U.S. officials told the AP.

    Late this week, the ambassador shrugged that threat off, saying the junta is already on track to kill Bazoum by trapping his family and him with little more than a shrinking supply of dried rice and no means to cook it.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken several times with the detained president and expressed concern for his and his family’s safety. The U.S. says it has cut some aid to the government and paused military cooperation. Blinken has expressed broad support for ECOWAS, whose diplomatic efforts have been spurned by the Niger junta and which has warned of military force as a last resort.

    Blinken said in a statement Friday he was “particularly dismayed” that Niger’s mutinous soldiers had refused to release Bazoum’s family as a goodwill gesture. He gave no details.

    While the junta adviser Saidou denied that the junta threatened to kill Bazoum if ECOWAS invaded, he said Bazoum’s death would be inevitable if that happened.

    “Even if the high officers of the junta won’t touch Bazoum, if one gun is shot at one of Niger’s borders in order to reinstate Bazoum, I’m sure that there will be soldiers who will put an end to his life,” he said.

    Bazoum told Human Rights Watch that family members and friends who brought food were being turned away, and that the junta had refused treatment for his young son, who has a heart condition.

    Bazoum and his undetained allies want regional partners, the U.S. and others to intervene. With Bazoum vulnerable in captivity, neither he nor the ambassadors specify what they want the U.S. and other allies to do.

    Bazoum is a member of Niger’s tiny minority of nomadic Arabs, in a country of varying cultures rich in tradition. Despite his political career, Bazoum has retained his people’s devotion to livestock, keeping camels that he dotes on, Liman-Tinguiri said.

    For all his deprivations, the ambassador said, Bazoum remains in good spirits. “He is a man who is mentally very strong,” he said. “He’s a man of faith.”

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    Associated Press writer Sam Mednick contributed from Niamey, Niger.

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  • Zimbabwe’s president tells supporters they will go to heaven if they vote for his party this month

    Zimbabwe’s president tells supporters they will go to heaven if they vote for his party this month

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    HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged thousands of his supporters at a rally on Wednesday to deliver a “thunderous victory” in this month’s national election and proclaimed that “no one will stop us from ruling this country.”

    He said that people who vote for his ruling ZANU-PF party — which has been in power for 43 years —would go to heaven.

    Mnangwagwa, the 80-year-old leader who assumed power in the southern African nation in a coup in 2017, also warned his supporters against engaging in violence in the buildup to the Aug. 23 vote. That plea came days after an opposition party supporter was killed, allegedly at the hands of ruling party activists, in the first deadly violence of the election buildup.

    “Perpetrators of violence will be brought to book without fear or favor. So, I say to you don’t ever perpetrate violence, we will deal with you,” Mnangagwa said.

    But while Mnangagwa has often called on his supporters to act peacefully, it hasn’t spared the leader and his administration from criticism by international rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

    They say that no matter what the president says, there has been a brutal crackdown on any opposition in Zimbabwe, and Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF are using institutions like the police and the courts to arrest critics, ban opposition rallies and stifle any challenge to their rule. Main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that Zimbabweans often face the threat of deadly violence if they don’t support the ruling party.

    ZANU-PF has been Zimbabwe’s ruling party ever since independence from white minority rule in 1980. Supporters at Wednesday’s rally received gifts of loaves of bread in plastic wrapping with Mnangagwa’s face on them.

    “We will forever march forward,” Mnangagwa said at the rally in the capital, Harare. “No one will stop us from ruling this country. We are the only party that brought independence and freedom to a colonized people of this country. We kicked out imperialism.”

    “So you will be lost if you don’t vote for ZANU-PF — you would have betrayed our freedom fighters. We need a thunderous victory to consolidate our hard-won independence.”

    Zimbabwe has a history of violent elections and although Mnangagwa told his supporters to act peacefully, he also blamed Zimbabwe’s insecurity on “negative forces” outside the country, repeating the kind of rhetoric that former President Robert Mugabe used to blame the country’s woes on others, most notably Western nations.

    Zimbabwe is under U.S. and European Union sanctions and has generally been shunned by the West for 20 years because of human rights abuses under the autocratic Mugabe, who died in 2019.

    Mnangagwa replaced then ZANU-PF leader Mugabe in a coup in 2017 and won a close and disputed presidential election against Chamisa in 2018. Chamisa will challenge Mnangagwa again for the presidency in this month’s election and has already made allegations of election manipulation.

    Mnangagwa promised a new era of freedom and democracy after replacing Mugabe, yet his critics say that hasn’t happened and that he is as repressive as Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s economy, which collapsed amid record levels of hyperinflation leading to the country abandoning its currency in 2009, has hardly improved, although there are signs that Zimbabwe’s once-strong agricultural sector is rebounding.

    Mugabe’s removal also raised hopes that the country’s relationship with the West would be revived. But Mnangagwa has instead strengthened ties with China and Russia, and hosted Iran’s president for a state visit last month, when Mnangagwa spoke of solidarity and said both were “victims” of Western sanctions.

    Zimbabwe’s rich mineral resources, which include gold, diamonds, platinum and large newly-found deposits of lithium, have also led to increased Chinese interest. A Chinese company opened a giant lithium processing plant in Zimbabwe last month with Mnangagwa in attendance.

    Wearing his now trademark scarf with the red, white, green and yellow colors of the Zimbabwean flag, Mnangagwa said he had succeeded in rebuilding parts of the economy with the help of China.

    Zimbabwe has built roads, dams and agricultural and industrial infrastructure, and used a $1.5 billion loan from China to expand a major electricity plant, Mnangagwa said. He said the money was from “my friend Xi Jinping” – the Chinese leader. Mnangagwa called continuing Western sanctions on his nation unfair.

    “Zimbabwe is a friend to all and an enemy to none,” Mnangagwa said. “We are engaging with those who want to engage with us on the basis of mutual respect. We are a sovereign state and partners are welcome to assist us based on our own priorities.”

    “We call for the unconditional removal of unjust, illegal sanctions imposed on the people of Zimbabwe.”

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    AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Local businesses in northern Nigeria feel the sting of regional sanctions against neighboring Niger

    Local businesses in northern Nigeria feel the sting of regional sanctions against neighboring Niger

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    ABUJA, Nigeria — A decision by a bloc of West African nations to shut down their borders with Niger as a way of sanctioning its coup plotters is harming local businesses in northern Nigeria, where a cross-border economy has boomed for years.

    The bloc known as ECOWAS restricted financial transactions and shut the borders between Niger and its member nations as part of measures to force the coup plotters to reinstate Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum who was overthrown last month by soldiers in his Presidential Guard.

    But the sting of the sanctions against the junta is being felt on the other side of the 1,600 kilometers (995 miles) -long border, in Nigeria.

    Niger accounts for 75% of the total value of exports from Nigeria’s cross-border informal trade, according to a study by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The bank’s latest report in 2016 valued goods traded across the border with Niger at 828 billion naira ($934 million) a year.

    In Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state, the border’s closure and restricted traffic on nearby roads left dozens of trucks stranded for days, most of them loaded with food items and other perishable goods. Prices of livestock, animal products and some commodities usually supplied from the city of Maradi in Niger have increased, local residents said.

    Nigeria’s authorities are enforcing the restriction of movement across the border but the measure has also impacted traffic in the surrounding area, including truck drivers not heading to Niger but other border towns in Nigeria.

    Truck driver Usman Kaura said he was ferrying bags of garri, a type of cassava flour, worth about 15 million naira ($17,000) from Nigeria’s Benue state to another part of Katsina, when he got stranded for five days in the heat in the border district of Jibia, alongside other drivers.

    “The garri can spoil at any moment,” he said. “We are still inside Nigeria but yet we are stopped.”

    The sanctions by the West African group ECOWAS — with a history of their own coups — have failed to force the coup plotters next door to reinstate Bazoum.

    Since the July 26 coup, the mutinous soldiers have installed Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as head of state and have also threatened to retaliate against any military intervention by ECOWAS member states. The junta has also rejected a proposed visit by representatives of ECOWAS, the African Union and United Nations.

