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Tag: Coups d'etat

  • Afghan refugees in Pakistan protest delay in US resettlement

    Afghan refugees in Pakistan protest delay in US resettlement

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    ISLAMABAD — Hundreds of Afghan refugees facing extreme delays in the approval of U.S. visas protested in Pakistan’s capital on Sunday, as an American program to help relocate at-risk Afghans fleeing Taliban rule stalls.

    The U.S. government’s Priority 1 and Priority 2, known as P1 and P2 refugee programs were meant to fast track visas for at-risk Afghans including journalists and rights activists after the Taliban takeover in their homeland. Those eligible must have worked for the U.S. government, a U.S.-based media organization or nongovernmental organization in Afghanistan, and must be referred by the U.S.-based employer.

    Applicants have been waiting in Pakistan for more than one and a half years for U.S. officials to process their visa applications. The delay in approving visas and resettlement has left Afghan applicants in a highly vulnerable position as they contend with economic hardship and lack of access to health, education and other services in Pakistan.

    Mohammad Baqir Ahmadi, who said he’d helped to organize the protest outside of Pakistan’s National Press Club in Islamabad, said many of the Afghans present were facing problems in extending visas to wait out the application process in Pakistan.

    Protesters said that applicants had yet to receive the preliminary interview necessary to begin the visa application process.

    “We, the holders of P1/P2 cases, your allies, and colleagues, played significant role toward expansion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. We are currently asking for your support and companionship in the bad days of life,” read one banner held by Afghan demonstrators.

    Hesamuddin, an Afghan who is waiting on the processing of his P2 case, said authorities should evacuate Afghan P1 and P2 applicants to a country where the necessary resettlement support centers (RSC) are open and able to conduct interviews. “They must evacuate us to another country where RSCs are functioning and can process there,” he said.

    Under U.S. rules, applicants must first relocate to a third country for their cases to be processed, where it initially can take up to 14 to 18 months and cases are processed through the resettlement support centers.

    The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Many Afghans sought to leave in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

    But they have progressively imposed more restrictions, particularly on women. They have banned women and girls from schooling beyond the sixth grade, barred them from most jobs and demanded they cover their faces when outside.

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  • Ruling Taliban display rare division in public over bans

    Ruling Taliban display rare division in public over bans

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    ISLAMABAD — A rare public show of division within the ranks of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban emerged in recent days when Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, a powerful government figure, gave a speech seen as implicit criticism of the movement’s reclusive supreme leader.

    The Taliban leadership has been opaque since the former insurgents’ takeover of the country in August 2021, with almost no indication of how decisions are made.

    In recent months, the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has appeared to take a stronger hand in directing policy. In particular, it was on his orders that the Taliban government banned women and girls from universities and schools after the sixth grade.

    The bans raised a fierce international uproar, increasing Afghanistan’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed — and worsening a humanitarian crisis. The bans also appeared to contradict previous policies by the Taliban government.

    Between the Taliban takeover until the December ban on attending universities, women had been allowed to continue their studies. Taliban officials repeatedly promised that girls would be allowed to attend secondary school, but a decision to allow them back last year was suddenly reversed.

    Haqqani made his comments in a speech over the weekend to a graduation ceremony at an Islamic religious school in the eastern province of Khost.

    “Monopolizing power and hurting the reputation of the entire system are not to our benefit,” Haqqani said, according to video clips of the speech released on social media by his supporters. “The situation cannot be tolerated,” he added.

    Haqqani said now that the Taliban have taken power, “more responsibility has been placed on our shoulders and it requires patience and good behavior and engagement with the people.” He said the Taliban must “soothe the wounds of the people” and act in a way that the people do not come to hate them and religion.

    Haqqani did not refer to Akhundzada, but the remarks were seen by many commenting on social media as directed at him. Haqqani also did not mention the issue of women’s education, but he has said publicly in the past that women and girls should be allowed to go to school and universities.

    Zabihullah Mujahed, the top spokesman for the Kabul government, said in an apparent reaction to Haqqani’s comments — without naming him — that criticism is best voiced privately.

    “If someone criticizes the emir, minister, or any other official, it is better — and Islamic ethics also say — that he should express his criticism directly and secretly to him,” not in public, he said.

    Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, almost never appears in public and hardly ever leaves the Taliban heartland in southern Kandahar province.

    He surrounds himself with other religious scholars and tribal leaders who oppose education and work for women. Only one known photo of him, years old, exists. Akhundzada came to Kabul only once since the Taliban takeover to give a speech to an assembly of pro-Taliban clerics, though he was not shown in media coverage at the closed event.

    The Taliban have typically dealt with internal differences behind the scenes, and Haqqani’s comments “are a major escalation,” said Michael Kugelman, the deputy director of the Asia program and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center. The Taliban leaders have the same broad vision, but “in Kandahar, they’re hermits, they’re not involved in the day-to-day,” said Kugelman. In Kabul, they have to govern and provide services, he added.

    Haqqani leads a faction of the Taliban known as the Haqqani network, built around the family of the same name centered in Khost. The network battled U.S.-led NATO troops and former Afghan government forces for years and was notorious for attacks on civilians and suicide bombings in Kabul. The U.S. government maintains a $10 million bounty on Sirajuddin Haqqani for attacks on American troops and Afghan civilians.

    His comments pointed to an apparent difference between some senior Taliban, who have had to rapidly adjust to the demands of government after two decades of fighting as insurgents.

    When they took power in 2021, Taliban officials said they wanted better ties to the world. They said they would not return to the social restrictions on women or punishments, such as public lashings, that they imposed during their first time in power in the 1990s.

    But over the nearly 20 months since, the Taliban have barred women from most jobs, middle school and high school as well as from parks. They’ve also ordered women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public.

    The deputy prime minister in the Taliban government, Abdul Salam Hanafi, indirectly criticized the ban on education for women and girls in a speech in Kabul this week.

    “If we don’t improve the quality and quantity of the education system and do not update it, we will never succeed,” he said. He added that the duty of Islamic scholars requires more than prohibiting a behavior or practice — they must also offer a solution and a path forward.

    Ahmed Rashid, a veteran Lahore-based journalist who wrote several books about the Taliban, said he didn’t expect change from Akhundzada and his Kandahar-based supporters.

