An emergency summit of the West African bloc ECOWAS called Thursday for the reinstatement of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as Mali’s president after he was deposed in a military coup on Tuesday. West African leaders said they would soon head to the country amid growing concerns about regional stability.

West African presidents plan to fly to Mali as regional powers escalate efforts to block a coup-driven regime change, two sources said, after an opposition coalition there joined the junta in rejecting foreign interference.

Leaders of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) convened over the crisis on Thursday, after it suspended Mali, shut off borders and halted financial flows in response to Tuesday’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The bloc plans to send a delegation of presidents including the leaders of Niger, Senegal and Ghana to Mali’s capital, Bamako, to seek a resolution to the crisis, a regional diplomat and a senior official told Reuters.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the information.

The coup, which has rocked a country already in the grip of a jihadist insurgency and civil unrest, has been met with almost universal condemnation abroad.

Within Mali, the M5-RFP coalition of opposition groups said it was working with the mutineers. It labelled ECOWAS’s initial response to the coup over-reaction stemming from some regional leaders’ fears that it could set off unrest in their countries.

“(The leaders) are on an all-out drive to set ECOWAS against Mali,” said M5-RFP spokesman Nouhoum Togo.

The capital Bamako was calm for the second straight day on Thursday, a Reuters reporter said, as people appeared to heed earlier calls from junta spokesman Colonel Ismael Wague to return to work and go about their daily lives.

Marc-Andre Boisvert, an independent researcher on the Malian security forces, said the senior mutineers were all respected army colonels.

“It was a coup led by combat-experienced, not personality-driven  officers,” he said “I expect they were selected to be the image of the coup as they are respected and close to the (ordinary) soldiers.”

ECOWAS is expected to release a statement outlining its next steps later on Thursday.

In July, an ECOWAS delegation failed to broker an agreement between Keita and the opposition, who were leading large-scale protests against the government.

Leaders attending the bloc’s virtual summit said the political upheaval in Mali could destabilise the entire region.

“The events in Mali (have).. grave consequences for the peace and security of West Africa,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted.

The coup has fuelled concerns it could disrupt a military campaign against jihadists linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operating in northern and central Mali and West Africa’s wider Sahel region.

France will continue its Mali-based military operations against Islamist fighters, its armed forces minister said on Thursday.

Landlocked Mali has struggled to regain stability since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 which was hijacked by al Qaeda-linked militants, and a subsequent coup in the capital plunged the country into chaos.

(REUTERS)

Military coup leaders in Mali faced a barrage of condemnation on Wednesday from international powers, with the African Union suspending the country’s membership a day after mutinying soldiers detained President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita following months of protests against his rule.

The chorus of disapproval included statements from the African Union (AU), the European Union and the United States demanding that the military leaders release Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other officials detained on Tuesday.

Keita – under pressure from months of protests over economic stagnation, corruption and a continuing Islamist insurgency – said in a televised address hours after he was detained that coup leaders had given him no choice but to resign.

Jubilant crowds cheered the rebels as they arrived in central Bamako on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Bamako since June calling for Keita to resign over what they say are his failures to address security and economic woes.

Mali coup ‘diplomatic nightmare for France’

The mutinous soldiers who staged the coup, who have called themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, have promised a transition to civil political rule with elections to be held in a “reasonable amount of time”. In the meantime they have closed the country’s borders and announced a curfew.

A spokesman for the junta, Ismael Wague, said France’s anti-jihadist Barkhane force and the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali as well as forces from neighbouring countries were “partners for stability and restoring security”.

However, France and other international powers as well as the AU have denounced the mutiny, fearful that the fall of Keita could further destabilise the former French colony and West Africa’s entire Sahel region.

The AU has suspended Mali’s membership in response to the military’s seizure of power and the detention of the president, the bloc announced in a tweet on Wednesday. The suspension will last until constitutional order is restored, it said, demanding the release of the deposed president and other senior officials.

The current chairman of the AU, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, called for the “immediate return to civilian rule”.