    Four coups in West Africa since 2020 do not bode well for the current ECOWAS chairman and Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, at least as far as the bloc’s next steps are concerned.

    Tinubu is seeking to make a good impression on the international scene, said Oluwole Ojewale of the Africa-focused Institute of Security Studies. Niger’s “coup is the first test of Tinubu’s leadership,” he said.

    In the border region, local residents say business owners have taken advantage of the border closure to hike the prices of other goods.

    A sack of 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of corn now costs around $56, a 24% increase from last week, said Muawiya Ibrahim, a Katsina resident.

    He lamented the divisions created by the border closure for the people on either side of the boundary. “We shared so much, we even married amongst each other,” he said.

    “To say Nigeria and Niger are one is true,” Ibrahim added.

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    Associated Press writer Dan Ikpoyi in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

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  • A deadline has arrived for Niger’s junta to reinstate the president. Residents brace for what’s next

    A deadline has arrived for Niger’s junta to reinstate the president. Residents brace for what’s next

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    NIAMEY, Niger — The deadline has arrived Sunday for Niger’s military junta to reinstate the country’s ousted president, but the West Africa regional bloc that has threatened a military intervention faces prominent appeals to pursue more peaceful means.

    Neighboring Nigeria’s Senate on Saturday pushed back against the plan by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, urging Nigeria’s president, the bloc’s current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are taken by consensus by member states, but the warning on the eve of Sunday’s deadline raised questions about the intervention’s fate.

    The threat of military intervention came in the wake of the Jul. 27 coup when mutinous soldiers installed their leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, as Niger’s new head of state. Even as Tchiani asked for national and international support, fears swelled that the country’s political crisis could hinder its fight against jihadists and boost Russia’s influence in West Africa.

    The coup adds another layer of complexity to the West Africa region that’s struggling with military takeovers, Islamic extremism and a shift by some states toward Russia and its proxy, the Wagner mercenary group.

    Algeria and Chad, non-ECOWAS neighbors with strong militaries in the region, both have said they oppose the use of force or won’t intervene militarily, and neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso – both run by juntas – have said an intervention would be a “declaration of war” against them, too.

    Niger’s ousted President Mohamed Bazoum said he is held “hostage” by the mutinous soldiers. An ECOWAS delegation was unable to meet with Tchiani, who analysts have asserted led the coup to avoid being fired. Now the junta has reached out to Wagner for assistance while severing security ties with former colonizer France.

    Hours before Sunday’s deadline, hundreds of youth joined security forces in the darkened streets in Niger’s capital, Niamey to stand guard at a dozen roundabouts until morning, checking cars for weapons and heeding the junta’s call to watch out for foreign intervention and spies.

    “I’m here to support the military. We are against (the regional bloc). We will fight to the end. We do not agree with what France is doing against us. We are done with colonization,” said Ibrahim Nudirio, one of the residents on patrol.

    Some passing cars honked in support. Some people called for solidarity among African nations.

    It was not immediately clear on Sunday what ECOWAS will do next.

    The regional bloc shouldn’t have given the junta a one-week deadline to reinstate Bazoum but rather only up to 48 hours, said Peter Pham, former U.S. special envoy for West Africa’s Sahel region and a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. “Now it’s dragged out, which gives the junta time to entrench itself,” he said.

    The most favorable scenario for an intervention would be a force coming in with the help of those on the inside, he said.

    The coup is a major blow to the United States and allies who saw Niger as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, a vast area south of the Sahara Desert where jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have been expanding their range and beginning to threaten coastal states like Benin, Ghana and Togo.

    The United States, France and European countries have poured hundreds of millions of dollars of military assistance into Niger. France has 1,500 soldiers in the country, though their fate is now in question. The U.S. has 1,100 military personnel also in Niger where they operate an important drone base in the city of Agadez.

    While Niger’s coup leaders have claimed they acted because of growing insecurity, conflict incidents decreased by nearly 40% in the country compared to the previous six-month period, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project. That’s in contrast to surging attacks in Mali, which has kicked out French forces and partnered with Wagner, and Burkina Faso, which has gotten rid of French forces as well.

    The uncertainty in Niger is worsening daily life for some 25 million people in one of the world’s poorest countries. Food prices are rising after ECOWAS imposed economic and travel sanctions following the coup. Nigeria, which supplies up to 90% of the electricity in Niger, has cut off some of the supply.

    Humanitarian groups in Niger have warned of “devastating effects” on the lives of over 4.4 million people needing aid.

    Some of Niger’s already struggling residents said military intervention is not the answer.

    “Just to eat is a problem for us. So if there is a war, that won’t fix anything,” said Mohamed Noali, a Niamey resident patrolling the streets.

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    AP writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed.

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  • Niger’s civil society mobilizes the nation to fight for freedom from foreign interference

    Niger’s civil society mobilizes the nation to fight for freedom from foreign interference

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    NIAMEY, Niger — NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger ‘s ruling junta and civil society groups called on the nation to mobilize in the capital on Thursday to fight for the country’s freedom and push back against foreign interference.

    “We are talking about the immediate departure of all foreign forces,” Mahaman Sanoussi, interim coordinator for the M62 civil society group that’s organizing the protest, told The Associated Press. “(We’ll mobilize) against all forms of threats to continue the struggle for the sovereignty of the people. The dignity of the Nigerian people will be respected by all without exception.”

    The march falls on the West African nation’s independence day from its former colonial ruler, France, and as anti-French sentiment spikes, more than one week after mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president. Protests are expected throughout the capital, Niamey, to push back against foreign meddling.

    The coup has been strongly condemned by Western countries, many of which saw Niger as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Africa’s Sahel region. Russia and Western countries have been vying for influence in the fight against extremism.

    France has 1,500 soldiers in Niger who conduct joint operations with its military, and the United States and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.

    In an address to the nation on Wednesday, the new military ruler, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, lashed out at neighboring countries and the international community and called on the population to be ready to defend the nation.

    Tchiani said Niger will face difficult times ahead and that the “hostile and radical” attitudes of those who oppose his rule provide no added value. He called harsh sanctions imposed last week by the West African block known as ECOWAS illegal, unfair, inhuman and unprecedented.

    ECOWAS has also threatened to use force if ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who remains under house arrest, is not released and reinstated by Aug. 6.

    In a closed door meeting on Wednesday, dozens of people from civil society organizations, professional groups and trade unions spoke with the coup leaders about their vision for the country. Sanoussi, from M62, was at the meeting and said the junta talked about their priorities for the nation, including securing it from violence.

    But another civil society member at the same gathering who did not want to be named for security reasons told the AP they left feeling concerned. They had a strong impression that the French military was going to be ousted soon and that members of civil society groups would help the junta do it.

    During the meeting, Tchiani spent a long time speaking about the history of foreign military presence in the region, discussing France’s involvement without naming it specifically, and asked those present to help maintain the country’s integrity. Tchiani also didn’t seem concerned that ECOWAS would intervene or that President Bazoum would resign — which he has yet to do — noting he was no longer in power, the civil society members said.

    Even if the junta demands the withdrawal of French troops — as they did in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, both of which are run by military leaders — it wouldn’t make a difference, said Anne-Claire Legendre, a spokesperson for the French foreign minister during a press briefing on Wednesday.

    “We don’t answer to the putschists. We recognize one constitutional order and one legitimacy only, that of President Bazoum,” she said.

    Ahead of Thursday’s demonstration, the French Embassy in Niamey asked Niger’s government to take all measures to ensure the security and protection of its premises after it was attacked by protesters last week and a door was set on fire.

    Demonstrators in Niger are openly resentful of France and have been waving Russian flags during protests. Some see Russia and its Wagner mercenary group, which operates in a handful of African countries, including Mali, as a powerful alternative. The new junta leaders have not said whether they intend to ally themselves with Moscow or stick with Niger’s Western partners.

    As tensions grow in the capital and the region, many European countries announced the evacuations of their citizens.

    By late Wednesday night, nearly 1,000 people had left on four flights and a fifth evacuation was underway, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

    The State Department on Wednesday ordered what it said was the temporary departure of nonessential embassy staff and some family members from Niger as a precaution. It said its embassy would remain open. Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said late Wednesday that the State Department had not requested U.S. military assistance for the departure.

    Nigeriens are now bracing for what’s ahead. The sanctions announced by ECOWAS included halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from neighboring Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

    Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigeria’s main electricity companies said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the issue. The official did not clarify how much of Niger’s power the cut represented, but any reduction would further squeeze citizens in the impoverished country of more than 25 million people.

    On Wednesday, the president’s party accused the junta of cutting off electricity to his residence since that morning. “As a result, the president of the republic and his family no longer benefit from the rotating supply of energy,” said Kalla Ankourao, the ruling party’s general secretary.

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    Associated Press reporter Zane Irwin in Dakar, Senegal contributed

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  • Foreign nationals evacuate Niger, as regional tensions rise

    Foreign nationals evacuate Niger, as regional tensions rise

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    NIAMEY, Niger — Foreign nationals lined up outside an airport in Niger’s capital Wednesday morning waiting for a third evacuation flight, while a regional bloc continued talks about its response to the coup that took place last week.

    French forces in the capital, Niamey, evacuated hundreds of mostly French nationals to Paris on two flights Tuesday, following concerns that their citizens and other Europeans risked becoming trapped by last week’s military coup, which ousted and detained President Mohamed Bazoum.

    France, Italy and Spain all announced evacuations for their citizens and other Europeans. The United States has yet to announce plans for an evacuation, however some have left the with the help of the Europeans.

    An Italian military aircraft landed in Rome Wednesday with 99 passengers, including 21 Americans and civilians from other countries, said the Italian defense minister. The first of two French flights that landed in Paris overnight had 12 babies among 262 people aboard, most of them French but including evacuees from Niger, Portugal, Belgium, Ethiopia and Lebanon, France’s Foreign Ministry said.

    Before sunrise Wednesday, hundreds of people lined up outside the terminal at Niamey’s airport hoping to leave, after a third flight was canceled the night before. Some slept on the floor, others watched video games or talked on the phone.

    Some parents tried to shield their children from what was happening.

    “I haven’t told them very much, just that they’re going home,” said a passenger who did not want to be named for security reasons.

    “If ECOWAS (a West African regional bloc) intervenes, populations can attack ECOWAS nationals here. They’ve already made threats,” he said.

    On Sunday, ECOWAS said it would use force against the junta if it didn’t release and reinstate the president within a week. The announcement was immediately rejected by neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, all of which are run by mutinous soldiers who toppled their governments.

    Mali and Burkina Faso’s leaders said a military intervention in Niger “would be tantamount to a declaration of war” against them.

    Niger was seen as one of the region’s last democracies and a partner Western countries could work with to beat back the jihadi violence that’s wracked the region. The United States, France and other European countries have poured millions of dollars of military aid and assistance into the country.

    On Tuesday, United States said its Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with President Bazoum and underscored that the U.S. rejects efforts to overturn the constitutional order, and stands with the people of Niger, ECOWAS, the African Union and international partners in support of democratic governance and respect for the rule of law and human rights.

    The defense chiefs of ECOWAS’ 15 members will meet in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, from Wednesday to Friday to discuss next steps in resolving the crisis, the bloc said in a statement.

    At a virtual United Nations meeting on Tuesday night, the U.N. special envoy for West Africa and the Sahel said that efforts other than the threat of force are underway to restore democracy in Niger.

    “One week can be more than enough if everybody talks in good faith, if everybody wants to avoid bloodshed,” said Leonardo Santos Simao. But, he added, “different member states are preparing themselves to use force if necessary.”

    But some in the diplomatic community believe the use of force could be a real option.

    ECOWAS is resolved to use military force after economic and travel sanctions have failed to roll back other coups, said a Western diplomat in Niamey who did not want to be identified for security reasons.

    Niamey has calmed after protests supporting the junta turned violent Sunday when demonstrators attacked the French embassy and set fire to a door.

    But some say the mood is still tense. During Tuesday’s evacuation flights at the airport, a passenger who did not want to be named for security reasons said that the Nigerien military, which was escorting an Italian military convoy into the airport, sped off with soldiers who raised their middle fingers at the passengers.

    That same night, the M62 Movement, an activist group that has organized pro-Russia and anti-French protests, called for residents in Niamey to mobilize and block the airport until foreign military forces leave the country.

    “Any evacuation of Europeans (should be) conditional on the immediate departure of foreign military forces,” Mahaman Sanoussi, the national coordinator for the group, said in a statement.

    ——

    AP journalists Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington DC, John Leicester in Paris and Frances D’Emilio in Rome, Italy contributed to this report.

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  • Some of Niger’s neighbors defend the coup there, even hinting at war. It’s a warning for Africa

    Some of Niger’s neighbors defend the coup there, even hinting at war. It’s a warning for Africa

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    NAIROBI, Kenya — Not everyone is hostile to the coups in Niger and other African nations in the past few years that have worried the West. In the “family photo” for last week’s Russia-Africa Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood next to Ibrahim Traore, the young military officer who seized power in Burkina Faso in September.

    It was an uncomfortable moment for many leaders elsewhere in Africa. “The normalization and dignifying of military takeovers must trouble our great continent,” Kenya’s cabinet secretary for foreign affairs wrote while sharing the photo this week.

    Now Burkina Faso and another military junta-led country friendly with Russia, Mali, have taken the unusual step of declaring that foreign military intervention in neighboring Niger after last week’s coup would be considered a declaration of war against them, too.

    They are defying the West African regional body known as ECOWAS, which said on Sunday it could use force if Niger’s coup leaders don’t reinstate the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, within a week. Another coup-affected nation, Guinea, in a separate statement supported Niger’s junta and urged ECOWAS to “come to its senses.”

    Their defense of the events in Niger complicates the world’s response as the resolve of partners is tested. It also reflects what a United Nations study warned last month after surveying thousands of citizens of African countries that recently went through coups or other undemocratic changes of government.

    “A possible regional-level scenario might see the military juntas in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso team up” to challenge the region’s traditional response to coups, the report said. It warned they could defy sanctions and stand for elections, with help from “new international alliances.”

    The report said that “paradoxically,” popular support for the recent military coups in Africa is “symptomatic of a new wave of democratic aspiration that is expanding across the continent” as overwhelmingly young populations grow frustrated with existing economic and political systems and press for change more rapid than what elections can deliver.

    Many just want to feel secure as Islamic extremists expand their range in the Sahel, the arid region south of the Sahara Desert. “I think that a military power in Niger will better coordinate its military actions with Mali and Burkina Faso to fight terrorism,” Harber Cisse, a Malian citizen living in Guinea, told The Associated Press. He believes Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, had been “turning a blind eye” and allowing extremists to cross into Mali.

    Those with memories of past coups in the region are not necessarily shocked by the hastily assembled military announcements and unrest in the streets. The U.N. survey found optimism and excitement along with anxiety for the future, plus an impatience that has led to multiple coups within months in more than one country. The four coups in Africa in 2021 were the most in a single year in two decades.

    Many people said they believed the army should take over when a civilian government is incompetent. “These findings highlight the risk of a return to an era of close military involvement in African politics,” the U.N. report said.

    Certain international responses to coups can be seen as an insult, especially if some foreign partners were seen as prioritizing security instead of African governments’ accountability for alleged misconduct. “In some scenarios, these geopolitically driven interventions have compounded the very factors that heighten coup risk,” the U.N. report said.

    Niger had been seen by the United States and allies as the last major counterterrorism partner in the immediate region after Mali and Burkina Faso kicked out French troops and Mali ordered a 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission to leave, claiming it had failed in its mission.

    Post-coup economic sanctions and cuts in assistance programs threaten to worsen the living situation for many in some of the world’s poorest countries, while well-off foreigners board evacuation flights to more comfortable places.