    Rashid said that unity is a priority for the Taliban in the face of what they see as U.S. and NATO threats, and it’s doubtful there is “any kind of revolt” within the ranks. But those in the Taliban leadership dealing with the burden of government have “realized they can’t continue like this,” he said.

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    Associated Press writer Riazat Butt contributed to this report.

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  • Egypt’s president praises UAE, seeking to heal Gulf aid rift

    Egypt’s president praises UAE, seeking to heal Gulf aid rift

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi offered effusive praise Monday for the United Arab Emirates, seeking to repair a rift between Cairo and the Gulf Arab states that have supplied billions of dollars in aid to his nation.

    El-Sissi has relied on handouts from Gulf Arab states to keep his country’s economy afloat since seizing power in a 2013 coup, with estimates suggesting over $100 billion in Gulf money has gone to Cairo via Central Bank deposits, fuel aid and other support since then.

    But in recent weeks, Gulf Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, have begun signaling that they want to see more reforms from countries receiving their aid — particularly as nations worldwide struggle with inflation and the fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine. That likely would affect Egypt, which already is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to reform.

    “We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached and we are changing that,” Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. “We need to see reforms. We are taxing our people. We are expecting also others to do the same, to do their efforts. We want to help but we want you also to do your part.”

    In Kuwait, at least one lawmaker has begun asking about the billions loaned to Egypt and whether any of those funds had been repaid. While leaders in the United Arab Emirates haven’t commented publicly on its aid packages, it too has its own development plans and is being asked to deliver aid to earthquake-stricken Turkey and Syria.

    Earlier this month, an opinion piece in the Egyptian state-owned newspaper Al-Gomhorya argued that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states had no right to criticise the Egyptian government’s handling of its economy.

    “Those barefoot and naked, who wore the most luxurious clothes recently, should not attack Egypt,” wrote editor Abdel Razek Tawfiq. “States whose age does not exceed the age of my youngest son do not have the right to talk about Egypt except with politeness, reverence and respect.”

    The article later disappeared from the newspaper’s website, but a firestorm broke out online over the column.

    El-Sissi spoke before the World Government Summit in Dubai at a session attended by both UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The Egyptian president began his remarks acknowledging the two rulers as his “brothers.”

    El-Sissi, onstage at the summit for what was billed as an interview with a journalist, launched into a monologue praising the UAE and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for his aid after the 2013 coup.

    “The first to highlight is the support I have received from our brothers,” el-Sissi said. “Everything I said would not have been possible without the support we received.”

    He didn’t directly address the controversy around the newspaper column, though toward the end of his remarks he referred elliptically to the dispute.

    “Reality may be different from what we see in the media or what we hear from politicians … even when it’s politicians who think they are in control,” el-Sissi said. “Make sure to thank God for the generosity we have received.”

    Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, tweeted after el-Sissi’s appearance: “Egypt, as usual, is loyal to its brothers and their stances. Appreciation for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was present in President Sissi’s speech.”

    The Egyptian government has plans to sell stakes in dozens of state-controlled companies, including banks and energy firms. However, the government and the Egyptian military dominate the economy of the Arab world’s most-populous country, worrying investors.

    Egypt meanwhile is allowing its Egyptian pound to devalue, with the currency down nearly 50% over the last year. The country also faces a foreign currency shortage exacerbating its woes and forcing it to postpone major projects.

    El-Sissi, an army general, led the 2013 overthrow of then-President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. His government has cracked down on dissidents and critics, jailing tens of thousands, virtually banning protests and monitoring social media.

    ___

    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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  • Lawmakers seek to bar insurrectionists from holding office

    Lawmakers seek to bar insurrectionists from holding office

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    ALBANY, N.Y. — Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states are trying to send a message two years after the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol: Those who engage in an attempted overthrow of the government shouldn’t be allowed to run it.

    New York, Connecticut and Virginia are among states where proposed legislation would prohibit anyone convicted of participating in an insurrection from holding public office or a position of public trust, such as becoming a police officer.

    While the bills vary in scope, their aim is similar.

    “If you’ve tried to take down our government through violent means, in no way should you be part of it,” New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal said.

    He is sponsoring a bill that would bar people convicted of engaging in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States from holding civil office, meaning they would not be able to serve as a judge or member of the Legislature. Hoylman-Sigal said he introduced the bill this year because he saw more people who were involved in the riot in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, running for office last year.

    He described the assault on the Capitol as “a real attack on the foundations of our free and fair democracy and the values which enable that to persist.”

    A Virginia lawmaker introduced a bill this month, on the second anniversary of the Capitol riot, that would prohibit anyone convicted of a felony related to an attempted insurrection or riot from serving in positions of public trust — including those involving policymaking, law enforcement, safety, education or health.

    A Connecticut bill would prohibit people convicted of sedition, rebellion, insurrection or a felony related to one of those acts from running for or holding public office. Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, who introduced the measure, told The Associated Press that he wants the legislation eventually to bar them from holding state or municipal jobs.

    The legislation in the states comes after the House Jan. 6 committee’s final report, which found Donald Trump criminally engaged in a conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election he lost and failed to take action to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

    The committee’s recently concluded work may have provided another springboard for lawmakers to act and propose ways to hold people accountable, said Victoria Bassetti, a senior policy adviser at States United Democracy Center, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for fair elections.

    Some Republicans say the legislation is unnecessary.

    In New York, Republican Assemblyman Will Barclay, the minority leader, called the bill there a “political statement,” saying it is “more political than it is a concern about public policy.”

    He said existing rules already apply to people in certain positions who are convicted of crimes and that those laws “should be sufficient.”

    The legislation is another example of how the Capitol riot has become a political Rorschach test in the country.

    Many Republicans refuse to see the attempt to violently halt the presidential certification — which was based on lies that 2020 election was stolen — as an insurrection, while a strong majority of the party continues to believe that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected. Even students are being taught different versions of the attack, depending on whether they live in more conservative or liberal parts of the nation.

    The opposing realities came into sharp focus this month in Pennsylvania during a fraught exchange between two lawmakers.

