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Africa leaders give Niger junta week to cede power

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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Presidents are seen during the heads of states and government extraordinary session in Abuja on July 30, 2023 for a crisis summit on the coup in Niger. (AFP)
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Updated 31 July 2023
AFP
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Africa leaders give Niger junta week to cede power

  • ECOWAS regional bloc considers use of force if President Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated within a week
  • African Union condemns coup, expresses deep concern over “alarming resurgence” of military overthrows in Africa
Updated 31 July 2023
AFP

ABUJA, Nigeria: African leaders on Sunday gave the junta in Niger one week to cede power or face the possible use of force, and slapped financial sanctions on the putschists, after the latest coup in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region raised alarm on the continent and in the West.

In the third coup in as many years to fell a leader in the Sahel, Niger’s elected president and Western ally, Mohamed Bazoum, has been held by the military since Wednesday.
General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of the powerful presidential guard, has declared himself leader and said the putsch was a response to “the degradation of the security situation” linked to jihadist bloodshed, as well as corruption and economic woes.
Bazoum is one of a dwindling group of elected presidents and pro-Western leaders in the Sahel, where since 2020 a jihadist insurgency has also triggered coups in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Former colonial ruler France and the European Union have suspended security cooperation and financial aid to Niger following the coup, while the United States warned that its aid could also be at stake.
At an emergency summit in Nigeria, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc demanded Bazoum be reinstated within a week.
Otherwise, the bloc said it would take “all measures” to restore constitutional order.
“Such measures may include the use of force for this effect,” it said in a statement.
“No more time for us to send a warning signal... It’s time for action,” said Bola Tinubu, president of Nigeria and ECOWAS chairman.
Washington welcomed “the strong leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government to defend constitutional order in Niger,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement joining calls for the immediate release of Bazoum and the restoration of the democratically-elected government.
“The United States will remain actively engaged with ECOWAS and West African leaders on next steps to preserve Niger’s hard-earned democracy,” Blinken added.

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• President of Niger must be immediately released: OIC

• EU, France suspend cooperation and aid to Niger after coup

It was not immediately clear how the 15-member ECOWAS could use force. Last year, the bloc agreed to create a regional security force to intervene against jihadists and prevent military coups, but details on the force and its funding have not been outlined.
The bloc also slapped financial sanctions on the junta leaders and the country, freezing “all commercial and financial transactions” between member states and Niger — one of the world’s poorest nations, often ranking last on the UN’s Human Development Index.
Niger’s Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou told broadcaster France24 Sunday that sanctions were “going to be a disaster” both economically and socially.
Bazoum’s PNDS party called for demonstrations to be held to demand the release of the president.

On Saturday, the junta condemned the ECOWAS summit, saying its aim was to “approve a plan of aggression against Niger, in the form of an imminent military intervention in Niamey.”
The intervention would be “in cooperation with African countries who are not members of the regional body and certain Western nations,” junta member Amadou Abdramane said on national television.
Former Niger president Mahamadou Issoufou, whom Bazoum succeeded as head of state, on Sunday posted on social media that he intended to negotiate with the junta to restore Bazoum to the presidency.

Rooting for Putin

In the capital Niamey, thousands of people waving Russian and Niger flags rallied outside the national parliament in a show of support for the junta.
Moscow has for years strived to increase its influence in Africa, and in Niger’s neighbor Mali — another impoverished former French colony — the military junta has been cooperating with forces from Russia.
The demonstrators later moved on to the French embassy in Niamey, shouting “long live Putin” and “down with France.”
AFP saw some tear down a sign for the embassy and trample on it.
Demonstrators also tried to storm the embassy, but were dispersed with tear gas, an AFP journalist saw.




Nigerien security forces prepare to disperse pro-junta demonstrators gathered outside the French embassy in Niamey, the capital city of Niger, on July 30, 2023. (REUTERS)

France condemned the assault on its embassy, warning it would retaliate if its citizens or interests were attacked and said it had strengthened security at the embassy.

After a wave of condemnation for the coup, punitive measures have already begun in the West.
France — which has 1,500 soldiers in Niger — said on Saturday it was suspending development aid and budgetary support to the West African nation.
European Union diplomatic chief Josep Borrell meanwhile said the EU would not recognize the putschists, and announced the indefinite suspension of security cooperation with Niger with immediate effect, as well as budgetary aid.
The United States — which has about 1,000 troops in Niger — has offered Bazoum Washington’s steadfast support and warned those detaining him that they were “threatening years of successful cooperation and hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance.”
The African Union condemned the coup and expressed deep concern over the “alarming resurgence” of military overthrows in Africa.
Niger has had a turbulent political history since gaining independence in 1960, with four coups as well as numerous other attempts — including two previously against Bazoum.
 