    To help counter the “epidemic of coups,” international partners shouldn’t downplay people’s grievances against national authorities, and their engagement should extend beyond the security sector and “national elites,” the director of the Amani Africa think tank, Solomon Dersso, wrote Monday.

    “There’s a small number of people profiting from the riches of Niger,” one coup supporter, Seydou Moussa, said in the capital, Niamey. “Nigeriens cannot live like that. It’s time that change comes. And change has come.”

    Part of the frustration in Niger and its neighbors over government weaknesses in addressing corruption and the threat from Islamic extremism has been aimed at France, the former colonizer of present-day Mali, Guinea, Niger, Burkina Faso and others in west and central Africa. The French embassy was attacked in Niger shortly after the coup, and the one in Burkina Faso was attacked last year.

    Some in West Africa have been upset by France’s warning shortly after the coup in Niger against those threatening “French interests” in the country, seeing it as an example of the alleged priorities that have long driven outsiders’ involvement, notably natural resources.

    Russia has played into such sentiments by framing itself to African nations as a country that never colonized on the continent, winning support in Mali and other vulnerable nations for Moscow and the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

    The Russian flag has been seen in the streets of Niger’s capital in the days after the coup, even as the Kremlin called for Niger “to restore constitutional order as soon as possible.”

    Moscow also has emphasized its role as the top arms supplier to Africa, which Burkina Faso’s military leader embraced during the Russia-Africa Summit.

    “Thank God, Russia is a country that refuses nothing,” Traore said in an interview with the Russian media outlet Sputnik, asserting that Moscow imposes no restrictions on weapons purchases and even is ready to deliver some for free to help the fight against extremism. “In fact, everything we want to buy, Russia agrees to sell to us. This is not the case with other countries.”

    ___ AP writers Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali, and Sam Mednick in Niamey, Niger, contributed.

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  • As regional bloc threatens intervention in Niger, neighboring juntas vow mutual defense

    As regional bloc threatens intervention in Niger, neighboring juntas vow mutual defense

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    NIAMEY, Niger — Two West African nations ruled by mutinous soldiers said Monday that military intervention in Niger would be considered a “declaration of war” against them, as the junta attempts to consolidate power after a coup last week.

    The West African regional body known as ECOWAS announced travel and economic sanctions against Niger on Sunday over the coup, and said it would use force if the coup leaders don’t reinstate Bazoum within one week. Bazoum’s government was one of the West’s last democratic partners against West African extremists.

    In a joint statement from the military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, the two countries wrote that “any military intervention against Niger will be considered as a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali.”

    Col. Abdoulaye Maiga, Mali’s state minister for Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, read the joint statement on Malian state TV Monday evening. The two countries also denounced ECOWAS economic sanctions as “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane” and refused to apply them.

    ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger, as well as freezing Nigerien assets held in regional central banks. Niger relies heavily on foreign aid and sanctions could further impoverish its more than 25 million people.

    Mali and Burkina Faso have each undergone two coups since 2020, as soldiers overthrew governments claiming they could do a better job fighting increasing jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. ECOWAS has sanctioned both countries and suspended them from the bloc, but never threatened to use force.

    Also on Sunday, Guinea, another country under military rule since 2021, issued a statement in support of Niger’s junta and urged ECOWAS to “come to its senses”.

    “The sanctions measures advocated by ECOWAS, including military intervention, are an option that would not be a solution to the current problem, but would lead to a human disaster whose consequences could extend beyond Niger’s borders,” said Ibrahima Sory Bangoura, general of the brigade in a statement from the ruling party. He added the Guinea would not apply the sanctions.

    In anticipation of the ECOWAS decision Sunday, thousands of pro-junta supporters took to the streets in Niamey, denouncing France, waving Russian flags along with signs reading “Down with France” and supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling the international community to stay away.

    There has been no clear explanation of the Russian symbols, but the country seems to have become a symbol of anti-Western feelings for demonstrators.

    Protesters also burned down a door and smashed windows at the French Embassy before the Nigerien army dispersed them.

    Niger could be following in the same footsteps as Mali and Burkina Faso, say analysts, both of which saw protestors waving Russian flags after their respective coups. After the second coup in Burkina Faso in September, protestors also attacked the French Embassy in the capital, Ouagadougou, and damaged and ransacked the Institut Francais, France’s international cultural promotion organization.

    If ECOWAS uses force, it could also trigger violence between civilians supporting the coup and those against it, Niger analysts say.

    While unlikely, “the consequences on civilians of such an approach if putschists chose confrontation would be catastrophic,” said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank.

    Lyammouri does not see a “military intervention happening because of the violence that could trigger,” he said.

    Blinken on Sunday commended the resolve of the ECOWAS leadership to “defend constitutional order in Niger” after the sanctions announcement, and joined the bloc in calling for the immediate release of Bazoum and his family.

    Also Sunday, junta spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane banned the use of social media to put out messages he describe as harmful to state security. He also claimed without evidence that Bazoum’s government had authorized the French to carry out strikes to free Bazoum.

    Observers believe Bazoum is being held at his house in the capital, Niamey. The first photos of him since the coup appeared Sunday evening, sitting on a couch smiling beside Chad’s President Mahamat Deby, who had flown in to mediate between the government and the junta.

    Both the United States and France have sent troops and hundreds of millions of dollars of military and humanitarian aid in recent years to Niger, which was a French colony until 1960. The country was seen as the last working with the West against extremism in a Francophone region where anti-French sentiment had opened the way for the Russian private military group Wagner.

    After neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso ousted the French military and began working with Wagner mercenaries, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Niger in March to strengthen ties and announce $150 million in direct assistance, calling the country “a model of democracy.”

    The U.S. will consider cutting aid if the coup is successful, the State Department said Monday. Aid is “very much in the balance depending on the outcome of the actions in the country,” said department spokesman Matt Miller. “US assistance hinges on continued democratic governance in Niger.”

    France said Monday that President Emmanuel Macron is closely monitoring the situation in Niger and has discussed the crisis with regional leaders and European and international partners.

    The sanctions could be disastrous and Niger needs to find a solution to avoid them, Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou told French media outlet Radio France Internationale on Sunday.

    “When people say there’s an embargo, land borders are closed, air borders are closed, it’s extremely difficult for people … Niger is a country that relies heavily on the international community,” he said.

    In the capital of Niger, many people live in makeshift shelters tied together with slats of wood, sheets and plastic tarps because they can’t pay rent. They scramble daily to make enough money to feed their children.

    Since the 1990s, the 15-nation ECOWAS has tried to protect democracies against the threat of coups, with mixed success.

    Four nations are run by military governments in West and Central Africa, where there have been nine successful or attempted coups since 2020.

    In the 1990s, ECOWAS intervened in Liberia during its civil war, one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa and one that left many wary of intervening in internal conflicts. In 2017, ECOWAS intervened in Gambia to prevent the new president’s predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, from disrupting the handover of power. Around 7,000 troops from Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal entered the country, according to the Global Observatory, which provides analysis on peace and security issues. The intervention was largely seen as accomplishing its mission.

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  • In her next book ‘Prequel,’ Rachel Maddow will explore a WWII-era plot to overthrow US government

    In her next book ‘Prequel,’ Rachel Maddow will explore a WWII-era plot to overthrow US government

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    Rachel Maddow’s next book will be an exploration into right-wing extremism in the U.S., including a plot to overthrow the government at the start of World War II

    FILE – MSNBC television anchor Rachel Maddow, host of the Rachel Maddow Show, moderates a panel, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, at a forum called “Perspectives on National Security,” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. Maddow’s next book will be an exploration into right-wing extremism in the U.S., including a plot to overthrow the government at the start of World War II. Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Monday, July 31, 2023, that Maddow’s “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism” will be published Oct. 17. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

    The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Rachel Maddow’s next book will be an exploration into right-wing extremism in the U.S., including a plot to overthrow the government at the start of World War II.

    Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Monday that Maddow’s “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism” will be published Oct. 17. The book expands upon research for the liberal author-commentator’s podcast “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” for which Steven Spielberg has acquired film rights.