    In a committee hearing, Republican state Sen. Cris Dush slammed his gavel as he ruled Democratic state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti out of order after she described the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as “the site of an insurrection.”

    “Insurrection, nobody has been charged with that,” Dush said. “There’s not been a single charge against any of those people as insurrectionists. In this committee, we are not using that term.”

    Nearly 1,000 people have been charged in the Capitol riot with federal crimes, with about half of them pleading guilty to riot-related charges and more than three dozen convicted at trial. The charges range from misdemeanors for those accused of entering the Capitol illegally but not participating in violence to felony seditious conspiracy for far-right extremist group members accused of plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power.

    In November, two leaders of the Oath Keepers extremist group were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors alleged was a weekslong plot to use force to keep Trump in office. Leaders of the Proud Boys and additional members of the Oath Keepers are currently standing trial on the sedition charge, which carries up to 20 years behind bars.

    Weeks after the committee exchange, Cappelletti told The Associated Press that it’s important to make sure people understand that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection.

    “These are factually correct things,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t disagree politically about policy or other things, but we can acknowledge that that happened and start to figure out how we move forward to work together to build up that public trust again.”

    Dush remained steadfast in his view that what unfolded on Jan. 6 was not an insurrection.

    “If there had been some sort of plot for an insurrection, that would’ve come apart quite quickly after the government got the control back,” he said in a phone interview.

    There have been some earlier attempts to prevent certain officials from either running for or holding office.

    A New Hampshire bill that would have barred anyone who participates in an insurrection or rebellion from holding office in the state died last year.

    Also last year, groups brought lawsuits under a rarely cited section of the 14th Amendment dealing with insurrection. They sought to disqualify a handful of U.S. House members from seeking reelection for events surrounding the Jan. 6 riot.

    In New Mexico, a state court in September disqualified a rural county commissioner from holding public office for engaging in the Capitol insurrection. Couy Griffin had been previously convicted in federal court of a misdemeanor for entering the Capitol grounds, without going inside the building. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served.

    The judge permanently barred Griffin, who was then an elected commissioner from Otero County, from federal and local public office.

    In West Virginia, a former state lawmaker who pleaded guilty to a felony — civil disorder — for participating in the riot and who served time, announced earlier this month that he was running for Congress.

    “We have to really rid ourselves of those who would take down our government,” said Duff, the Connecticut lawmaker. “There’s no place for any of them to be (in) any kind of elected or appointed officer.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Michael Hill in Albany, New York; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.

    ___

    Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.

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  • Rabuka confirmed as Fiji prime minister after close election

    Rabuka confirmed as Fiji prime minister after close election

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Sitiveni Rabuka was confirmed as Fiji’s next prime minister on Saturday more than two decades after the former military commander first held the office in a term lasting nearly seven years.

    The 74-year-old won the nomination by one vote over incumbent Frank Bainimarama at a sitting of the Fijian Parliament in Suva.

    Rabuka, the head of the People’s Alliance Party, was elevated to the position after forming a majority coalition with two other parties following last week’s close and contentious election.

    He will be officially sworn in later Saturday at Government House.

    The tripartite coalition had announced on Tuesday its intention to form a government with a combined 29 seats compared to the 26 held by Bainimarama’s Fiji First Party.

    The People’s Alliance Party and affiliated National Federation Party shared 26 seats but were able to form an alliance with the Social Democrat Liberal Party to break the deadlock.

    But Bainimarama, who had served as Fiji’s prime minister for almost 16 years, and Fiji First refused to concede the election results in the days following the polls.

    A secret ballot of lawmakers on Saturday chose Rabuka 28-27.

    The result indicated that one member of the new ruling coalition was against the change in prime minister.

    The same ballot split occurred in voting for the roles of house speaker and deputy speaker earlier during a Christmas Eve parliamentary session lasting three hours.

    It has been a tense week in Fiji, a Pacific nation where democracy remains fragile.

    On Thursday, army and navy personnel were reportedly called in to protect minority groups over threats against them following the election.

    There have been four military coups in Fiji over the past 35 years, and both Rabuka and Bainimarama have held lead roles in previous moves to oust former Fijian leaders.

    Rabuka, who was also prime minister between 1992 and 1999, instigated two coups in 1987.

    Bainimarama instigated a coup in 2006 that led to the removal of Laisenia Quarase as prime minister, a role he then assumed until the elevation of Rabuka on Saturday.

    Earlier in the sitting, Naiqama Lalabalavu was appointed the new speaker of the house after a secret ballot saw him receive one vote more than Fiji First candidate Epeli Nailatikau, who served as president of Fiji from 2009 to 2015.

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  • Alaska lawmaker with Oath Keepers ties eligible for office

    Alaska lawmaker with Oath Keepers ties eligible for office

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    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska lawmaker with ties to the far-right Oath Keepers group is eligible to hold office, a state judge ruled Friday.

    Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna issued the ruling after overseeing a trial this month in the case against Republican state Rep. David Eastman. The decision can be appealed.

    The ruling found that Eastman is a member of the Oath Keepers, but that he “does not and did not possess a specific intent to further the Oath Keeper’s words or actions aimed at overthrowing the United States government.”

    Eastman was sued by Randall Kowalke, who was among those who earlier this year filed challenges to Eastman’s candidacy for the Alaska House with the state Division of Elections. The division determined Eastman was eligible to run for reelection, but Kowalke’s attorneys argued the division failed to investigate Eastman’s eligibility under the so-called disloyalty clause of the state constitution.

    That provision states that no one who “advocates, or who aids or belongs to any party or organization or association which advocates, the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States or of the State shall be qualified to hold” public office.

    Eastman won reelection last month but McKenna had previously ordered certification of the election results be delayed pending trial and further order from the court. The new legislative session begins Jan. 17.

    Nationally, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a Florida chapter leader have been convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. A trial against four other Oath Keepers is ongoing.

    Eastman has acknowledged his membership in the Oath Keepers but said during the trial that he sees the group as dormant. Eastman said he was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 for a speech by then-President Donald Trump but did not participate in the riot. Eastman has not been accused of any crimes. He has not disavowed the Oath Keepers.

    The judge found that his membership in the far-right group doesn’t disqualify him from public office.