Topics: Niger Coup Niamey Sahel President Mohamed Bazoum ECOWAS African Union (AU)

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Ukraine and its allies push for a 30-day ceasefire starting Monday

Updated 12 sec ago
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Ukraine and its allies push for a 30-day ceasefire starting Monday

Updated 12 sec ago
Saturday also marked the last day of a unilateral three-day ceasefire declared by Russia
The leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom arrived together at the train station in Kyiv, and met Zelensky

KYIV: Ukraine and its allies are ready for a “full, unconditional ceasefire” with Russia for at least 30 days starting Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Saturday.
His remarks came as the leaders of four major European countries visited Kyiv to push for Moscow to agree to a truce and launch peace talks on ending the nearly three-year war. They followed what Sybiha said was a “constructive” phone call between them, US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Saturday also marked the last day of a unilateral three-day ceasefire declared by Russia that Ukraine says the Kremlin’s forces have repeatedly violated.
In March, the United States proposed an immediate, limited 30-day truce, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking.
The leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom arrived together at the train station in Kyiv, and met Zelensky shortly after to join a ceremony at Kyiv’s Independence Square marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. They lit candles at a makeshift flag memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers and civilians slain since Russia’s invasion.
The visit marked the first time the leaders of the four countries had traveled together to Ukraine, with Friedrich Merz making his first visit to Ukraine as Germany’s new chancellor.
Sybiha on Thursday called the Russian truce a “farce,” accusing Russian forces of violating it over 700 times less than a day after it formally came into effect. Both sides also said attacks on their troops had continued on Thursday.
“We reiterate our backing for President Trump’s calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace,” the leaders said in a joint statement. “Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said Saturday that a “comprehensive” 30-day ceasefire, covering attacks from the air, land, sea and on infrastructure, “will start the process for ending the largest and longest war in Europe since World War II.”
Trump has pressed both sides to quickly come to an agreement to end the war, but while Zelensky agreed to the American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, Russia has not signed on. Instead, it has kept up attacks along the roughly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) front line, including deadly strikes on residential areas with no obvious military targets.
On Saturday morning, local officials in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said Russian shelling over the past day killed three residents and wounded four more. Another civilian man died on the spot on Saturday as a Russian drone struck the southern city of Kherson, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “What’s happening with Poland, Germany and Great Britain is a historic moment for European defense and toward a greater independence for our security. Obviously, for Ukraine and all of us. It’s a new era. It’s a Europe that sees itself as a power.”
Trump said last week that he doubts Russia’s Vladimir Putin wants to end his war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon, and hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
Progress on ending the war has seemed elusive in the months since Trump returned to the White House, and his previous claims of imminent breakthroughs have failed to come to fruition. Trump has previously pushed Ukraine to cede territory to Russia to end the war, threatening to walk away if a deal becomes too difficult.
Ukraine’s European allies view its fate as fundamental to the continent’s security, and pressure is now mounting to find ways to support Kyiv militarily, regardless of whether Trump pulls out.
Ukrainian presidential aide Andrii Yermak, who met the European leaders at Kyiv’s main train station, wrote on Telegram earlier on Saturday: “There is a lot of work, a lot of topics to discuss. We need to end this war with a just peace. We need to force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.”
Later in the day, the leaders began hosting a virtual meeting alongside Zelensky to update other leaders on the progress being made for a future so-called “coalition of the willing” that would help Ukraine’s armed forces after a peace deal and potentially deploy troops to Ukraine to police any future peace agreement with Russia.

Pope Leo XIV lays out his vision of the papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity

Updated 18 min 42 sec ago
AP
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Pope Leo XIV lays out his vision of the papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity

  • Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day posed by the industrial revolution in the encyclical
  • “In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution”
Updated 18 min 42 sec ago
AP

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue in some of the core priorities of Pope Francis.

In his first formal audience, Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the Argentine pope’s own 2013 mission statement, making clear a commitment to making the Catholic Church more inclusive, attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the “least and rejected.”

Leo, the first American pope, told the cardinals who elected him that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church.

He identified AI as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor.

Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his name: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. He did so most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age. The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.

In his remarks Saturday, Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day posed by the industrial revolution in the encyclical.

“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” he said.

Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it.

He warned that such powerful technology risks turning human relations into mere algorithms. Francis brought his message to the Group of Seven industrialized nations when he addressed their summit last year, insisting AI must remain human-centric so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.

The late Argentine pope also used his 2024 annual peace message to call for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethically, arguing that a technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too perilous to develop unchecked.

In the speech, delivered in Italian in the Vatican’s synod hall – not the Apostolic Palace – Leo made repeated references to Francis and the mourning over his death. He held up Francis’ mission statement at the 2013 start of his pontificate, “The Joy of the Gospel,” as something of his own marching orders, suggesting he intends very much to continue in Francis’ priorities.

He cited Francis’ insistence on the missionary nature of the church and the need to make its leadership more collegial. He cited the need to pay attention to what the faithful say “especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, especially popular piety.” Again, referring to Francis’ 2013 mission statement, Leo cited the need for the church to express “loving care for the least and rejected” and engage in courageous dialogue with the contemporary world.

Greeted by a standing ovation as he entered, Leo read from his prepared text, only looking up occasionally. Even when he first appeared to the world on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday night, Leo read from a prepared text that he must have drafted sometime before his historic election or the hour or so after.

Topics: Pope Leo XIV Vatican AI

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European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia

Updated 10 May 2025
AFP
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European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia

Updated 10 May 2025
AFP

KYIV: The leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland were in Ukraine on Saturday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, vowing to ratchet up pressure on Russia until it agreed a ceasefire in the three-year war.
The four countries, part of an alliance Britain and France have called “the coalition of the willing,” said in a joint statement they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible.”
The Kremlin has shown no signs of halting its invasion of Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump pushing for a ceasefire, and warned earlier there could be no truce unless the West halted arms deliveries to Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a 30-day truce proposed by Washington and Kyiv in March, instead declaring two brief pauses in fighting that Ukraine has accused Moscow of violating.
On his way to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said that once a 30-day ceasefire was in place, there could be “direct talks between Ukraine and Russia.”
Both Moscow and Kyiv have hinted they are open to negotiating with each other but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says this would only be possible once a ceasefire takes effect.
Russia has occupied about a fifth of Ukrainian territory since February 2022 and intensified deadly attacks on the country this spring.
The US embassy in Kyiv said on Friday that a “significant air attack” could occur at some point within the next several days.
Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived together by train from neighboring Poland, where they joined Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
It is the first time the leaders of the four European nations have made a joint visit to Ukraine.
They were seen embracing Zelensky and joined him in placing lanterns at a memorial for fallen soldiers in central Kyiv.
For Merz, who took office only this week, it will be his first visit to Ukraine as chancellor.
Macron had not been to Kyiv since June 2022, when he went with the Italian and German leaders of the time.
“We are clear the bloodshed must end. Russia must stop its illegal invasion,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
They warned: “We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine. Until Russia agrees to an enduring ceasefire, we will ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine.”
They are later scheduled to host a virtual meeting to update other European leaders on moves to create a European force that could provide Ukraine with security after the war.
Such a force “would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal and strengthen confidence in any future peace,” the leaders’ statement said.
Russia has said it will not tolerate any Western military presence in Ukraine once the fighting ends and has warned the proposal could spark war between Moscow and NATO.

PUTIN VICTORY PARADE
The symbolic show of European unity comes a day after Putin struck a defiant tone at a Moscow parade marking 80 years since victory in World War II.
In an interview with the ABC news channel on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said arms deliveries from Ukraine’s allies would have to stop before Russia would agree to a ceasefire.
A truce would otherwise be an “advantage for Ukraine” at a time when “Russian troops are advancing... in quite a confident way” on the front, Peskov said, adding that Ukraine was “not ready for immediate negotiations.”
Europe and Ukraine argue more pressure is needed on Russia to respond.
After meeting Tusk in France on Friday, Macron called for the speedy drafting of a US-Europe plan for the 30-day truce that would be backed by “massive economic sanctions” if one side “betrays it.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said at a meeting on Ukraine in Norway on Friday that the “United States has two sanctions packages on the table” and that countries were discussing action in the “banking and the energy sector.”
A French presidential official, who asked not to be named, said the visit just four days after Merz took office “demonstrates Europe’s unity, strength, and responsiveness. And it mirrors Putin’s celebrations.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation

Updated 10 May 2025
AFP
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China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation

Updated 10 May 2025
AFP

BEIJING: China on Saturday urged India and Pakistan to avoid an escalation in fighting, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, as the conflict between its two nuclear-armed neighbors spiralled toward full-blown war.
“We strongly call on both India and Pakistan to give priority to peace and stability, remain calm and restrained, return to the track of political settlement through peaceful means and avoid taking actions that further escalate tensions,” a statement by a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Topics: China India Pakistan

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Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit

Updated 10 May 2025
AFP
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Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit

  • Beijing is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Its exports to China reached more than $94 billion last year
Updated 10 May 2025
AFP

BEIJING: Brazil’s president will begin a five-day trip to China on Saturday, Beijing announced, ahead of a gathering of Latin American leaders in the country next week.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s state visit comes at the invitation of counterpart President Xi Jinping and will last until Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
Since returning to power in early 2023, Lula has sought to improve ties with both China and the United States.
Beijing is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Its exports to China reached more than $94 billion last year, according to the United Nations Comtrade Database.
The South American agricultural power sends mainly soybeans and other primary commodities to China, while the Asian giant sells semiconductors, telephones, vehicles and medicines to Brazil.
The two presidents are expected to attend next week’s summit between China and the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
China is seeking to replace the United States as the main political and economic external influence in Latin America, where leaders have urged a united front against President Donald Trump’s global tariff blitz.
Two-thirds of Latin American countries have joined Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure program, and China has surpassed the United States as the biggest trading partner of Brazil, Peru and Chile, among others.

Topics: Brazil China

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Latest updates

Ukraine and its allies push for a 30-day ceasefire starting Monday
Pope Leo XIV lays out his vision of the papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity
Pakistan and India agree to ceasefire 
In separate attacks, gunmen kill two, set police vehicle ablaze in southwest Pakistan
Pakistan shuts its airspace for 24 hours after fresh exchange of strikes with India

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