    “Just as I like to dive into the backstory and deep origins of any particular news event, I also find it helpful to know if we’ve previously contended with something like what we’re seeing in today’s news,” the Emmy-winning MSNBC host, who discussed the book on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Monday night, said in a statement released by Crown.

    “Even though I find it disturbing and a little scary that, in our own time, some sizeable chunk of Americans seem ready to jettison real elections and instead embrace rule by force, it’s somehow heartening to me to know that this isn’t a brand new challenge – another sizeable chunk of Americans felt essentially the same way in the lead-up to World War II.”

    In “Prequel,” Maddow will describe anti-government actions involving a Nazi agent, more than 20 members of Congress and the anti-Semitic America First Committee that led to a 1944 sedition trial, which ended in a mistrial.

    Maddow’s previous books include “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth” and “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power.”

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  • Niger faces crippling sanctions after coup as one of the last democracies in the Sahel crumbles

    Niger faces crippling sanctions after coup as one of the last democracies in the Sahel crumbles

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    NIAMEY, Niger — West African nations have announced travel and economic sanctions against Niger and have threatened to use force if the leaders of a coup don’t reinstate the democratically elected president within one week.

    The sanctions announced after the regional bloc known as ECOWAS convened to respond to last week’s military takeover add to a growing list of penalties against the country, one of the least developed in the world, according to the latest U.N. Human Development Index. Niger relies heavily on foreign aid: analysts fear sanctions could further impoverish its 25 million people.

    “In the event the authority’s demands are not met within one week, (the bloc will) take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force,” the ECOWAS bloc said in a statement after its meeting on Sunday. One of its demands is the immediate release and reinstatement of Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum, who remains under house arrest and has yet to resign.

    Niger, a former French colony, had been regarded by the West as one of the last democratic partners in the Sahel region in its battle against Islamic extremists. The European Union and the United States have poured millions of dollars in military aid and assistance into the country. The French and the US provide training to Niger’s forces and the French military does joint operations in the north.

    ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger, as well as freezing Nigerien assets held in regional central banks. Economic sanctions could have a deep impact on Nigeriens: the country relies on imports from Nigeria for up to 90% of its power, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

    The sanctions could be disastrous and Niger needs to find a solution to avoid them, the country’s Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou told French media outlet Radio France Internationale on Sunday.

    “When people say there’s an embargo, land borders are closed, air borders are closed, it’s extremely difficult for people … Niger is a country that relies heavily on the international community,” he said.

    The 15-nation ECOWAS bloc has unsuccessfully tried to restore democracies in nations where the military took power in recent years. Four nations are run by military governments in West and Central Africa, where there have been nine successful or attempted coups since 2020.

    In the 1990s, ECOWAS intervened in Liberia during its civil war. In 2017, it intervened in Gambia to prevent the new president’s predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, from disrupting the handover of power. Around 7,000 troops from Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal entered the country, according to the Global Observatory, which provides analysis on peace and security issues.

    If the regional bloc uses force, it could trigger violence not only between Niger and ECOWAS forces but also between civilians supporting the coup and those against it, Niger analysts say.

    “While this remains to be a threat and unlikely action, the consequences on civilians of such an approach if putschists chose confrontation would be catastrophic,” said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank.

    Lyammouri also said he does not see a “military intervention happening because of the violence that could trigger.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken commended Sunday the resolve of the ECOWAS leadership to “defend constitutional order in Niger” after the sanctions announcement, and joined the bloc in calling for the immediate release of Bazoum and his family.

    The military junta, which seized power on Wednesday when members of the presidential guard surrounded Bazoum’s house and detained him, is already cracking down on the government and civil liberties.

    On Sunday evening it arrested four government officials, including Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, the minister of petroleum and son of former President Mahamadou Issoufou; Kassoum Moctar, minister of education; Ousseini Hadizatou Yacouba, the minister of mines, and Foumakoye Gado, the president of the ruling party. That’s according to someone close to the president, who was not authorized to speak about the situation, and a Nigerien analyst who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.

    The same night, junta spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said on state television that all government cars must be returned by midday Monday and banned the use of social media to diffuse messages against state security. He also claimed that Bazoum’s government had authorized the French to carry out strikes to free Bazoum. The Associated Press can’t verify his allegations.

    Bazoum has yet to resign. He is still being detained and believed to be in his house in the capital, Niamey. The first photos of him since the coup appeared Sunday evening, sitting on a couch smiling beside Chad’s President Mahamat Deby, who had flown in to mediate between the government and the junta.

    In anticipation of the ECOWAS decision Sunday, thousands of pro-junta supporters took to the streets in Niamey, denouncing France, waving Russian flags and telling the international community to stay away.

    Demonstrators in Niger are openly resentful of France, and Russia is seen by some as a powerful alternative. The nature of Moscow’s involvement in the rallies, if any, isn’t clear, but some protesters have carried Russian flags, along with signs reading “Down with France” and supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    “The situation of this country is not good … It’s time for change, and change has arrived,” said Moussa Seydou, a protester. “What we want from the putschists — all they have to do is improve social conditions so that Nigeriens can live better in this country and bring peace,” he said.

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  • The French embassy in Niger is attacked as protesters waving Russian flags march through the capital

    The French embassy in Niger is attacked as protesters waving Russian flags march through the capital

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    NIAMEY, Niger — Thousands of supporters of the junta that took over Niger in a coup earlier this week marched Sunday through the streets of the capital, Niamey, waving Russian flags, chanting the name of the Russian president and forcefully denouncing former colonial power France.

    The protesters marched through the city to the French Embassy, where a door was lit on fire, according to someone who was at the embassy when it happened and videos seen by The AP. Black smoke could be seen rising from across the city. The Nigerien army broke up the crowd of the protesters.

    Russian mercenary group Wagner is already operating in neighboring Mali, and Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to expand his country’s influence in the region. However, it is unclear yet whether the new junta leaders will move toward Moscow or stick with Niger’s Western partners.

    On Sunday at an emergency meeting in Abjua, Nigeria the West African bloc said it was suspending relations with Niger and authorized the use of force if the president was not reinstated within a week.

    “In the event the authorities’ demands are not met within one week, take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force. To this effect, the chiefs of defense staff of ECOWAS are to meet immediately,” Omar Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission, said after the meeting.

    Days after the coup, uncertainty is mounting about Niger’s future, with some calling out the junta’s reasons for seizing control.

    President Mohamed Bazoum was democratically elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

    The mutineers said they overthrew him because he wasn’t able to secure the nation against growing jihadi violence.

    But some analysts and Nigeriens say that’s just a pretext for a takeover that is more about internal power struggles than securing the nation.

    “Everybody is wondering: why this coup? That’s because no one was expecting it. We couldn’t expect a coup in Niger because there’s no social, political or security situation that would justify that the military take the power,” Prof. Amad Hassane Boubacar, who teaches at the University of Niamey, told The Associated Press.

    He said Bazoum wanted to replace the head of the presidential guard, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who is now in charge of the country. Tchiani, who also goes by Omar, was loyal to Bazoum’s predecessor and that sparked the problems, Boubacar said. The AP cannot independently verify his assessment.

    While Niger’s security situation is dire, it’s not as bad as neighboring Burkina Faso or Mali, which have also been battling an Islamic insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Last year, Niger was the only one of the three to see a decline in violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

    Niger had been seen as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle the jihadists in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence. France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with the Nigeriens. The United States and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.

    Regional bodies, including the West African economic bloc ECOWAS, have denounced the coup. Some taking part in Sunday’s rally warned them to stay away. “I would like also to say to the European Union, African Union and ECOWAS, please, please stay out of our business,” said Oumar Barou Moussa, who was at the demonstration.

    “It’s time for us to take our lives, to work for ourselves. It’s time for us to talk about our freedom and liberty. We need to stay together, we need to work together, we need to have our true independence,” he said.