    The judge’s order is on hold pending a possible appeal. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4 to discuss whether an appeal has been filed.

    “We’re obviously disappointed with the outcome, but we’re proud of the case we put on,” Kowalke’s attorney, Goriune Dudukgian, said in an email. “We will make a final decision on an appeal at some point next week.”

    Eastman’s attorney, Joe Miller, said in a text message that they’re pleased with the ruling.

    “We are especially glad to see the rejection of Plaintiff’s argument that those who simply attended a speech given by the President somehow participated in an insurrection,” Miller said.

    Rhodes, who is awaiting sentencing, testified on Eastman’s behalf, including providing at-times difficult-to-understand testimony from inside his cell. He said he did not direct anyone to go into the Capitol and said a decision by some to go inside was “stupid,” in part, because it “exposed us to persecution” by “political enemies.”

    Miller in court documents said “none of the plea agreements, and none of the indictments, and none of the convictions that have heretofore been obtained, reference any conduct that qualifies as an attempt to overthrow the government.”

    Sam Jackson, who has studied the Oath Keepers, is an assistant professor at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University of Albany. He said Eastman is the first person he is aware of facing a challenge to his eligibility to hold office specifically due to ties to the Oath Keepers.

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  • UN council adopts resolution urging end to Myanmar violence

    UN council adopts resolution urging end to Myanmar violence

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council approved its first-ever resolution on Myanmar on Wednesday, demanding an immediate end to violence in the Southeast Asian nation and urging its military rulers to release all “arbitrarily detained” prisoners including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to restore democratic institutions.

    The resolution reiterated the call by the 15-member council for the country’s opposing parties to pursue dialogue and reconciliation and urged all sides “to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.”

    The council vote was 12-0 with three abstentions, China, Russia and India.

    Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country sponsored the resolution, said it is the first adopted by the U.N.’s most powerful body since the country, formerly known as Burma, joined the United Nations in 1948.

    It is the result of the military overturning the results of a democratic election and seizing power on Feb. 1, 2021, plunging the country into a series of cascading crises with “negative consequences for the region and its stability,” she said.

    “Today we’ve sent a firm message to the military, that there should be a no doubt we expect this resolution to be implemented in full,” Woodward said. “We stand with the people of Myanmar. It is time for the junta to return the country to them.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken applauded the adoption of the resolution as an important step but said the Council had more work to do “to advance a just solution” to the crisis.

    “The Security Council should leverage this opportunity to seek additional ways to promote a return to the path of democracy, advance accountability for the regime’s actions, and support ASEAN’s efforts to achieve meaningful implementation of the Five Point Consensus,” he said in a statement, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ plan to restore peace and stability.

    U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remains “extremely concerned” about the deteriorating humanitarian situation and human rights in Myanmar. “We welcome this strong message from the Security Council,” he told AP.

    For five decades Myanmar had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Suu Kyi’s rise to leadership in 2015 elections and moves toward democracy, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.

    That ended with the military takeover on the day Parliament was to reconvene following November 2020 elections which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won overwhelmingly — an outcome the military claims without evidence was based on fraud.

    The takeover was met with massive public opposition, which has since turned into armed resistance that some U.N. experts have characterized as civil war.

    Last month, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization, said over 16,000 people had been detained on political charges in Myanmar since the army takeover. Of those arrested, more than 13,000 were still in detention. The association said at least 2,465 civilians had been killed since the 2021 takeover, although the number is thought to be far higher.

    Much of the international community, including Myanmar’s fellow ASEAN members, have expressed frustration at the generals’ hard line in resisting reform. Myanmar’s rulers agreed to ASEAN’s plan in April 2021 but have made little effort to implement it.

    The plan calls for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation of the dialogue process by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels and a visit to Myanmar by the association’s special envoy to meet all concerned parties. Current U.N. special envoy Noeleen Heyzer and ASEAN special envoy Prak Sokhonn, a Cambodian minister, have both visited Myanmar but neither was allowed to meet Suu Kyi.

    The resolution “acknowledges ASEAN’s central role in helping to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Myanmar” and encourages the international community to support ASEAN’s efforts, including in implementing the five-point consensus.

    Noting that Myanmar’s military committed to supporting the five-point consensus, the U.N. resolution calls for immediate action to implement it and urges all parties in Myanmar to work on starting a dialogue aimed at peacefully resolving the crisis. It also underlines the need “for a peaceful, genuine and inclusive process to de-escalate violence and reach a sustainable political resolution.”

    The resolution also expresses “deep concern” at the ongoing state of emergency imposed by the military, the arrest of Suu Kyi and former president Win Myint who should be released immediately, and at “the increasingly large numbers of internally displaced persons and dramatic increase in humanitarian need.” It reiterates the council’s condemnation of the execution of activists in July.

    Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Security Council resolution is a momentous step on behalf of the people of Myanmar, opening the door toward holding Myanmar’s brutal generals to account.”

    But Tom Andrews, the independent U.N. special investigator on Myanmar, tweeted that as well-meaning as the resolution is, “without consequences” in the resolution “these important sentiments will not stop the junta from attacking and destroying the lives of the 54 million in Myanmar.”

    Since the Security Council won’t authorize action against the military, he said, “those nations who support the people of Myanmar must immediately step forward with coordinated action to end the carnage.”

    Britain’s Woodward said the resolution was the result of many weeks of consultations with members of the council and ASEAN and key regional partners. Diplomats said the final negotiations were between Britain and China, Myanmar’s neighbor and ally.

    Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch’s U.N. director, said: “China and Russia’s abstentions signal that even the junta’s few friends have lost interest in sticking out their necks to defend its atrocities.”

    China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said he abstained because the resolution’s “tone still lacks balance.”

    Stressing that China’s “policy of friendship towards Myanmar is for all its people,” he said “there is no quick fix” to the current crisis which requires all parties and factions to pursue dialogue and achieve political reconciliation.

    “Neither democratic transition nor national reconciliation can be achieved overnight, and both require time, patience, and pragmatism,” Zhang said. He urged the international community to listen to ASEAN’s views and allow time for ASEAN to build consensus.

