Mali separatists claim major victory over army, Russian allies

A fighter for Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) patrols through town during the Congress for the Fusion of Movements in Kidal on August 28, 2022. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 28 July 2024
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Mali separatists claim major victory over army, Russian allies

  • The district is almost surrounded by Algerian territory and has been at the heart of other battles between separatist forces and the national army over the past decade

DAKAR: A mainly Tuareg separatist coalition on Sunday claimed a major victory over Mali’s army and its Russian allies following three days of intense fighting in a district on the Algerian border.
“Our forces decisively obliterated these enemy columns on Saturday,” said a statement by Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the CSP-DPA alliance.
“A large amount of equipment and weapons were seized or damaged,” and prisoners were taken, he added.
The statement said seven separatist fighters were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting in Tinzaouatene district.
The nation’s military leaders who seized power in a 2020 coup have made it a priority to retake all of the country from separatist and extremist forces, particularly in Kidal, a pro-independence bastion in the north.
Large-scale fighting broke out Thursday between the army and separatists in Tinzaouatene after the army announced it had retaken control of several districts.
The district is almost surrounded by Algerian territory and has been at the heart of other battles between separatist forces and the national army over the past decade.
No overall toll was available for the Malian army and its Russian allies, but the separatist spokesman shared videos with media showing several bodies lying on the ground believed to be from their side.
In some of the videos, white soldiers are visible among the prisoners.
A local official and a former worker with the UN mission in Kidal said the Malian army had retreated with at least 15 fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group killed or arrested.
Mossa Ag Inzoma, a member of the separatist movement, claimed that “dozens” of Wagner fighters and soldiers had been killed or taken prisoner.
But the army said its units on patrol in Tinzaouatene district for three days had begun rearguard action between Friday and Saturday.
The army rarely communicates its losses, and pressure from the junta along with armed groups has silenced most independent sources of information in the areas of fighting.
Separatist groups lost control of several districts in 2023 after a military offensive that saw junta forces take Kidal.
There have been several accusations of rights abuses of the civilian population by the army and Wagner forces. Malian authorities have denied the allegations.
Violence by terroriists linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh, as well as community self-defense and criminal organizations, has also rocked Mali since 2012.
A junta led by Col. Assimi Goita took power in 2020, citing the civilian government’s inability to stem the unrest, and broke the country’s traditional alliance with former colonial power France in favor of Russia.

 


Albanian port awaits first migrant transfer from Italy

A local resident fishes near the port in Shengjin, on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 15 October 2024
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Albanian port awaits first migrant transfer from Italy

  • The five-year deal with Albania, estimated to cost Italy 160 million euros ($175 million) annually, covers adult male migrants intercepted by Italian vessels in international waters, but within Italy’s search and rescue area

SHENGJIN, Albania: The fishermen in Shengjin barely give a look at the temporary cabins built on one side of the Albanian port that Italy considers a groundbreaking scheme in Europe’s campaign against undocumented migrants.
Sixteen men from Bangladesh and Egypt, rescued in the Mediterranean on Sunday, are set to become the first residents at the Shengjin migrant center on Wednesday.
The migrant scheme could be discussed at a European Union summit this week. But Arben Leli is more worried about whether the fish bite.
“I don’t care about migrants, when they arrive, when they leave, what they do,” Leli told AFP as he tended his nets.
“I have the sea, I want to fish, that’s my life,” the 56-year-old added.
Nearby, Dashamira Deda was pulling fish from a net.
The mother-of-two, who works with her husband on a boat, said that “human nature is to think first of ourselves and then of what’s going on around us... the best thing was to leave us alone.”
Deda said the people of Shengjin, with its population of about 8,000, did not want to appear callous, but they have other pressing concerns, including making a living.
“We are just hoping it’s for a good cause without harming our lives,” the 42-year-old added, without even a glance at the center’s high walls.
But this center, and another in nearby Gjader, has been drawing growing European attention since Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni struck a deal with Albanian counterpart Edi Rama to become the first EU country to create migrant processing centers outside the bloc.
Shengjin’s seaside hotels are a summer tourist draw. But Albania’s third largest port has seen its size reduced by 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) so that the migrant camp, protected by high gates and Italian soldiers and police, could be built.
The five-year deal with Albania, estimated to cost Italy 160 million euros ($175 million) annually, covers adult male migrants intercepted by Italian vessels in international waters, but within Italy’s search and rescue area.
An initial screening at sea will determine which migrants are from countries considered “safe,” which could make repatriation simpler.
In Shengjin, migrants will undergo registration and health checks, and then they will be sent to the other center in Gjader to await the processing of asylum claims.
The Gjader facility includes a section for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected, as well as a small jail.
Human rights groups have questioned the protections offered for asylum seekers. Amnesty International has called the centers a “cruel experiment (that) is a stain on the Italian government.”
Meloni on Tuesday called it a “courageous” move that could be set up in other non-EU countries.
 