    Conflict experts say out of all the countries in the region, Niger has the most at stake if it turns away from the West, given the millions of dollars of military assistance the international community has poured in. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the continued security and economic arrangements that Niger has with the U.S. hinged on the release of Bazoum — who remains under house arrest — and “the immediate restoration of the democratic order in Niger.”

    On Sunday, France’s President, Emmanuel Macron said attacks on France and its interests would not be tolerated. Anyone who attacked French nationals, the army, diplomats and French authorities would see an immediate response, he said.

    Macron said he’d spoken to Bazoum and his predecessor as Nigerien President, Mahamadou Issoufou, hours earlier, who both condemned the coup and appealed for calm.

    The attack follows France’s move on Saturday to suspend all development and financial aid for Niger.

    The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the country’s democratically elected government. ECOWAS is holding an emergency summit Sunday in Abuja, Nigeria.

    The 15-nation ECOWAS bloc has unsuccessfully tried to restore democracies in nations where the military took power in recent years. Four nations are run by military regimes in West and Central Africa, where there have been nine successful or attempted coups since 2020.

    If ECOWAS imposes economic sanctions on Niger, which is what normally happens during coups, it could have a deep impact on Nigeriens, who live in the third-poorest country in the world, according to the latest U.N. data.

    However, in a televised address Saturday, Col. Major Amadou Abdramane, one of the soldiers who ousted Bazoum, accused the meeting of making a “plan of aggression” against Niger and said the country would defend itself.

    Niger experts say it’s too soon to know how things will play out.

    “Tensions with the military are still ongoing. There could be another coup after this one, or a stronger intervention from ECOWAS, potentially military force, even if it is difficult to foresee how specifically that may happen and what form that may take,” said Tatiana Smirnova, a researcher in conflict resolution and peace missions at the Centre FrancoPaix.

    “Many actors are also trying to negotiate, but the outcome is unclear,” she said.

    ___

    Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria contributed.

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  • African Union gives 15-day ultimatum to Niger junta to end regime but soldiers seek continuity

    African Union gives 15-day ultimatum to Niger junta to end regime but soldiers seek continuity

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    NIAMEY, Niger — The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the country’s democratically elected government just as the coup leaders met with senior civil servants to discuss how they would run the country and as the U.S. and the European Union threatened sanctions against the regime.

    Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday, told state television that the junta met with civil servants on Friday and asked them to continue their work as usual following the suspension of the constitution. “The message given was not to stop the processes underway, to keep on with things,” said Brig. Gen. Toumba.

    “Everything that must be done will be done,” he said, signaling the intention of the regime led by Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who also goes by Omar, to remain in power.

    After its meeting on Friday, the African Union Peace and Security Council said it was concerned by the “alarming resurgence” of coups that undermine democracy and stability on the continent. It asked the soldiers to “return immediately and unconditionally to their barracks and restore constitutional authority, within a maximum of fifteen (15) days.”

    Bazoum, whose condition and that of his officials remains unknown since the government was overthrown, should also be released immediately and unconditionally, the AU said. Failure to do so would compel the bloc to take “necessary action, including punitive measures against the perpetrators.”

    On the streets of the Nigerien capital Niamey on Saturday, things appeared to be returning to normal, though many in the international community were still on lockdown with hotels full of foreigners, many given instructions not to leave.

    Locals say they’re waiting to see what unfolds, with many still in support of Bazoum who has not yet resigned. “I’m with him, he does a good work. (But) what can we do?” said Mohamed Cisse, a street seller. “This is (the new leader’s) time, Bazoum’s time is over,” he said.

    Tchiani, the junta leader and commander of Niger’s presidential guard, is close to former Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou, who stepped down in 2021 after a decade in office. Tchiani’s takeover of power will reinforce speculation that Issoufou is behind the coup, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think tank and consultancy.

    The U.S. threatened to halt its economic support to Niger while the European Union announced the immediate indefinite suspension of budgetary support and security assistance.

    U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is in Australia as part of a Pacific tour, estimated America’s economic and security partnership with Niger at hundreds of millions of dollars and said its continuity depends on “the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order.”

    “So that assistance, that support, is in clear jeopardy as a result of these actions, which is another reason why they need to be immediately reversed,” Blinken said.

    While there are no signs of the junta backing down amid growing international pressure, analysts called for synergy in the interventions of the international community and continental organizations such as the AU and the regional bloc of ECOWAS, which is scheduled to meet over the coup on Sunday.

    A successful coup in Niger and the sanctions in the aftermath could cause more hardship for millions of poor and hungry people in West Africa and could further threaten international relations with the region, which is seeing a resurgence of coups in recent years, according to Idayat Hassan, senior Africa program fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    “A non-reversal of the coup also means that we are defining a new world order in West Africa in particular as you are pitching the west and other countries against few military regimes which may be backed by Russia,” said Hassan.

    ———

    Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed.

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  • Niger general who led coup asks for support from the people and international partners

    Niger general who led coup asks for support from the people and international partners

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    NIAMEY, Niger — The general who led a coup in Niger defended the takeover on state television Friday and asked for support from the nation and international partners, as concerns grew that the political crisis could set back the country’s fight against jihadists and increase Russia’s influence in West Africa.

    Various factions of Niger’s military have reportedly wrangled for control since members of the presidential guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum, who was elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France. As Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani spoke, state TV identified him as the leader of the group of soldiers who said they staged the coup, and his appearance seemed to be an effort to show he was in charge.

    Niger is seen as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence in the fight against extremism. France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with the Nigeriens, and the United States and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.

    Extremists in Niger have carried out attacks on civilians and military personnel, but the overall security situation is not as dire as in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso — both of which have ousted the French military. Mali has turned to the Russian private military group Wagner, and it’s believed the mercenaries will soon be in Burkina Faso. Now there are concerns Niger could follow suit.

    “We can no longer continue with the same approaches proposed so far, at the risk of witnessing the gradual and inevitable demise of our country,” Tchiani, who also goes by Omar Tchiani, said in the address. “That is why we decided to intervene and take responsibility.”

    “I ask the technical and financial partners who are friends of Niger to understand the specific situation of our country in order to provide it with all the support necessary to enable it to meet the challenges,” he said.

    If the takeover is designated as a coup by the United States, Niger stands to lose millions of dollars of military aid and assistance.

    Bazoum has not resigned and he defiantly tweeted from detention on Thursday that democracy would prevail. It’s not clear who enjoys the support of most of the population, but several hundred people gathered in the capital, Niamey, that day and chanted support for Wagner while waving Russian flags.

    “We’re fed up,” said Omar Issaka, one of the protestors. “We are tired of being targeted by the men in the bush. … We’re going to collaborate with Russia now.”

    Tchiani’s criticism of Bazoum’s approach and of how security partnerships have worked in the past will certainly make the U.S., France, and the EU uneasy, said Andrew Lebovich, a research fellow with the Clingendael Institute.

    “So that could mark potentially some shifts moving forward in Niger security partnerships,” he said.

    Even as Tchiani sought to project control, the situation appeared to be in flux. A delegation from neighboring Nigeria hoping to mediate left shortly after arriving, and the president of Benin, nominated as a mediator by a regional body, had not arrived.

    Earlier, an analyst who had spoken with participants in the talks said that the presidential guard was negotiating with the army about who should be in charge. The analyst spoke on condition they not to be named because of the sensitive situation.

    A western military official in Niger who was not authorized to speak publicly to the media also said that the military factions were believed to be negotiating, and that situation remained tense and violence could erupt.

    Speaking in Papua New Guinea, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the coup as “completely illegitimate and profoundly dangerous for the Nigeriens, Niger and the whole region.”

    In comments to French media, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Macron has spoken several times to Bazoum and that the detained leader “says that he is good health.”

    Colonna said that there was still time to end what she described as an “attempted coup.”

    “If you are hearing me speak of an attempted coup, that’s because we do not regard things as definitive,” Colonna was quoted as saying.

    The coup threatens to starkly reshape the international community’s engagement with the Sahel region.

    On Thursday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said the country’s “substantial cooperation with the Government of Niger is contingent on Niger’s continued commitment to democratic standards.”

    The United States in early 2021 said it had provided Niger with more than $500 million in military assistance and training programs since 2012, one of the largest such support programs in sub-Saharan Africa. The European Union earlier this year launched a 27 million-euro ($30 million) military training mission in Niger.

    The United States has more than 1,000 service personnel in the country.

    Some military leaders who appear to be involved in the coup have worked closely with the United States for years. Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, the head of Niger’s special forces, has an especially strong relationship with the U.S., the Western military official said.

    While Russia has also condemned the coup, it remains unclear what the junta’s position with regards to the Wagner group will be.

    This is Niger’s fifth coup and marks the fall of one of the the last democratically elected governments in the Sahel.

    Its army has always been very powerful and civilian-military relations fraught, though tensions had increased recently, especially with the growing jihadist insurgency, said Karim Manuel, an analyst for the Middle East and Africa with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct that it was France’s foreign minister, not its president, who spoke about the Nigerien president’s health.

    ___

    AP writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

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  • How the coup in Niger could expand the reach of Islamic extremism, and Wagner, in West Africa

    How the coup in Niger could expand the reach of Islamic extremism, and Wagner, in West Africa

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    More than 1,000 U.S. service personnel are in Niger, which until Wednesday’s coup by mutinous soldiers had avoided the military takeovers that destabilized West African neighbors in recent years.

    The country had been seen as the last major partner standing against extremism in a Francophone region where anti-French sentiment had opened the way for the Russian private military group Wagner.

    Various Islamic extremist groups are active around Niger, which isn’t to be confused with Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. Niger lies just to the north, part of the sprawling region directly below the Sahara Desert that for years has faced a growing threat from various groups of Islamic extremists.

    Here’s what to know:

    What does this mean for regional security?

    Signaling Niger’s importance in the region where Wagner also operates, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited in March to strengthen ties and announce $150 million in direct assistance, calling the country “a model of democracy.”

    Now a critical question is whether Niger might pivot and engage Wagner as a counterterrorism partner like its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, which have kicked out French forces. France shifted more than 1,000 personnel to Niger after pulling out of Mali last year.

    Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement Thursday that “what happened in Niger is the fight of its people against the colonizers. … It effectively means winning independence. The rest will depend on the people of Niger.”

    Hundreds of people gathered on Thursday in Niger’s capital, Niamey, and chanted support for Wagner while waving Russian flags.

    Niger’s government had been “pretty open in terms of dialogue and engaging both domestically and with international partners,” said Paul Melly, a consulting fellow with the Africa program at the Chatham House think tank in London. “So quite a lot is at stake here.”

    Niger has been a base of international military operations for years as Islamic extremists have greatly expanded their reach in the Sahel. Those include Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria and Chad, but the more immediate threat comes from growing activity in Niger’s border areas with Mali and Burkina Faso from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM.

    Meanwhile, Niger’s military expenditures reached $202 million in 2021.

    What about counterterrorism efforts?

    U.S. partners battling extremists in the Sahel are dwindling. Notably, Mali’s military junta last month ordered the 15,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission to leave, claiming they had failed in their mission. However, Wagner forces remain there, accused by watchdogs of human rights atrocities.

    The United States in early 2021 said it had provided Niger with more than $500 million in military assistance and training programs since 2012, one of the largest such support programs in sub-Saharan Africa. The European Union earlier this year launched a 27 million-euro ($30 million) military training mission in Niger.

    The U.S. has operated drones out of a base it constructed in Niger’s remote north as part of counterterrorism efforts in the vast Sahel. The fate of that base and other U.S. operational sites in the country after this week’s coup isn’t immediately known.

    “It is too soon to speculate on any potential future actions or activities,” a spokesman with the U.S. Africa Command, John Manley, said in an email. He said approximately 1,100 U.S. personnel are in Niger.

    Niger was the site of one of the deadliest encounters for U.S. forces in Africa in recent years, an ambush by extremists in 2017 that left four soldiers dead. The attack again raised questions by some critics in Washington about why the U.S. would be involved on the continent.

    How deadly is extremism in the region?

    Observers say West Africa’s Sahel region has become one of the world’s deadliest regions for extremism. West Africa recorded over 1,800 extremist attacks in the first six months of this year, resulting in nearly 4,600 deaths, a top regional official told the United Nations Security Council this week.

    Most of those deaths occurred in Burkina Faso and Mali, while just 77 occurred in Niger, said the official, Omar Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, the executive arm of the West African economic bloc. Observers have warned that the extremist threat is also expanding south toward states like Ghana and Ivory Coast.

    The coup in Niger brings yet more insecurity. “We are witnessing that the whole belt south of the Sahara is becoming an extremely problematic area,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said.

    Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries, struggling with climate change along with migrants from across West Africa trying to make their way across the Sahara en route toward Europe. It has received millions of euros of investment from the EU in its efforts to curb migration via smugglers.

    ___

    Danica Kirka in London and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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  • Biden is hosting Swedish prime minister at the White House in a show of support for NATO bid

    Biden is hosting Swedish prime minister at the White House in a show of support for NATO bid

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    President Joe Biden will be hosting Sweden’s prime minister at the White House on Wednesday in a show of solidarity as the United States presses for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO

    FILE – Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrives for a speech at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany, March 15, 2023. President Joe Biden will is hosting Sweden’s prime minister at the White House Wednesday in a show of solidarity as the United States presses for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO, just days before the summit. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

    The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans to host Sweden’s prime minister at the White House on Wednesday in a show of solidarity as the United States presses for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO, a week before the alliance’s summit.

    Biden and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will “review our growing security cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible,” the White House said a statement announcing the meeting. The leaders also will discuss the war in Ukraine and matters involving China.

    Sweden and neighbor Finland ended their longstanding policy of military nonalignment after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Both applied for NATO membership, seeking protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

    Finland, which shares a more than 800-mile or 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, joined NATO in April. But Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has seen its ascension delayed by Turkey and Hungary; NATO requires the unanimous approval of all members to expand.

    NATO had hoped the road to Sweden’s membership would be smoothed out before the alliance’s summit July 11-12 in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Sweden’s entry would be a symbolically powerful moment and the latest indication of how Russia’s war is driving countries to join the alliance. Those hopes have dimmed.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has resisted, with his government accusing Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that it says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish organizations and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

    Last week, he condemned Sweden over a Quran-burning protest. Swedish police allowed the protest outside a mosque in central Stockholm, citing freedom of speech after a court overturned a ban on a similar Quran-burning.

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he would gather senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland on Thursday to try to overcome Turkey’s objections.

    Hungary also has yet to ratify Sweden’s bid. Hungarian lawmakers said a long-delayed parliamentary vote on that would not happen until the autumn legislative session.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has alleged that Swedish politicians have told “blatant lies” about the condition of Hungary’s democracy. High-ranking Hungarian officials have said they support Sweden’s membership bid while also making vague demands from Stockholm as conditions for approval.

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  • Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in attacks, UN says

    Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in attacks, UN says

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    ISLAMABAD — The United Nations said Tuesday it has documented a significant level of civilians killed and wounded in attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover — despite a stark reduction in casualties compared to previous years of war and insurgency.

    According to a new report by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, since the takeover in mid-August 2021 and until the end of May, there were 3,774 civilian casualties, including 1,095 people killed in violence in the country.

    That compares with 8,820 civilian casualties — including 3,035 killed — in just 2020, according to an earlier U.N. report.

    The Taliban seized the country in August 2021 while U.S. and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war.

    According to the U.N. report, three-quarters of the attacks since the Taliban seized power were with improvised explosive devices in “populated areas, including places of worship, schools and markets,” the report said. Among those killed were 92 women and 287 children.

    The figures indicate a significant increase in civilian harm resulting from IED attacks on places of worship — mostly belonging to the minority Shiite Muslims — compared to the three-year period prior to the Taliban takeover, according to a press statement that followed the report.