    On another Myanmar issue, the resolution underscored the need to address the crisis in Rakhine state and to create conditions for the return of Rohingya Muslims who were chased out of the Buddhist-majority country and now live as refugees in neighboring Bangladesh and elsewhere.

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  • Thousands march in Khartoum on 1st anniversary of Sudan coup

    Thousands march in Khartoum on 1st anniversary of Sudan coup

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    CAIRO — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Sudan’s capital of Khartoum on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of a military coup that upended the nation’s short-lived transition to democracy.

    Videos published on social media showed marchers with flags and drums, most of them bound for the Presidential Palace. Other footage showed protesters standing in front of convoys of security forces.

    Netblocks, an online network tracker, announced early Tuesday that internet services across the country were blocked. Various Sudanese pro-democracy activists and local journalists reported security forces fired tear gas at protesters and earlier closed off bridges leading into Khartoum. The Associated Press has been unable to verify these claims.

    Since its takeover, the military has cracked down and suppressed near-weekly pro-democracy marches, with as many as 118 protesters killed, according to statistics published by the Sudan Doctors Committee.

    Sudan’s top general, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and paramilitary deputy Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo were meant to oversee a democratic transition after Sudan’s autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir was toppled in a popular uprising in 2019.

    But last year, Burhan dissolved the ruling Sovereign Council, arrested the transitional prime minister and unseated the civilian faction of a power-sharing government that had been in place. He later said he acted to stop a civil war.

    Rights groups say hundreds have been detained since the military takeover, many without charge.

    In recent weeks, internationally backed talks between Sudan’s pro-democracy movement and the ruling military have made some progress.

    According to The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change — an alliance of political parties and protest groups — the military has agreed on a draft constitutional document written by the country’s Bar Association. This would allow the appointment of a civilian prime minister who would lead the country through elections by 2024.

    But Sudan’s more ardent pro-democracy groups, including the grassroots Resistance Committees who spearhead anti-coup street protests, reject any settlement with the military. Along with the Communist Party, they have demanded that those responsible for the year’s deadly crackdown on demonstrations be tried in court.

    ‘‘I have no trust in the army’s intentions, the new negotiation is just a new division of wealth and power” said Ammar Yahya, the spokesperson for a Khartoum branch of the Resistance Committees.

    The coup has plunged Sudan’s already inflation-riddled economy into deeper peril. International aid has dried up while bread and fuel shortages, caused in part by the war in Ukraine, have become increasingly routine.

    In a statement also marking the coup’s anniversary, the head of The U.S. Agency for International Development condemned the takeover but said she was ‘encouraged’ by the recent agreement over the Bar Association’s constitutional document.

    ‘‘I reiterate the call for the military to cede power back to civilian authorities,’’ Samantha Powell added.

    The year has also seen a resurgence of deadly tribal clashes in the country’s neglected peripheries. Fierce clashes between the Hausa and Berta people last week killed at least 230 people in southern Blue Nile province.

    Many analysts consider the rising violence in the south a product of the power vacuum caused by the military takeover, with the ruling generals’ clampdown focused on the center of power, Khartoum and the country’s heartland, while the peripheries descend into chaos.

    Burhan and Dagalo have separately promised to step back from politics following the reinstatement of a civilian government. But amid the chaos, both have also sought to further their political influence.

    Dagalo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, implicated in the killing of more than 100 sit-in protesters in June 2019 in Khartoum, have continued to expand across the country. Meanwhile, Burhan has overseen the reinstatement of dozens of civil servants sacked by the previous government for their association with al-Bashir’s circle.

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  • Sudan official: Deaths from southern tribal clashes at 220

    Sudan official: Deaths from southern tribal clashes at 220

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    CAIRO — Two days of tribal fighting in Sudan’s south killed at least 220 people, a senior health official said Sunday, marking one the deadliest bouts of tribal violence in recent years. The unrest added to the woes of an African nation mired in civil conflict and political chaos.

    Fighting in Blue Nile province, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, reignited earlier this month over a land dispute. It pits the Hausa tribe, with origins across West Africa, against the Berta people.

    The tensions escalated Wednesday and Thursday in the town of Wad el-Mahi on the border with Ethiopia, according to Fath Arrahman Bakheit, the director general of the Health Ministry in Blue Nile.

    He told The Associated Press that officials counted at least 220 dead as of Saturday night, adding the tally could be much higher since medical teams were not able to reach the epicenter of the fighting.

    Bakheit said the first humanitarian and medical convoy managed to reach Was el-Mahi late Saturday to try to assess the situation, including counting “this huge number of bodies,” and the dozens of injured.

    “In such clashes, everyone loses,” he said. “We hope it ends soon and never happens again. But we need strong political, security and civil interventions to achieve that goal.”

    Footage from the scene, which corresponded to the AP’s reporting, showed burned houses and charred bodies. Others showed women and children fleeing on foot.

    Many houses were burned down in the fighting, which displaced some 7,000 people to the city of Rusyaris. Others fled to neighboring provinces, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Overall, about 211,000 people have been displaced by tribal violence and other attacks across the country this year, it said.

    Authorities ordered a nighttime curfew in Wad el-Mahi and deployed troops to the area. They also established a fact-finding committee to investigate the clashes, according to the state-run SUNA news agency.

    The fighting between the two groups first erupted in mid-July, killing at least 149 people as of earlier October. It triggered violent protests and stoked tensions between the two tribes in Blue Nile and other provinces.

    The latest fighting comes at a critical time for Sudan, just a few days before the first anniversary of a military coup that further plunged the country into turmoil. The coup derailed the country’s short-lived transition to democracy after nearly three decades of the repressive rule of Omar al-Bashir, who was removed in April 2019 by a popular uprising.

    In recent weeks the military and the pro-democracy movement have engaged in talks to find a way out of the ongoing situation. The generals agreed to allow civilians to appoint a prime minister to lead the country through elections within 24 months, the pro-democracy movement said last week.

    However, the violence in Blue Nile is likely to slow down such efforts. Protest groups, who reject the deal with the ruling generals, have been preparing for mass anti-military demonstrations called for Tuesday, the anniversary of the coup.