An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council convened on Wednesday condemned the mutiny and urged the soldiers to release all detained government officials without delay. The 15 members “underlined the urgent need to restore rule of law and to move towards the return to constitutional order”, according to a statement.

‘Unconstitutional’

The influential West African regional bloc ECOWAS said it was sending a high-level delegation to “ensure the immediate return to constitutional order”. The 15-nation bloc – which includes Mali – also said that it would suspend the country from its internal decision-making bodies.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that “the fight against terrorist groups and the defence of democracy and the rule of law are inseparable”, referring to the situation in Mali.

“To leave is to provoke instability and to weaken our fight. It is not acceptable,” the French president wrote on Twitter, calling for power to be “returned to civilians,” for “milestones (to be) laid for a return to constitutional order” and for the Malian president and his prime minister to be freed.

French troops have been fighting in the country since 2013, after Mali asked it to help regain territory seized by Islamist extremists who had hijacked a Touareg rebellion in the country’s northern desert regions the previous year.

The French military succeeded in this initial task – but the jihadist insurgency has since spread throughout Mali and across the border to Niger and Burkina Faso.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced Keita’s overthrow in a statement on Wednesday. “The United States strongly condemns the August 18 mutiny in Mali as we would condemn any forcible seizure of power,” he said. “The freedom and safety of detained government officials and their families must be ensured.”

The EU condemned the events in Mali as “unconstitutional”.

“The European Union condemns the attempted coup d’état under way in Mali and rejects all unconstitutional change,” the bloc’s diplomatic chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement Tuesday.

Neighbouring Algeria has also rejected the coup. “Algeria reiterates its firm rejection of any anti-constitutional change of government,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. It said Algeria was following with “concern” developments in Mali, with which it shares an almost 1,400-kilometre (850-mile) border.

Morocco also reacted to the coup on Wednesday, stressing the need for “stability” in Mali, calling for “responsible dialogue, respect for constitutional order and the preservation of democratic gains.”

In a statement shortly after the coup Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Malians to protect their democratic institutions and called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Mali’s president.

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the events later on Wednesday.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

Guinea’s ruling party on Thursday urged President Alpha Conde to seek a third term in elections due this year, a scenario that has sparked clashes in the West African state.

Under Guinea’s constitution, presidents may only serve two terms.

Conde, 82, was elected president in 2010 and again in 2015. But this year he pushed through a revamped constitution that opponents say was crafted to reset the term counter, enabling him to run again.

His Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party announced that it wanted Conde to run again at a convention in the capital Conakry.

Party members are issuing a “plea to President Alpha Conde to accept the will of the people to be the RPG’s sole candidate,” MP Diakagbe Kaba told delegates.

The president has yet to formally respond to the request. He has previously said that “the party will decide” who goes forward to the poll.

Guinea’s electoral commission has proposed the presidential election be held on October 18, but Conde has yet to sign off on a date.

Thursday’s announcement is likely to incense Guinea’s embattled opposition, which has staged mass rallies since October against the possibility of Conde running for a third term.

Security forces in the former French colony repeatedly cracked down on the protests, in which several dozen civilians were killed.

Opposition figures also attempted to organise a boycott of the referendum in March, but the vote went ahead despite protests.

According to the official results, the constitution was approved by 91.59 percent of those voting, with a turnout of 61 percent

Conde is a former opposition figure himself who was jailed under Guinea’s previous iron-fisted regimes.

Hopes of a new political dawn flowered when Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010, but critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian.

Source: AFP

West African leaders gathered in Bamako on Thursday in a fresh push to end an escalating political crisis in the fragile state of Mali amid fears it could undermine a regional fight against Islamist militants.

In an exceptional one-day summit, the presidents of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Niger were meeting with Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and leaders of a protest movement clamouring for his resignation.

The unrest deeply worries Mali’s neighbours and allies, who fear a country bloodied by a jihadist insurgency could slide into chaos.

A small group of demonstrators gathered outside the airport where Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou and Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo were set to arrive for the summit.

“We’re here to demand IBK’s resignation and ensure our comrades who have been killed are not forgotten,” said Yaya Sylla, a young protester, using the acronym by which Mali’s leader is known.

The opposition umbrella group, “Movement of 5 June – Rally of Patriotic Forces” (M5-RPF), named after the date anti-government protests began, has tapped into deep anger over Keita’s perceived failure to tackle the dire economy, corruption and the eight-year jihadist revolt.

At least 14 protesters were killed this month in clashes with the police, according to the UN.

The M5-RFP, whose figurehead is Saudi-trained Muslim cleric Mahmoud Dicko, has said it will not quit until Keita steps down, raising concerns in neighbouring countries of a protracted crisis.

“M5-RFP demands the resignation of Keita or the satisfaction of our demands,” which include the establishment of a committee of inquiry into civilian deaths and a transitional government, the group’s spokesman Nouhoum Togo told reporters on Thursday.

‘The curtain will fall’

The summit comes on the heels of a five-day mediation mission from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which ended on Sunday without reconciling the two sides.

“It is this Thursday that the last act is played, the curtain will fall,” said a Malian opposition politician who declined to be named.

The West African leaders will weigh on proposed solutions that have been crafted in behind-the-scenes talks between the president and opposition this week.

Keita, who came to power in 2013, has come under increasing pressure to end Mali’s long-running jihadist conflict.

The impoverished nation of around 20 million people has been struggling to contain an insurgency that first emerged in the north in 2012 before spreading to its centre, as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes.

But much of the current tension was sparked in April, when the constitutional court tossed out 31 results from the parliamentary elections, benefiting Keita’s party and sparking protests.

Tensions then ratcheted up into a crisis on July 10 when an anti-Keita rally organised by the M5-RFP movement turned violent.

Protesters blocked bridges in Bamako, stormed the premises of the state broadcaster and attacked the parliament.

Seeking a way out, ECOWAS mediators suggested forming a new unity government including opposition members and appointing new constitutional court judges who could potentially re-examine disputed election results.

But Mali’s opposition movement has repeatedly rejected any outcome that did not involve Keita’s departure.

Possible compromise?

Despite the apparent failure of the ECOWAS mediators, the president’s camp and opposition figures have quietly been talking all week and the M5-RFP notably suspended protests ahead of the forthcoming Eid festival.

Brema Ely Dicko, a sociologist at the University of Bamako, suggested the opposition may be prepared to accept Prime Minister Boubou Cisse’s resignation instead of Keita’s.

“The M5-RFP is obliged to keep up the pressure to at least get something,” he said.

A European diplomat in Bamako who declined to be named said that the opposition may have overplayed its hand in demanding Keita’s departure.

“Nobody wants to open the door to a period of political instability in Mali, which remains the epicentre of the Sahel security crisis,” he added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

With no end in sight to Mali’s economic and security crises, a prominent conservative cleric has emerged as the most potent challenge to a widely discredited political establishment perceived as having run out of ideas and solutions.

Days after orchestrating a protest movement that brought down Mali’s prime minister, in April last year, popular cleric Mahmoud Dicko was asked whether he intended to trade religion for politics.

“I am not a politician, but I am a leader and I have opinions,” he told French-speaking magazine Jeune Afrique. “If that is political, then yes, I am political.”

Just over a year later, the prominent imam is at the forefront of an even larger protest movement that has brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets of Bamako to call for another resignation — that of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the embattled Malian president commonly known as IBK.

Protesters accuse Keita and his government of failing to address Mali’s multiple crises, ranging from a continued jihadist insurgency in the north, to intercommunal violence in the centre and a crippling economic crisis in the south, where 90 percent of the country’s population lives.

Triggered by the disputed results of legislative elections in March, the recent protests turned violent at the weekend as security forces cracked down on protesters and opposition leaders, killing at least four people in Bamako’s worst civil unrest in years.