    The statement also said that at least 95 people were killed in attacks on schools, educational facilities and other places that targeted the predominantly Shiite Hazara community.

    The statement said that the majority of the IED attacks were carried out by the region’s affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — a Sunni militant group and a main Taliban rival.

    “These attacks on civilians and civilian objects are reprehensible and must stop,” said Fiona Frazer, chief of UNAMA’s Human Rights Service. She urged the Taliban — the de facto authorities in Afghanistan — to “uphold their obligation to protect the right to life” of the Afghan people.

    However, the U.N. report said a “significant number” of the deaths resulted from attacks that were never claimed or that the U.N. mission could not attribute to any group. It did not provide the number for those fatalities.

    The report also expressed concern about “the lethality of suicide attacks” since the Taliban takeover, with fewer attacks causing more civilian causalities.

    It noted that the attacks were carried out amid a nationwide financial and economic crisis. With the sharp drop in donor funding since the takeover, victims are struggling to get access to “medical, financial and psychosocial support” under the current Taliban-led government, the report said.

    Frazer said that even though Afghan “victims of armed conflict and violence struggled to access essential medical, financial and psychosocial support” prior to the takeover, this has become more difficult after the Taliban took power.

    “Help for the victims of violence is now even harder to come by because of the drop in donor funding for vital services,” she added.

    The U.N. report also demanded an immediate halt to attacks and said it holds the Taliban government responsible for the safety of Afghans.

    The Taliban said their administration took over when Afghanistan was “on the verge of collapse” and that they “managed to rescue the country and government from a crisis” by making sound decisions and through proper management.

    In a response, the Taliban-led foreign ministry said that the situation has gradually improved since August 2021. “Security has been ensured across the country,” the statement said, adding that the Taliban consider the security of places of worship and holy shrines, including Shiite sites, a priority.

    Despite initial promises in 2021 of a more moderate administration, the Taliban enforced harsh rules after seizing the country. They banned girls’ education after the sixth grade and barred Afghan women from public life and most work, including for nongovernmental organizations and the U.N.

    The measures harked back to the previous Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, when they also imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. The edicts prompted an international outcry against the already ostracized Taliban, whose administration has not been officially recognized by the U.N. and the international community.

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  • Erdogan says no change in Turkey’s stance on Sweden’s NATO membership

    Erdogan says no change in Turkey’s stance on Sweden’s NATO membership

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    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that NATO should not bet on his country approving Sweden’s application to join the Western military alliance before a July summit because the Nordic nation has not fully addressed his security concerns.

    Sweden and Finland applied for membership together following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its request, but Turkey has held off approving Sweden’s bid.

    NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the leaders of member nations meet for a summit in Lithuania’s capital on July 11-12. Speaking to journalists on his way back from a state visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkey’s attitude to the accession was not “positive.”

    Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reported Erdogan’s comments as senior officials from NATO, Sweden, Finland and Turkey met in Ankara on Wednesday. The officials were scheduled to discuss what Finland and Sweden have done to address Turkey’s concerns over alleged terrorist organizations.

    Erdogan said the Turkish delegation at the meeting “will give this message: ‘This is our president’s opinion, don’t expect anything different at Vilnius,’” Lithuania’s capital.

    Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.

    A series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, also angered Turkish officials.

    Speaking in Sweden’s parliament, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the Ankara meeting “very important.” Kristersson reiterated that his government had done what it promised in an agreement last year that was intended to secure Turkey’s ratification of the country’s NATO membership.

    However, Erdogan remained unsatisfied. He said he told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last week, “If you expect us to respond to Sweden’s expectations, first of all, Sweden must destroy what this terrorist organization has done.” He was referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a group that has waged a separatist insurgency in Turkey.

    Erdogan said that pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO rallies also took place in Stockholm while he was holding talks with Stoltenberg in Istanbul.

    NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden’s request to join. Erdogan said he planned to attend the July summit in Lithuania unless “extraordinary” circumstances arise.

    On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after meeting with Stoltenberg that it was “time to welcome Sweden” into the alliance, arguing that Stockholm had “an important and I think very appropriate process on its accession to address appropriate concerns of other allies.”

    Stoltenberg said: “We all of course look forward to welcoming Sweden as a member of the alliance as soon as possible.”

    Sweden has amended its constitution and strengthened its anti-terror laws since it applied to join NATO just over a year ago. This week, the Swedish government also decided to extradite a Turkish citizen resident in Sweden who was convicted for drug offenses in Turkey in 2013.

    It was not immediately clear if the man, who was not identified publicly, was among the main individuals for whom Turkey sought extradition.

    Sweden and Finland applied to become NATO members in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abandoning decades of nonalignment.

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  • Shootout in northwest Pakistan, along Afghan border, kills 3 soldiers, 3 militants, army says

    Shootout in northwest Pakistan, along Afghan border, kills 3 soldiers, 3 militants, army says

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    Pakistan’s army says militants attacked a security checkpoint in the country’s northwest, along the border with Afghanistan, triggering a shootout that left three soldiers and three militants dead

    PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Militants attacked a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, along the border with Afghanistan, triggering a shootout that left three soldiers and three militants dead, the army said Sunday.

    Four militants were also wounded, the military said in a statement.

    The overnight shootout early Saturday took place in the Miran Shah tribal area of North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

    The Pakistani army carried out search operations to hunt down those responsible for the attack. They seized a cache of ammunition from the dead militants.

    The military said it was “determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism.”

    Although the army says it has cleared North Waziristan of militants, occasional attacks and shootouts continue, raising concerns that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping in the area.

    Though a separate group, the TTP remains a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021, during the last weeks of the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from the country after two decades of war.

    The takeover emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government last November and have since stepped up their attacks in the country, particularly against the army.

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  • Nicaragua confiscates properties of 222 opposition exiles

    Nicaragua confiscates properties of 222 opposition exiles

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    The government of Nicaragua has announced the confiscation of properties belonging to 222 opposition figures who were forced into exile in February after being imprisoned by the regime of President Daniel Ortega

    FILE – A banner emblazoned with an image of Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega is waved by a supporter in Managua, Nicaragua, April 30, 2018. The government of Nicaragua announced Friday, June 9, 2023, it has confiscated properties belonging to 222 opposition figures who were forced into exile in February after being imprisoned by the regime of President Daniel Ortega.(AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)

    The Associated Press

    MEXICO CITY — The government of Nicaragua announced Friday it has confiscated properties belonging to 222 opposition figures who were forced into exile in February after being imprisoned by the regime of President Daniel Ortega.

    Those taken from prison and forced aboard a flight to the United States on Feb. 9 included seven former presidential hopefuls, lawyers, rights activists, journalists and former members of the Sandinista guerrilla movement.

    The court system wrote in a statement that the opposition figures had been declared “traitors to the homeland.” They are also being stripped of their citizenship, measures that have been criticized as an example of banishment, in violation of international norms.

    The statement claimed that the dissidents lost their rights to their properties and any shares in companies in NIcaragua, after being convicted of “committing acts against the nation’s sovereignty, independence and self determination.” Those trials were often rushed and completed within hours inside prison walls.

    Tamara Dávila, one of the 222 exiled opposition activists, said the confiscation “is completely illegal from any point of view.”

    “In political terms, this just shows the regime is in decline, and has to resort to robbery to show strength,” she said.

    In February, the Ortega regime cancelled the citizenship of 94 political opponents, including writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, who are in exile but were not among those flown to the United States.

    Thousands have fled into exile since Nicaraguan security forces violently put down mass antigovernment protests in 2018. Ortega says the protests were an attempted coup with foreign backing, aiming for his overthrow and encouraging foreign nations to apply sanctions on members of his family and government.

    In the run-up to Ortega’s re-election in November 2021, Nicaraguan authorities arrested seven potential opposition presidential candidates to clear the field. The government also has closed hundreds of nongovernmental groups that Ortega accused of taking foreign funding and using it to destabilize his government.

    Spain has offered its citizenship to the 222 exiles, while the U.S. granted the Nicaraguans a two-year temporary protection.

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