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  • Guinea junta agrees with bloc to hold vote in early 2025

    Guinea junta agrees with bloc to hold vote in early 2025

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    CONAKRY, Guinea — The government led by Guinea’s coup leader reached an agreement late Friday with West African regional mediators on a schedule for holding new elections a little over two years from now.

    The regional bloc known as ECOWAS has spent more than a year negotiating with Col. Mamady Doumbouya’s government following the September 2021 coup and had imposed sanctions on the junta leadership. It was not immediately known how soon those might be lifted.

    The junta initially proposed a three-year transition, which was rejected by the regional mediators who already had obtained two-year transition deals after similar coups in both Mali and Burkina Faso. Guinea’s two-year clock starts in January, with elections then due in early 2025.

    For some, the news was bittersweet as demonstrations protesting the duration of the transition in Guinea have turned deadly, including three killed Thursday.

    “It took more than 17 deaths to reach a consensus,” complained Aly Baldé, whose brother was shot dead in Conakry.

    Guinea became the second country hit by a recent coup in West Africa, a little over a year after Mali’s military junta overthrew that country’s democratically elected ruler. Since then, Burkina Faso has seen two coups of its own.

    Burkina Faso and Mali already have agreed with ECOWAS on election dates — Mali’s is scheduled to be held by March 2024, but the situation in Burkina Faso is now in doubt after the latest coup there.

    A deal had been reached with the man who first toppled Burkina Faso’s president in January to hold a vote by July 2024. But it remains to be seen whether Capt. Ibrahim Traore, who seized power on Sept. 30, will fully honor that agreement.

    ECOWAS has said that Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso will all remain suspended from the bloc until elections are held.

    Beyond setting dates, ECOWAS also has expressed concerns about what shape the future elections will take and whether the coup leaders turned interim presidents will be allowed to run as candidates.

    Earlier this month, Doumbouya reiterated that neither he nor any member of the junta or the transitional government would take part in the eventual elections now due by January 2025.

    Doumbouya emerged as the leader after mutinous soldiers overthrew President Alpha Conde last year.

    Conde had won a landmark 2010 election after decades of dictatorship and strongman rule in Guinea, only to eventually try to seek a third term in office. He claimed the country’s term limits did not apply to him. While he succeeded in winning a third term, he was overthrown nine months later.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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  • Sudan officials: Tribal clashes kill 170 in country’s south

    Sudan officials: Tribal clashes kill 170 in country’s south

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    CAIRO — Tribal clashes in Sudan’s southern province of Blue Nile have killed at least 170 people over the past two days, two Sudanese officials said Thursday, the latest in inter-communal violence across the country’s neglected south.

    The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the clashes erupted on Wednesday and that sporadic fighting continues. Government troops were deployed to the area to try to de-escalate the conflict. The dead include women and children, the two officials said.

    Blue Nile has been shaken by ethnic violence over the past months. Tribal clashes that erupted in July killed 149 people by early October, and last week, renewed clashes killed another 13 people, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

    The July fighting involved the Hausa, a tribe with origins across West Africa, and the Berta people, following a land dispute. On Thursday, a group representing the Hausa said they have been under attack by individuals armed with heavy weapons over the past two days, but did not blame any specific tribe or group for the attack.

    A Hausa group issued a statement calling for de-escalation and a stop to ”the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Hausa.” The tribe has long been marginalized within Sudanese society, with July’s violence sparking a string of Hausa protests across the country. The Blue Nile is home to dozens of different ethnic groups, with hate speech and racism often inflaming decades-long tribal tensions.

    OCHA had no confirmation of the latest surge in casualties but said the violence has displaced at least 1,200 people since last week. According to the U.N. agency, the villages surrounding the city of Ar Rusyaris have been at the epicenter of the violence.

    Earlier in the day, OCHA said that tribal clashes in nearby West Kordofan province, which broke out last week, killed 19 people and wounded dozens. A gunfight there between the Misseriya and Nuba ethnic groups erupted amid a land dispute near the town of Al Lagowa, the agency said.

    The West Kordofan state governor visited the town on Tuesday to talk to local residents in a bid to de-escalate the conflict before coming under artillery fire from a nearby mountainous area, OCHA said. There were no reports of casualties from the artillery fire.

    “Fighting in West Kordofan and the Blue Nile states risks further displacements and human suffering,″ OCHA said. ”There is also a risk of an escalation and spread of the fighting with additional humanitarian consequences,” it said

    On Wednesday, the Sudanese army accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group active in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan, of being behind the attack on Al Lagowa. The rebel group has not responded to the accusation.

    The violence in West Kordofan prompted around 36,500 people to flee Al Lagowa while many who remained sought shelter in the town’s army base, OCHA added. The area is currently inaccessible to humanitarian aid, the agency said.

    Eisa El Dakar, a local journalist from West Kordofan, told The AP last week that the conflict there is partly rooted in the two ethnic groups’ conflicting claims to local land, with the Misseriya being predominately a herding community and the Nuba mostly farmers.

    Much of Kordofan and other areas in southern Sudan have been rocked by chaos and conflict over the past decade.

    Sudan has been plugged into turmoil since a coup last October that upended the country’s brief democratic transition after three decades of autocratic rule by Omar al-Bashir. He was toppled in an April 2019 popular uprising, paving the way for a civilian-military power-sharing government.

    Many analysts consider the rising violence a product of the power vacuum in the region, caused by the military coup last October. The violence has also further threatened Sudan’s already struggling economy, compounded by fuel shortages caused, in part, by the war in Ukraine.

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  • West African mediators head to Burkina Faso following coup

    West African mediators head to Burkina Faso following coup

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    OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Regional mediators were headed to Burkina Faso on Monday in the wake of the West African country’s second coup this year amid concern the latest power grab could further postpone elections and deepen the region’s Islamic extremist violence.

    News that the delegation from the regional bloc known as ECOWAS is traveling to the capital, Ouagadougou, came after diplomats confirmed that Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba had left for the neighboring nation of Togo following talks mediated by religious leaders.

    Burkina Faso’s new leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, 34, is officially head of state pending future elections, the junta announced Sunday. While ECOWAS, a 15-nation West African bloc, had reached an agreement to hold a new vote by July 2024, it remained unclear whether that date would still hold.

