The military command of Niger announced on Thursday that it supported the coup that was started on Wednesday by members of the presidential guard, stating that maintaining national stability was its top concern. According to a press release from the army chief of staff, the army needed to “preserve the physical integrity” of the president … [Read more…]
Soldiers in Niger claimed to have removed President Mohamed Bazoum from power late on Wednesday, hours after members of the presidential guard detained the politician at his official residence. In a statement broadcast on national television, Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane said that “the defence and security forces … have decided to put an end to the … [Read more…]
Niger President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday was being held by disgruntled members of the elite Presidential Guard, who in turn were given an “ultimatum” by the army, a source close to Bazoum said on Wednesday. The West African bloc ECOWAS condemned what it called an “attempted coup” and called on the “plotters” to release Bazoum … [Read more…]
Residents of Sudan’s capital again awoke to heavy clashes Sunday morning just hours after rival generals agreed to an upcoming one-week ceasefire amid ongoing talks in Saudi Arabia. The ceasefire — the latest following many successive truces that have been systematically violated — is set to go into effect at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) on … [Read more…]
A month ago, Mohsen Abdelrahman owned a small but profitable jewellery store in Khartoum. Now, he has nothing to his name but a broken lock and a hollowed-out shopfront. Ten days after battles broke out between two rival Sudanese generals, he received a call from the shopkeeper next door to his business saying it had … [Read more…]
Persistent fighting between Sudan’s rival generals undermined efforts to firm up a truce Wednesday, as a senior UN official arrived for talks on providing relief to millions of trapped civilians. The visit by top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths comes one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed “in principle” … [Read more…]
Fighting raged in Sudan on Friday, despite rival forces agreeing to extend a truce aimed to stem nearly two weeks of warfare that has killed hundreds and caused widespread destruction. In the capital Khartoum, where foreign nations are scrambling to organise mass evacuations of their citizens, Turkey’s defence ministry said a military transport aircraft came … [Read more…]
Britain on Tuesday began evacuating its citizens from Sudan, after criticism of a delay in getting its passport holders out of the restive country. “The first flight has left and you can expect that there will be at least two more flights overnight tonight,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters. Britain only announced … [Read more…]
Fighters have occupied a national public laboratory in Sudan holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an “extremely, extremely dangerous” situation, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday. Fighters “kicked out all the technicians from the lab… which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” said … [Read more…]
The fighting that has erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country’s military leadership. The clashes are between the regular army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sudan is in North-East Africa and is one of … [Read more…]
French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated, Thursday, March 2, 2023, that France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa after he began a four-nation tour of the continent. “The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in Gabon, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of … [Read more…]
Burkina Faso’s army announced on Sunday that operations by the French army in the jihadist-hit West African state were officially over. Senior officers from Burkina Faso and France’s forces in the country held a flag-lowering ceremony to mark the official end of French operations, at a camp on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou on … [Read more…]