NIAMEY: Niger’s new military rulers on Wednesday accused France, the country’s traditional ally, of having released captured militants and breaching a ban on air space on the eve of a key summit on the Sahel’s latest crisis.
Leaders of the West African bloc ECOWAS are to meet in the Nigerian capital Abuja to mull their options, with diplomacy apparently edging out military intervention at present after a showdown last weekend.
Two weeks after a coup that toppled Niger’s elected president, the regime accused France of having “unilaterally freed captured terrorists” — a term for extremists conducting a bloody eight-year-old insurgency.
The extremists then gathered to plan an attack on “military positions in the tri-border area,” a hotspot region where the frontiers of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali converge, according to the statement issued by the coup leaders, called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).
“Events of an extreme gravity are unfolding in Niger as a result of the behavior of the French forces and their accomplices,” it declared.
It urged the security forces to “raise their alert level across the country” and on the public “to remain mobilized and vigilant.”
The regime also accused France of having flown a “military plane” from neighboring Chad into Niger air space on Wednesday, defying a ban imposed on Sunday.
The two allegations were rejected by a French government official.
“No terrorist has been freed by French forces,” the source said, adding that the flight had been “authorized by and coordinated with” Niger’s armed forces.
Thursday’s summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) takes place under the chairmanship of Nigeria, the regional superpower and advocate of a hard line against the coup.
Struggling to stem a cascade of putsches among its members, the bloc gave Niger’s military rulers until last Sunday to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face potential use of force.
But the coup leaders remained defiant, and the ultimatum passed without action.
On Tuesday, a bid to send a joint team of ECOWAS, UN and African Union (AU) representatives to the capital Niamey ran into the ground.
The coup leaders said they could not guarantee the mission’s “safety” in the light of what they said was public anger to sanctions imposed by ECOWAS.
Despite the failure, ECOWAS and Nigeria said they would pursue all options to resolve the crisis, and the United States emphasised a “peaceful” outcome even though it too had been rebuffed.
ECOWAS said it would “continue to deploy all measures in order to restore constitutional order” in Niger.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said through his spokesman that “no options have been taken off of the table” but diplomacy was the “best way forward.”
The United States sent veteran envoy Victoria Nuland to Niamey on Monday, but she came away empty-handed, being unable to meet Bazoum or even the new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani.
Despite this, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he had spoken to Bazoum “to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution” to the “current constitutional crisis.”
France, which had adopted a combative tone as the ECOWAS ultimatum loomed, also signalled a softer line.
A French diplomat said it was “up to ECOWAS to take a decision, of whatever kind, on restoring constitutional order in Niger.”
Bazoum, 63, was detained on July 26 by members of his presidential guard.
It is the fifth coup in Niger’s history since independence from France in 1960 — and the fourth in the ranks of the 15-nation ECOWAS since 2020.
Bazoum’s election in 2021 had helped Niger to cement close ties with France and the United States, which have major bases and troop deployments in the country.
Countries in the fragile Sahel are battling with an extremist insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012, spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now is causing jitters in states on the Gulf of Guinea.
The bloody campaign has been devastating for those three countries, which have a long history of turbulence and are among the poorest nations in the world.
Since their coups, Mali and Burkina Faso have fallen out with France, the region’s former colonial power and its traditional ally.
France last year withdrew its forces from those countries and refocussed its anti-extremist strategy on Niger.
Mali and Burkina Faso have voiced solidarity with their counterparts in Niger, saying that any ECOWAS military intervention would be considered a “declaration of war” against them.
Niger coup leaders take aim at France on eve of key summit
https://arab.news/5nz88
Niger coup leaders take aim at France on eve of key summit
- The regime also accused France of having flown a “military plane” from neighboring Chad into Niger air space on Wednesday, defying a ban imposed on Sunday.
Japan flexes defense ambitions at arms show
- Japan has been gradually stepping back from the pacifism that was the cornerstone of decades of defense planning after the country’s defeat in World War Two
TOKYO: Japan opened one of its largest-ever arms shows on Wednesday in a display that Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said marked the pacifist nation’s deepening push for overseas defence cooperation and weapons exports.
The DSEI Japan exhibition near Tokyo showcased Japanese missiles, warships and research into lasers and electromagnetic railguns.
The event, double the size of the 2023 show, drew 471 firms from 33 countries, including 169 from Japan — twice as many as two years ago, according to organizer Clarion Defense & Security.
“I sincerely hope that this exhibition will provide a new opportunity for cooperation and exchange between national delegations and companies, help sustain defense industry development, drive innovation and promote peace and stability,” Nakatani said during a speech at the event.