The protest movement has brought together a motley coalition of opposition politicians, anti-corruption activists and religious figures — with Dicko acting as the undisputed crowd puller, whipping up hostility towards the government and then calling for restraint.

Between Riyadh and Timbuktu

A one-time Keita ally, the 66-year-old cleric is no political novice. Dubbed the “people’s imam” by his own supporters, he has played a prominent role in public life for more than a decade, chairing the country’s High Islamic Council from 2008 to 2019.

Dicko was born into a leading family from Timbuktu , the ancient “city of 333 saints”. As with other local religious leaders, his brand of Islam defies easy categorisation, blending the social conservatism nurtured by his training in Saudi Arabia with a form of reverence for the mystical traditions of West Africa.

The imam first rose to prominence in 2009, leading a protest campaign that forced Mali’s then President Amadou Toumani Touré to water down a reform of family law that would have expanded women’s rights. More recently, he secured the withdrawal of a school textbook that touched on the subject of homosexuality.

In between, the outspoken cleric stirred outrage by suggesting the 2015 terrorist attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako was divine punishment for Malians who “imported” homosexuality from the West.

And while he welcomed France’s military intervention to repel jihadist insurgents in 2013, he has since likened the troops’ continued presence to colonial-era practices, stoking an anti-French sentiment that has angered Paris and embarrassed Mali’s president.

Talking to jihadis

But the troublesome imam wasn’t always a thorn in Keita’s side. In 2013, he backed IBK for the presidency and accompanied him on several trips abroad — most notably in the Gulf, where his Saudi connections were particularly valued.

His conservative credentials also facilitated on-off talks with jihadi insurgents back home, as Keita’s government alternated between armed confrontation and attempts to sway the more moderate, homegrown factions.

The decision by former prime minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga to relieve Dicko of that role precipitated the imam’s fallout with the government. Angered by the snub, the “people’s imam” rallied tens of thousands of supporters last year to call for the PM’s removal — which he duly obtained.

According to sociologist Bréma Ely Dicko (no relation), both the cleric and his mentor Mohamed Ould Bouyé Haïdara, also known as the chériif de Nioro, felt sidelined by the government they once supported. “They were both frustrated, and the regime they once helped became the regime they had to fight,” he explained.

In further evidence of his scarcely concealed political ambitions, Mahmoud Dicko quit the High Islamic Council later that year to found his own Islamist movement, the Coordination des Mouvements, Associations et Sympathisants (CMAS). Since then, Mali’s fractured opposition has gravitated around his movement, hoping to tap on its broad appeal.

“Many opposition figures who would have stood no chance of seizing power are now relying on the imam and his followers for leverage, thereby handing him considerable political clout,” said analyst Aly Younkara in an interview with French daily Le Monde.

‘Problems everywhere’

With Keita’s many foes now loosely allied in the so-called June 5 Movement (M5), named after the first day of protests last month, Dicko has emerged as the unofficial spokesperson for the many grievances voiced by Malians exasperated by the continuing economic and security crisis.

“We have problems between communities, within the army and even between clerics – problems everywhere,” Dicko told FRANCE 24’s sister company, radio RFI in June. “There is poor governance and a deep malaise in the country. Corruption is rampant. I say it and I say it again!”

The latest wave of protests was sparked by a dispute over parliamentary elections, which saw the country’s constitutional court reverse provisional results and hand additional seats to the president’s party. The decision infuriated many Malians, exasperated by cronyism and corruption in a country starved of functioning public services.

Keita, who won a second term in 2018, has sought to appease the protesters by promising to dissolve the court and re-run elections for some contested seats. But the weekend’s bloodshed and the arrest of several M5 leaders have hardened the movement.

“We are not going to accept this nonsense,” one M5 spokesman, Nouhoum Togo, told REUTERS on Sunday, referring to the president’s proposals. “We demand [Keita’s] resignation plain and simple.”

‘Calm down!’