    Burkina Faso’s last democratically elected president was overthrown by Damiba in January amid frustration that his government had not been able to stop extremist attacks. But the jihadi violence, which has killed thousands and forced 2 million to flee their homes, continued and has now brought an end to Damiba’s tenure, too.

    The new leader told journalists in interviews over the weekend that conditions remained poor for soldiers in the field. Damiba had not done enough to improve that situation, Traore said.

    “I go on patrol with my men and we don’t have the basic logistics,” he told Voice of America. “In some villages, the trees don’t have leaves because people eat the leaves. They eat weeds. We’ve proposed solutions that will enable us to protect these people, but we are not listened to. We made so many proposals.”

    In recent days, Traore’s followers have waved Russian flags and called for military support to help fight the jihadis, as neighboring Mali has done with Russia’s Wagner Group. However, those Russian mercenary forces have been accused of human rights abuses and some fear their involvement in Burkina Faso would only make things worse.

    It remains to be seen whether Traore and his forces can turn around the crisis as international condemnation of the new coup mounts. The political chaos erupted into unrest over the weekend as protesters attacked the French Embassy in the capital and several other buildings associated with France around the country.

    The anti-French sentiment swelled further after a junta representative said on state television that Damiba had sought refuge at a French military base in Burkina Faso. France vehemently denied the allegation and any involvement in the unfolding events.

    The 4,000 French citizens registered in Burkina Faso are urged to stay at their homes, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said.

    “The situation is very volatile in Burkina Faso,” she told The Associated Press on Sunday in Paris. “There have been serious violations of the security of our diplomatic presence. Unacceptable violations that we condemn.”

    ———

    Mednick reported from Barcelona. Associated Press journalists Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.

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  • Burkina Faso junta urges calm after French Embassy attack

    Burkina Faso junta urges calm after French Embassy attack

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    OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso’s new junta leadership called for an end to the unrest Sunday, a day after angry protesters attacked the French Embassy and other buildings following the West African nation’s second coup this year.

    In a statement broadcast on state television, junta spokesman Capt. Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho called on people to “desist from any act of violence and vandalism to prevent the efforts made since (Friday) night, especially those that could be perpetrated against the French Embassy or the French military base.”

    Saturday’s violence has been condemned by the French Foreign Ministry, which denied any involvement in the events unfolding in Ouagadougou, the capital.

    “We condemn in the strongest terms the violence against our diplomatic presence in Burkina Faso,” the French Foreign Ministry said late Saturday. “Any attack on our diplomatic facilities is unacceptable.”

    Anti-French sentiment rose sharply after an earlier junta announcement alleged that ousted interim president Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba was sheltering at a French military base. France vehemently denied the allegation, but soon protesters with torches thronged the perimeter of the French Embassy in Ouagadougou.

    Damiba’s whereabouts were still unknown Sunday though a statement attributed to him was posted on the Burkina Faso presidency’s Facebook page late Saturday. In it, he called on the new coup leaders “to come to their senses to avoid a fratricidal war that Burkina Faso does not need.”

    Unlike other ousted West African leaders, Damiba has yet to issue a resignation though the junta said he has been removed from power in their announcement Friday night on state television.

    The events unfolding in Burkina Faso have deepened fears that the political chaos will divert attention from the country’s unabated Islamic insurgency, a crisis that has forced 2 million people from their homes and left thousands dead in recent years.

    Damiba came to power in January promising to secure the country from jihadi violence. However, the situation only deteriorated as jihadis imposed blockades on towns and have intensified attacks. Last week, at least 11 soldiers were killed and 50 civilians went missing after a supply convoy was attacked by gunmen in Gaskinde commune in the Sahel. The group of officers led by Capt. Ibrahim Traore said Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed.

    Conflict analysts say Damiba was probably too optimistic about what he could achieve in the short term, which raised expectations, but that a change at the top didn’t mean that the country’s security situation would improve.

    “The problems are too profound and the crisis is deeply rooted,” said Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “It is hard to imagine that this disunity among the armed forces and the ongoing turmoil will help resolve an already extremely volatile situation.”

    He expected that “militant groups will most likely continue to exploit” the country’s political disarray.

    As uncertainty prevailed, the international community widely condemned the ouster of Damiba, who himself overthrew the country’s democratically elected president in January.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States “is deeply concerned by events in Burkina Faso.”

    “We call on those responsible to de-escalate the situation, prevent harm to citizens and soldiers, and return to a constitutional order,” he said.

    The African Union and the West African region bloc known as ECOWAS also sharply criticized the developments.

    “ECOWAS finds this new power grab inappropriate at a time when progress has been made,” the bloc said, citing Damiba’s recent agreement to return to constitutional order by July 2024.

    Still, to some in Burkina Faso’s military, Damiba was seen as too cozy with former colonizer France, which maintains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some who support the new coup leader, Traore, have called on Burkina Faso’s government to seek Russian support instead.

    In neighboring Mali, the coup leader has invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help with security, a move than has drawn global condemnation and accusations of human rights abuses.

    ——— Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

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  • Protesters attack French Embassy in Burkina Faso after coup

    Protesters attack French Embassy in Burkina Faso after coup

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    OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Angry protesters attacked the French Embassy in Burkina Faso’s capital on Saturday after supporters of the West African nation’s new coup leader accused France of harboring the ousted interim president, a charge French authorities vehemently denied.

    Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba was overthrown late Friday only nine months after he’d mounted a coup himself in Burkina Faso, which has been failing to effectively counter rising violence by Islamic extremists. Comments by a new junta spokesman earlier Saturday set into motion an outburst of anger in Ouagadougou, the capital.

    Video on social media showed residents with lit torches outside the perimeter of the French embassy.

    Damiba’s whereabouts remained unknown but France’s Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement: “We formally deny involvement in the events unfolding in Burkina Faso. The camp where the French forces are based has never hosted Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba nor has our embassy.”

    Capt. Ibrahim Traore, who was named in charge after the Friday evening coup was announced on state television, said in his first interview that he and his men did not seek to harm Damiba.

    “If we wanted, we would take him within five minutes of fighting and maybe he would be dead, the president. But we don’t want this catastrophe,” Traore told the Voice of America. “We don’t want to harm him, because we don’t have any personal problem with him. We’re fighting for Burkina Faso.”