 


Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’

Updated 15 October 2024
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Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’

  • “Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting
  • “Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN“

PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not forget his country was created as a result of a resolution adopted by the United Nations, French President Emmanuel Macron told cabinet on Tuesday, urging Israel to abide by UN decisions.

Tensions have increased between Netanyahu and Macron with the French leader last week insisting that stopping the export of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to stop the conflicts.

France has also repeatedly denounced Israeli fire against UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who include a French contingent.

“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting, referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

“Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” he added, as Israel wages a ground offensive against the Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the UN peacekeepers are deployed.

His comments from the closed door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by a participant who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL should be deployed in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu on Sunday called on the UN to move the 10,000 strong peacekeeping force, who include 700 French troops, deployed in south Lebanon out of “harm’s way,” saying Hezbollah was using them as “human shields.”

Later on Tuesday, Netanyahu hit back at Macron’s comments, saying the country’s founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.

“A reminder to the president of France: It was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the war of independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors — including from the Vichy regime in France,” Netanyahu said to a statement.


India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled

Updated 15 October 2024
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India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled

  • Relations fraught since the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia last year
  • Canadian PM says Indian officials identified as ‘persons of interest’ in the assassination plot

NEW DELHI: Relations between India and Canada have reached a historic low as the countries expelled each other’s diplomats in an ongoing row over the killing of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India’s government on Monday of “supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil,” and the country’s Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner.

The ministry said Canadian police had gathered evidence, which identified them as “persons of interest” in last year’s killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia.

India immediately rejected the accusations as absurd, and its Ministry of External Affairs said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner, his deputy, and the embassy’s four first secretaries.

Before the announcement, it also summoned the Canadian charge d’affaires and said it was withdrawing its high commissioner and “other targeted diplomats,” contradicting Canada’s statement of expulsion.

“Prime Minister Trudeau has been making these public statements repeatedly, but the evidence that he claims to possess is not available to us so we cannot make any kind of a judgment,” Dr. Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, told Arab News.

“This is the first time the relationship is so low … It has created a lot of problems and it has done damage to relationships between the two countries for the time being.”

This is not the first time India-Canada relations have been strained. In 1974, after India conducted its first nuclear weapon test, it drew outrage from Canada, which accused it of extracting plutonium from a Canadian reactor, a gift intended for peaceful use.

Ottawa subsequently suspended its support for New Delhi’s nuclear energy program.

“The relationship was also low in the 1980s with the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane and the bombing of the plane, in which many people died,” said Prof. Ronki Ram, political science lecturer at the Punjab University.

The explosion from a bomb planted by Canada-based militants killed 329 people — the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history. India had warned the Canadian government about the possibility of attacks and accused the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of not acting on it.

But the current strain in relations is the first in which diplomats have been withdrawn.

“This is the first time that the relationship has gone down so low,” Ram said.

“Allegations and counter-allegations will have serious implications both internationally and domestically. The Indian government should look into the allegations and try to address them.”

Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian citizen, was gunned down in June 2023 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, which has a significant number of Sikh residents. He was an outspoken supporter of the Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in parts of India’s Punjab state.

The movement is outlawed in India, considered a national security threat by the government, and Nijjar’s name appears on the Indian Home Ministry’s list of terrorists.

Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside their native state of Punjab — about 770,000 or 2 percent of its entire population.

“Many Panjabi diaspora are in Canada, and a mini-Punjab has been established there,” Ram said.

“The government is taking an electoral interest in the landscape of Canada also. Those things are becoming very critical.”


Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting

Updated 15 October 2024
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Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting

  • Alexei Moskalyov was convicted in March 2023 on the basis of posts that he made on a social media site
  • The post came to authorities’ attention after his daughter, then age 13, made a drawing in school opposing the military operation

MOSCOW: A Russian man convicted of discrediting the military after his daughter made a drawing criticizing Russia’s military actions in Ukraine was released from prison after serving 22 months, a group that monitors political detentions said Tuesday.
Alexei Moskalyov was convicted in March 2023 on the basis of posts that he made on a social media site. The post came to authorities’ attention after his daughter, then age 13, made a drawing in school opposing the military operation.
Moskalyov was sentenced to two years in prison, but he fled. He was arrested in Belarus a day later and extradited to Russia. A court later reduced his sentence to a year and 10 months.
The OVD-Info group, which reported his release, said that Moskalyov told it that agents of the Federal Security Service questioned other inmates in his unit before he was released and suggested they were looking for cause to file new charges against him.
Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has cracked down harshly on criticism of the military and the operation in Ukraine. Several prominent opponents of the fighting who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms — one of them to 25 years — were freed and sent out of the country in August in a widescale prisoner exchange with the West.


Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity

Updated 15 October 2024
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Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity

  • “Canada will not tolerate this type of activity,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said

OTTAWA: Canada, in coordination with the United States, on Tuesday designated the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a “terrorist entity” alleging that it had links with another terrorist-designated group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement.