18, August 2022
France rejects Mali’s accusations that it helped arm Islamist fighters 0
France on Thursday denied accusations by Mali’s foreign minister that the French army has provided support to Islamist groups and violated Malian airspace. Mali’s relations with Paris have been deteriorating since a junta took power in an August 2020 coup, eventually culminating in the withdrawal of French troops that was completed on Monday after a nearly decade-long mission.
The accusations mark a new low in relations amid reports that Russian mercenaries hired by Mali’s military government were flocking to fill the power vacuum left by French troops leaving the country, prompting new worries among Western powers over the security situation in the Sahel region.
Mali says France has violated its airspace and delivered arms to Islamist militants in an attempt to destabilise the West African country, the latest in a barrage of accusations that have marked a bitter end to their once-close relations.
In a letter to the head of the United Nations Security Council dated Monday, Mali’s foreign affairs minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said its airspace has been breached more than 50 times this year, mostly by French forces using drones, military helicopters and fighter jets. “These flagrant violations of Malian airspace were used by France to collect information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition to them,” the letter said.
Mali provided no evidence that France had supplied arms to Islamist groups. France has spent a decade and billions of dollars to stamp out Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, in its former colony and across the Sahel region.
“France has obviously never supported, directly or indirectly, these terrorist groups, which remain its designated enemies across the planet,” the French embassy in Mali said in a Twitter thread.
The embassy said that 53 French soldiers had died during its nine-year mission in Mali and that France had killed hundreds of Islamist fighters to restore security for Malians. France has also suffered Islamist attacks at home, it added.
German UN soldiers said they saw Russian forces landing at the airport in Gao and unloading equipment on Monday, the day the last French soldiers left, according to a German military document dated Tuesday.
Fighters from the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked private military company, have been supporting the Malian army in its fight against Islamist insurgents since late last year.
French forces were welcomed as heroes in Mali in 2013 after the government in Bamako asked France for help against the Islamist groups that had taken over much of the north, including the fabled city of Timbuktu.
But a series of setbacks and prolonged attacks by the militants have soured relations, which became worse since a military junta overthrew the government in 2020 and later overthrew an interim civilian cabinet.
Mali’s ruling junta called in February for France to withdraw its troops “without delay”. In May the junta announced it was leaving the defence accords it concluded with France, condemning “flagrant violations” of its national sovereignty by French troops.
Its military rulers had pledged to return power to civilians in 2022 but subsequently extended the timetable to 2024, incurring regional sanctions.
Reported by AFP and REUTERS
18, August 2022
Southern Cameroons Flooding: Biya regime says trade with Nigeria disrupted 0
Cameroonian authorities say record flooding on its western border with Nigeria has killed at least six people, washed away homes, and destroyed thousands of tons of food meant for export.
In a video circulated on social media platforms by Widikum council officials, civilians asked the Cameroon government to help clear the road of earth, mud and stones to enable them to leave Widikum.
Among the merchants is Paul Okafor, a Nigerian who buys palm oil and vegetables from Widikum to sell in his country. He said floods and landslides have blocked him in Widikum for five days, and no vehicle has been able to leave or enter because flood waters have covered roads and landslides are pulling down hills on roadsides.
Okafor said the vegetables and tomatoes he bought are beginning to rot, and Widikum vegetable farmers are complaining that their harvest is decaying.
Andoh Stanilos, the mayor of Widikum district, acknowledged that his council staff shared the videos. He said floods that triggered landslides killed six people, left hundreds homeless, and destroyed homes and warehouses.
“The floodplains overflooded and completely swept off houses,” he said. “At the moment I speak, there are over 55 people who are without something to eat. The council is trying to mobilize some resources, so I send this SOS to the government and people of goodwill to come to the assistance of persons who are destitute now.”
The floods destroyed a 36-meter-long bridge on the River Momo, keeping hundreds of merchants and commuters stranded on both sides of the river. Momo, an administrative unit where Widikum is found, is a production basin for palm oil, maize, potato, tomatoes and vegetables.
Cameroon’s National Observatory on Climate Change last month predicted that floods and landslides would hit many Cameroonian towns and villages including Widikum.
Forghab Patrick, deputy director general of the observatory, said homes built in flood-risk areas made the situation even worse.
“People build in marshy areas,” Patrick said. “What happens? Water cannot circulate correctly because the houses block even the waterways and at the end of the day, those living in those homes are all exposed.”
The government said it is educating people to stop settling on risk zones, but has not said if it will provide the food and water-hungry victims are asking for.
Source: VOA