    Roads remained blocked off in Ouagadougou and a helicopter could be heard flying overhead. An internal security analysis for the European Union seen by The Associated Press said there was “abnormal military movement” in the city.

    As uncertainty prevailed, the international community widely condemned the ouster of Damiba, who himself overthrew the country’s democratically elected president in January. The African Union and the West African region bloc known as ECOWAS sharply criticized the developments.

    “ECOWAS finds this new power grab inappropriate at a time when progress has been made,” the bloc said, citing Damiba’s recent agreement to return to constitutional order by July 2024.

    After taking power in January, Damiba promised to end the Islamic extremist violence that has forced 2 million people to flee their homes in Burkina Faso. But the group of officers led by Traore said Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed.

    The new junta leadership said it would commit “all fighting forces to refocus on the security issue and the restoration of the integrity of our territory.”

    But it remains to be seen whether the junta can turn around the crisis. Concerns already were mounting Saturday that the latest political volatility would further distract the military and allow the jihadis to strengthen their grip on the once-peaceful country.

    For some in Burkina Faso’s military, Damiba was seen as too cozy with former colonizer France, which maintains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some who support the new coup leader, Traore, have called on Burkina Faso’s government to seek Russian support instead.

    In neighboring Mali, the coup leader has invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help with security, a move than has drawn global condemnation and accusations of human rights abuses.

    Mali also saw a second coup nine months after the August 2020 overthrow of its president, when the junta’s leader sidelined his civilian transition counterparts and put himself alone in charge.

    Chrysogone Zougmore, president of the Burkina Faso Movement for Human Rights, called the latest overthrow “very regrettable,” saying the political instability would not help in the fight against Islamic extremist violence.

    “How can we hope to unite people and the army if the latter is characterized by such serious divisions?” Zougmore said.

    ———

    Mednick reported from Barcelona.

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  • Army officers appear on Burkina Faso TV, declare new coup

    Army officers appear on Burkina Faso TV, declare new coup

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    OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — More than a dozen members of Burkina Faso’s army seized control of state television late Friday, declaring that the country’s coup leader-turned-president, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, had been overthrown after only nine months in power.

    A statement read by a junta spokesman said Capt. Ibrahim Traore is the new military leader of Burkina Faso, a volatile West African country that is battling a mounting Islamic insurgency.

    Burkina Faso’s new military leaders said the country’s borders had been closed and a curfew would be in effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The transitional government and national assembly were ordered dissolved.

    Damiba and his allies overthrew the democratically elected president, coming to power with promises of make the country more secure. However, violence has continued unabated and frustration with his leadership has grown in recent months.

    “Faced by the continually worsening security situation, we the officers and junior officers of the national armed forces were motivated to take action with the desire to protect the security and integrity of our country,” said the statement read by the junta spokesman, Capt. Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho.

    The soldiers promised the international community they would respect their commitments and urged Burkinabes “to go about their business in peace.”

    “A meeting will be convened to adopt a new transitional constitution charter and to select a new Burkina Faso president be it civilian or military,” Sorgho added.

    Damiba had just returned from addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York as Burkina Faso’s head of state. Tensions, though, had been mounting for months. In his speech, Damiba defended his January coup as “an issue of survival for our nation,” even if it was ”perhaps reprehensible” to the international community.

    Constantin Gouvy, Burkina Faso researcher at Clingendael, said Friday night’s events “follow escalating tensions within the ruling MPSR junta and the wider army about strategic and operational decisions to tackle spiraling insecurity.”

    “Members of the MPSR increasingly felt Damiba was isolating himself and casting aside those who helped him seize power,” Gouvy told The Associated Press.

    Gunfire had erupted in the capital, Ouagadougou, early Friday and hours passed without any public appearance by Damiba. Late in the afternoon, his spokesman posted a statement on the presidency’s Facebook page saying that “negotiations are underway to bring back calm and serenity.”

    Friday’s developments felt all too familiar in West Africa, where a coup in Mali in August 2020 set off a series of military power grabs in the region. Mali also saw a second coup nine months after the August 2020 overthrow of its president, when the junta’s leader sidelined his civilian transition counterparts and put himself alone in charge.

    On the streets of Ouagadougou, some people already were showing support Friday for the change in leadership even before the putschists took to the state airwaves.

    Francois Beogo, a political activist from the Movement for the Refounding of Burkina Faso, said Damiba “has showed his limits.”

    “People were expecting a real change,” he said of the January coup d’etat.

    Some demonstrators voiced support for Russian involvement in order to stem the violence, and shouted slogans against France, Burkina Faso’s former colonizer. In neighboring Mali, the junta invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help secure the country, though their deployment has drawn international criticism.

    Many in Burkina Faso initially supported the military takeover last January, frustrated with the previous government’s inability to stem Islamic extremist violence that has killed thousands and displaced at least 2 million.

    Yet the violence has failed to wane in the months since Damiba took over. Earlier this month, he also took on the position of defense minister after dismissing a brigadier general from the post.

    “It’s hard for the Burkinabe junta to claim that it has delivered on its promise of improving the security situation, which was its pretext for the January coup,” said Eric Humphery-Smith, senior Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

    Earlier this week, at least 11 soldiers were killed and 50 civilians went missing after a supply convoy was attacked by gunmen in Gaskinde commune in Soum province in the Sahel. That attack was “a low point” for Damiba’s government and “likely played a role in inspiring what we’ve seen so far today,” added Humphery-Smith.

    U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday that nearly one-fifth of Burkina Faso’s population “urgently needs humanitarian aid.”

    “Burkina Faso needs peace, it needs stability, and it needs unity in order to fight terrorist groups and criminal networks operating in parts of the country,” Dujarric said.

    Chrysogone Zougmore, president of the Burkina Faso Movement for Human Rights, called Friday’s developments “very regrettable,” saying the instability would not help in the fight against the Islamic extremist violence.

    “How can we hope to unite people and the army if the latter is characterized by such serious divisions?” Zougmore said. “It is time for these reactionary and political military factions to stop leading Burkina Faso adrift.”

    ———

    Mednick reported from Barcelona. Associated Press writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

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