OUALLAM, Niger: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday visited a displaced people’s camp in Niger, where he appealed for humanitarian and military aid for an impoverished country battling extremist insurgents.
Guterres traveled to the camp at Ouallam in the southwest of the country on the fourth day of a trip to West Africa delayed by the crisis in Ukraine.
He met with several dozen displaced people and refugees from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso in a school courtyard at the camp.
He said he had chosen to end his two-day visit to Niger “with the martyred population of Ouallam,” a town in the Tillaberi border region which has been badly hit by extremists.
“You can count on me to call on the international community to provide strong support for the Nigerien army so that it is better able to protect you,” Guterres said.
He also appealed for help for the Nigerien people and refugees, providing resources that opened the way for “schools for everyone and hospitals which work.”
Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali are struggling with an extremist insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to its neighbors three years later.
Thousands of people have died and more than two million have fled their homes, in three countries that rank among the poorest in the world.
In the case of Niger, the country is facing a dual security crisis.
The southwest has been hit by extremists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, while the southeast is suffering from raids from northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009.
Guterres noted that Mali and Burkina Faso had suffered military coups in 2020 in 2022 — events triggered by deepening anger at failures to end the insurgency.
“Niger must be a wall that the terrorists cannot cross,” Guterres said.
Reiterating remarks he made on Monday, he called for “investment” in the country’s armed forces, which he said were not sufficiently equipped to fight the extremits.
Guterres, this time without being escorted by journalists, paid a long visit to Nigerien special forces at their base in Ouallam, who are being helped by the French and US military.
Niger has around a quarter of a million of internally-displaced people, in addition to 264,000 Nigerian and Malian refugees and 13,000 from Burkina, according to UN figures.
The country is also struggling from food shortages as a result of a drought and the impact from jihadist attacks on village farming.
More than 4.4 million people, or around a fifth of the population, are likely to experience severe food insecurity from July, according to the authorities.
Guterres began his African tour on Saturday in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. He winds it up on Wednesday with a visit to Nigeria.
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UN chief visits Sahel’s ‘martyred’ refugees
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UN chief visits Sahel’s ‘martyred’ refugees
- Guterres said he had chosen to end his two-day visit to Niger ‘with the martyred population of Ouallam,’ a town in the Tillaberi border region which has been badly hit by extremists
- Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali are struggling with an extremist insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to its neighbors three years later
Trump to host Colombia’s Petro just weeks after insulting him as a ‘sick man’ fueling drug trade
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is set to welcome Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the White House on Tuesday for talks only weeks after threatening military action against the South American country and accusing the leader of pumping cocaine into the United States.
US administration officials say the meeting will focus on regional security cooperation and counternarcotics efforts. And Trump on Monday suggested that Petro — who has continued to criticize Trump and the US operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro — seems more willing to work with his administration to stem the flow of illegal drugs from Colombia.
“Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice,” Trump told reporters. “He changed his attitude very much.”
Yet, bad blood between the leaders overshadows the sit-down, even as Trump sought to downplay any friction on the eve of the visit.
The conservative Trump and leftist Petro are ideologically far apart, but both leaders share a tendency for verbal bombast and unpredictability. That sets the stage for a White House visit with an anything-could-happen vibe.
In recent days, Petro has continued poking at the US president, calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide” in the Gaza Strip, while asserting that the capture of Maduro was a kidnapping.
And ahead of his departure for Washington, Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets of Bogotá during the White House meeting.
There’s been a shift in US-Colombia relations
Historically, Colombia has been a US ally. For the past 30 years, the US has worked closely with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas.
But relations between the leaders have been strained by Trump’s massing US forces in the region for unprecedented deadly military strikes targeting suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific. At least 126 people have been killed in 36 known strikes.
In October, the Trump administration announced it was imposing sanctions on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade.
The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
The sanctions, which had to be waived to allow Petro to travel to Washington this week, came after the US administration in September announced it was adding Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in three decades.
Then came the audacious military operation last month to capture Maduro and his wife to face federal drug conspiracy charges, a move that Petro has forcefully denounced. Following Maduro’s ouster, Trump put Colombia on notice, and ominously warned Petro he could be next.
Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump said of Petro last month. “And he’s not gonna be doing it very long, let me tell you.”
But a few days later, tensions eased somewhat after a call between the leaders. Trump said Petro in their hourlong conversation explained “the drug situation and other disagreements.” And Trump extended an invitation to Petro for the White House visit.
Trump on a couple of occasions has used the typically scripted leaders’ meetings to deliver stern rebukes to counterparts in front of the press.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February for showing insufficient gratitude for US support of Ukraine. Trump also used a White House meeting in May to forcefully confront South African President Cyril Ramaphosa,accusing the country, with reporters present, of failing to address Trump’s baseless claim of the systematic killing of white farmers.
It was not clear that the meeting between Trump and Petro would include a portion in front of cameras.
US administration officials say the meeting will focus on regional security cooperation and counternarcotics efforts. And Trump on Monday suggested that Petro — who has continued to criticize Trump and the US operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro — seems more willing to work with his administration to stem the flow of illegal drugs from Colombia.
“Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice,” Trump told reporters. “He changed his attitude very much.”
Yet, bad blood between the leaders overshadows the sit-down, even as Trump sought to downplay any friction on the eve of the visit.
The conservative Trump and leftist Petro are ideologically far apart, but both leaders share a tendency for verbal bombast and unpredictability. That sets the stage for a White House visit with an anything-could-happen vibe.
In recent days, Petro has continued poking at the US president, calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide” in the Gaza Strip, while asserting that the capture of Maduro was a kidnapping.
And ahead of his departure for Washington, Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets of Bogotá during the White House meeting.
There’s been a shift in US-Colombia relations
Historically, Colombia has been a US ally. For the past 30 years, the US has worked closely with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas.
But relations between the leaders have been strained by Trump’s massing US forces in the region for unprecedented deadly military strikes targeting suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific. At least 126 people have been killed in 36 known strikes.
In October, the Trump administration announced it was imposing sanctions on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade.
The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
The sanctions, which had to be waived to allow Petro to travel to Washington this week, came after the US administration in September announced it was adding Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in three decades.
Then came the audacious military operation last month to capture Maduro and his wife to face federal drug conspiracy charges, a move that Petro has forcefully denounced. Following Maduro’s ouster, Trump put Colombia on notice, and ominously warned Petro he could be next.
Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump said of Petro last month. “And he’s not gonna be doing it very long, let me tell you.”
But a few days later, tensions eased somewhat after a call between the leaders. Trump said Petro in their hourlong conversation explained “the drug situation and other disagreements.” And Trump extended an invitation to Petro for the White House visit.
Trump on a couple of occasions has used the typically scripted leaders’ meetings to deliver stern rebukes to counterparts in front of the press.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February for showing insufficient gratitude for US support of Ukraine. Trump also used a White House meeting in May to forcefully confront South African President Cyril Ramaphosa,accusing the country, with reporters present, of failing to address Trump’s baseless claim of the systematic killing of white farmers.
It was not clear that the meeting between Trump and Petro would include a portion in front of cameras.
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