Japan has been gradually stepping back from the pacifism that was the cornerstone of decades of defense planning after the country’s defeat in World War Two.
It lifted a military export ban in 2014, and is taking its first steps into global defense cooperation encouraged by the United States and European partners eager to share development costs and tap Japan’s industrial base.
“Strength comes from expanding and elevating the alliance’s capabilities and capacity, which means leveraging our respective skills and our specialties in co-development, co-production, and co-sustainment,” US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said as he opened the DSEI US pavilion.
Putin visited Russia’s Kursk region for first time since Moscow said it drove out Ukrainian forces
- Putin’s unannounced visit appeared to be an effort to show Russia is in control of the conflict
- Video broadcast by Russian state media showed that Putin visited Kursk Nuclear Power Plant-2
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin visited Russia’s Kursk region for the first time since Moscow claimed that it drove Ukrainian forces out of the area last month, the Kremlin said Wednesday.
Putin visited the region bordering Ukraine the previous day, according to the Kremlin.
Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 in one of their biggest battlefield successes in the more than three-year war. The incursion was the first time Russian territory was occupied by an invader since World War II and dealt a humiliating blow to the Kremlin.
Since the end of 2023, Russia has mostly had the advantage on the battlefield, with the exception of Kursk.
Putin has effectively rejected recent US and European proposals for a ceasefire. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday accused Kyiv’s allies of seeking a truce “so that they can calmly arm Ukraine, so that Ukraine can strengthen its defensive positions.”
North Korea sent up to 12,000 troops to help the Russian army take back control of Kursk, according to Ukraine, the US and South Korea. Russia announced on April 26 that its forces had pushed out the Ukrainian army. Kyiv officials denied the claim.
Ukraine says it stopped Russian attacks in Kursk
The Ukrainian Army General Staff said Wednesday that its forces repelled 13 Russian assaults in Kursk. Its map of military activity showed Ukrainian troops holding a thin line of land hard against the border but still inside Russia.
Putin’s unannounced visit appeared to be an effort to show Russia is in control of the conflict, even though its full-scale invasion of its neighbor has been slow and costly in terms of casualties and equipment.
Video broadcast by Russian state media showed that Putin visited Kursk Nuclear Power Plant-2, which is still under construction, and met with selected volunteers.
Many of the volunteers wore clothes emblazoned with the Russian flag, some had the Latin letters “V” on them, one of the symbols of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“What you are doing now during this difficult situation for this region, for this area, and for the country, will remain with you for the rest of your life as, perhaps, the most meaningful thing with which you were ever involved,” Putin said as he drank tea with the volunteers.
Ukraine’s surprise thrust into Kursk and its ability to hold land there was a logistical feat, carried out in secrecy, that countered months of gloomy news from the front about Ukrainian forces being pushed backward by the bigger Russian army.
Kyiv’s strategy aimed to show that Russia has weaknesses and that the war isn’t lost. It also sought to distract Russian forces from their onslaught in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.
The move was fraught with risk. Analysts noted that it could backfire and open a door for Russian advances in Ukraine by further stretching Ukrainian forces that are short-handed along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.
The incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamics of the war.
Putin told acting Kursk Gov. Alexander Khinshtein that the Kremlin supported the idea of continuing monthly payments to displaced families that still couldn’t return to their homes.
Putin said that he would back a proposal to build a museum in the region to celebrate what acting Gov. Alexander Khinshtein described as “the heroism of our defenders and the heroism of the region’s residents.”
Disgruntled residents had previously shown their disapproval over a lack of compensation in rare organized protests.
Putin last visited the Kursk region in March, when Ukrainian troops still controlled some parts of the area. He wore military fatigues – a rarely seen sight for the Russian leader, who usually wears a suit – and visited the area’s military headquarters where he was filmed with top generals.
Russia and Ukraine continue deep strikes with drones
Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Wednesday repeatedly reported its air defenses shot down dozens of drones over multiple Russian regions. In total, between 8 p.m. on Tuesday and 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the ministry said 262 drones were shot down.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported a total of 16 drones downed on their way toward Moscow, and during the day flights were briefly halted in and out of Moscow’s Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukosky airports, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya. Flights were also temporarily grounded in the cities of Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kostroma, Vladimir and Yaroslavl.
Local authorities in the regions of Tula, Lipetsk and Vladimir also announced blocking cell phone Internet in the wake of the drone attacks.
In Ukraine, Russian drone attacks killed two people and wounded five others in the northern Sumy region, the regional administration said.
