18, December 2023
Paramilitaries seize town as fighting rages in Sudan’s second city 0
Sudanese paramilitaries on Monday pressed deeper into the former safe haven of Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazira state where they also seized the town of Rufaa, witnesses said.
It came a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces set up a base in Wad Madani, where their offensive has sent thousands fleeing Sudan’s second city and former aid hub, many of them already displaced.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “took control of Rufaa”, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Wad Madani, the witnesses told AFP.
They said the RSF took over “the army headquarters, the police office, and the hospital after a clash that lasted for one hour” in the town.
Since fighting broke out on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the city of Wad Madani, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Khartoum, became a haven for thousands of displaced people during the conflict.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that the city’s population had reached 700,000, after more than half a million people took shelter there, among them 270,000 who “need humanitarian assistance”.
The RSF announced on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that they “seized control of the SAF (army) First Infantry Division in Wad Madani”.
It said its “operation included the liberation of the central reserve camp and the strategic Hantoob Bridge from the eastern side”.
On Sunday, the army reported in a statement that the RSF attempted to capture Wad Madani.
“The security situation in Al-Jazira state has stabilised,” the army said, adding, “we call on our people not to leave their homes.”
The RSF had on Sunday “set up bases in the Al-Malikiyah neighbourhood, east of the city of Wad Madani,” an AFP correspondent said.
The Norwegian Refugee Committee and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) East African bloc expressed concern over the spiralling violence in Al-Jazira state.
The American embassy warned on Sunday in a statement that “the continued advance of the Rapid Support Forces threatens massive civilian casualties and significant disruption to humanitarian assistance efforts”.
It said the advance of Daglo’s forces “has already caused large-scale displacement of civilians from Al-Jazira State… and the closure of markets in Wad Madani that many depend on.”
Bombing in Nyala
In the western Darfur region, an army source told AFP that the air force struck military buildings, over which the RSF had announced its control in October, and the airport in Nyala, the state capital of South Darfur.
The source said “the RSF’s Al-Zurq base, which is the main centre for supplies, was bombed”.
The “Emergency Lawyers” advocacy group said in a statement on Monday that the bombardment “hit populated neighbourhoods at dawn today, and last Thursday the city witnessed bombing with explosive barrels that killed 10 civilians and left 37 injured”.
The war between the army and the RSF has killed 12,190 people, according to conservative estimates by the Armed Conflict Locations and Events Data project.
It has displaced 5.4 million people inside the country, according to the UN, and sent over 1.3 million fleeing abroad.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of indiscriminately bombing residential areas, using human shields, and robbing and harassing civilians.
Source: AFP
22, December 2023
Last French troops leave Niger 0
The last French troops deployed in Niger left on Friday, an AFP journalist reported, marking an end to more than a decade of French anti-jihadist operations in west Africa’s Sahel region.
“Today’s date (…) marks the end of the disengagement process of French forces in the Sahel,” Niger army lieutenant Salim Ibrahim said at a ceremony in Niamey marking the end of France’s military presence.
The French exit from Niger leaves hundreds of US military personnel, and a number of Italian and German troops, remaining in the country.
France said it would pull out its roughly 1,500 soldiers and pilots from Niger after the former French colony’s new ruling generals demanded they depart following the coup on July 26.
It was the third time in less than 18 months that French troops were sent packing from a country in the Sahel.
They were forced to leave fellow former colonies Mali last year and Burkina Faso earlier this year following military takeovers in those countries too.
All three nations are battling a jihadist insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012, later spreading to Niger and Burkina Faso.
But a string of coups in the region since 2020 have seen relations nosedive with former colonial power France and a pivot towards greater rapprochement with Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron in September announced the withdrawal of all French troops from Niger by the end of the year, with a first contingent leaving in October.
The Nigerien army said last week their departure would be complete by Friday.
Perilous desert routes
Most French troops in Niger are at an air base in the capital Niamey.
Smaller groups have been deployed alongside Nigerien soldiers to the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, where jihadist groups linked to the Islamic State group and al Qaeda are believed to operate.
The withdrawal is a complex operation, with road convoys having to drive up to 1,700 kilometres (1,000 miles) on sometimes perilous desert routes to the French centre for Sahel operations in neighbouring Chad.
The first French road convoy of troops withdrawing from Niger arrived in neighbouring Chad’s capital N’Djamena in October, after 10 days on the road.
From Chad, French troops can leave by air with their most sensitive equipment, although most of the rest has to be moved by land and sea.
According to a source close to the matter, some of the French containers carrying equipment will be driven from Chad on to the port of Douala in Cameroon, before they can be ferried back to France by sea.
US, German troops
France’s former ally in Niger, overthrown president Mohamed Bazoum, remains under house arrest.
A US official said in October that Washington was keeping about 1,000 military personnel in Niger but was no longer actively training or assisting Niger forces.
The United States said earlier this month it was ready to resume cooperation with Niger on the condition its military regime committed to a rapid transition to civilian rule.
Niger’s rulers want up to three years for a transition back to a civilian government.
Military leaders in Niamey early this month said they were ending two European Union security and defence missions in the country.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius visited Niger earlier this week to discuss the fate of around 120 German troops based in the country.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in September banded together in a joint defence pact to fight jihadists.
France’s withdrawal from Mali last year left a bitter aftertaste, after the bases it once occupied in Menaka, Gossi and Timbuktu were rapidly taken over by the Wagner Russian paramilitary group.
Source: AFP