In the Kyiv region, four members of a family were injured when debris from a downed drone hit their home, according to the regional administration.
Russia launched 76 Shahed and decoy drones overnight at Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said.
The Ukrainian army said that its drones struck a semiconductor plant overnight in Russia’s Oryol region, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Ukraine. According to the General Staff, 10 drones hit the Bolkhov Semiconductor Devices Plant, one of Russia’s key producers of microelectronics for the military-industrial complex.
It wasn’t possible to independently verify the claim.
Trump plays video in Ramaphosa meeting to back ‘genocide’ claims
- Julius Malema was shown singing ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’ — an infamous chant dating back to the apartheid-era fight against white-minority rule
- Another clip showed former South African president Jacob Zuma singing an anti-apartheid song that threatens white people
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump surprised his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa during an White House meeting Wednesday by playing him a video designed to back baseless claims of a white “genocide.”
Trump asked staff members to play a video on a screen set up in the Oval Office showing Ramaphosa — and the gathered global media — what he said were clips of Black South Africans talking about the issue, including images of what the US president called “burial sites.”
In the video, firebrand far-left opposition lawmaker Julius Malema was shown singing “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” — an infamous chant dating back to the apartheid-era fight against white-minority rule.
Malema has been a loud and radical voice in South African politics for several years, but his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party came only fourth in last year’s elections with less than 10 percent of the vote.
The 4:30-minute video showed clips of Malema telling dancing supporters that “we are cutting the throat of whiteness,” and “to shoot to kill.”
“We have not called for the killing of white people, at least for now,” Malema said in one archive clip.
Another clip showed former South African president Jacob Zuma singing an anti-apartheid song that threatens white people with being shot by machine gun.
The video finished with images of a protest in South Africa where white crosses were placed along a rural roadside to represent murdered farmers.
UK anti-Islam activist ‘Tommy Robinson’ charged with harassment of two men
- Crown Prosecution Service said the alleged offenses were committed between August 5 and 7 last year
LONDON: Prominent British anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been charged with harassment causing fear of violence to two men around the time of the nationwide riots last year, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
“We have authorized the Metropolitan Police to charge Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, 42, with harassment causing fear of violence against two men,” a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said in a statement.
Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, is currently in prison over a separate contempt of court issue but is due to be released next week after winning a bid on Tuesday to trim the 18-month sentence.
The CPS said the alleged offenses were committed between August 5 and 7 last year — when riots broke out at anti-immigration protests in towns and cities across Britain following the murder of three young girls in Southport, northwest England.
Yaxley-Lennon, who describes himself as a journalist who exposes state wrongdoing and counts US billionaire Elon Musk among his supporters, was accused by some media and politicians of inflaming tensions at the time of the riots.
Three British ministers to explain increase in arms exports to Israel despite partial ban
- Trade Minister Douglas Alexander and relevant ministers from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence will answer MPs’ questions
- Liam Byrne, chair of the business select committee, says ministers should clarify reasons behind the increase in arms exports to Israel
LONDON: The British parliamentary committee overseeing trade is summoning three Labour government ministers responsible for arms exports to Israel to answer questions about loopholes in the rules.
In September, the UK government announced a partial ban on arms exports to send munitions to Israel for use in Gaza as the Israeli forces continue their attacks on the Palestinian coastal enclave.
British MPs are concerned that arms companies may exploit the partial nature of arms exports to provide weaponry to Israel for use in Gaza, potentially violating a commitment by ministers.
Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Select Committee, has called Trade Minister Douglas Alexander and relevant ministers from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence to answer questions about the arms trade with Israel.
He said in a letter that the three ministers should clarify the reasons behind the increase in arms sent to Israel. Additionally, he called for the release of statistics regarding the number of licenses altered to exclude Israel as the end user.
He said the ministers assured MPs that the partial ban covered “equipment that we assess is for use in the current conflict in Gaza, such as important components that go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items that facilitate ground targeting.”
His decision followed a report from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, which revealed last week that the UK government approved licenses for £127.6 million ($171.5 million) worth of military equipment to Israel in the fourth quarter of 2024, which occurred despite the Labour government’s partial ban on arms exports to Israel imposed in September.
The CAAT said that the total is greater than the combined arms exports to Israel for the years 2020 to 2023.
On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy assured MPs that “arms are not being delivered to Israel that could be used in Gaza.” However, the government has authorized over £61 million in single-issue licenses for military goods intended for Israel, including targeting systems, munitions, and aircraft parts, according to The Guardian newspaper.