As the crisis festers, much will depend on Dicko’s stance in the coming weeks — and how far he can control Mali’s feuding opposition leaders, many of whom are both more secular and more confrontational vis à vis Keita than he is.

In a sign of the imam’s clout, and of the growing importance of religious leaders in a secular state with a mainly Muslim population, both Keita’s envoys and international mediators have been sounding out the imam before reaching out to the traditional opposition.

On Saturday, Dicko’s supporters erected barricades around his mosque in Bamako, fearing an attempt to arrest the popular imam. But the cleric himself struck a more conciliatory tone, appealing for calm and an end to the violence.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 ahead of the weekend protests, Dicko claimed the opposition had dropped its demand for the president to step down, but wanted further gestures from him.

“We think it [the resignation] will cause more problems than it will resolve,” he explained. “Mali’s problem is not about a government of national unity. It is a problem of governance.” The imam stressed that change must be secured through peaceful means, adding: “My age and my position command that I be measured.”

He repeated that message on Sunday, as some opposition leaders reportedly went into hiding to escape arrest, pleading for calm in a video message posted online: “Do not set fire to petrol stations or this district. Calm down, please! Calm down!”

Culled from France 24

Burundi’s constitutional court on Friday ruled that the country’s newly elected leader Evariste Ndayishimiye be sworn in following the sudden death of former leader Pierre Nkurunziza earlier this week.

“No interim necessary, the president-elect… must be sworn in as soon as possible,” presidential advisor Willy Nyamitwe wrote on Twitter of the court’s announcement, which was also confirmed by the ruling party’s information secretary.

Nkurunziza, who died on Monday aged 55, had been due to step down as Burundi’s president in August after his surprise decision not to run in an election last month won by the ruling party’s handpicked successor.

Under the country’s constitution, the speaker of the National Assembly, Pascal Nyabenda, should take over in the event of the president dying.

However Nkurunziza’s sudden death put Burundi in an unusual situation, sparking rumours and fears of renewed violence in the troubled East African nation.

The council of ministers on Thursday decided to ask the constitutional court for guidance.

Iron rule

Burundi’s economy is mired in poverty and cut off by international donors after the UN documented the widespread rape, torture and murder of political opponents by ruling party activists and state security forces. 

Nkurunziza was elected by parliament as president in 2005 and re-elected in a general election in 2010.

His final years in office saw the country placed under sanctions and cut off by western donors, with Burundi ranked by the World Bank as one of the world’s three poorest countries.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Burundi’s election commission is expected Monday to declare Evariste Ndayishimiye the country’s next president, with all signs showing the ruling party’s candidate on track for victory following last week’s poll.

The National Independent Electoral Commission will unveil the outcome of the presidential and legislative races at 1200 GMT.

Local government results are also expected Monday.

Partial results already announced on state media indicate that Ndayishimiye, an army general from the governing CNDD-FDD who was hand-picked to succeed outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza, has an insurmountable lead over his opponents.

Agathon Rwasa, the main opposition leader, has alleged foul play, saying early numbers showing his CNL party heading for a bruising defeat are a “fantasy”.

According to a tally by AFP covering 105 of 119 municipalities, Ndayishimiye won an outright majority in 101, and in at least one secured 99.9 percent of the vote.

In the four communes where he was defeated, Ndayishimiye attracted a support rate of no less than 43 percent.

Rwasa and his CNL, meanwhile, managed just 24.6 percent in Kabezi, a historic stronghold in western Bujumbura for the opposition party, which says some of its officials were harassed and detained on voting day.

The veteran politician attracted large crowds throughout his campaign, as did the ruling party, despite concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

– Results questions –

Analysts predicted the presidential race would come down to a contest between Rwasa and Ndayishimiye, the strongest of seven candidates.

A foreign diplomat in Burundi, speaking anonymously, expressed strong doubts about the official result but said it was not surprising.

“We were expecting it to happen like this. Nobody could imagine for a second that the CNDD-FDD and its generals would cede power in any way,” the diplomat said.

Burundi, which the World Bank ranks among the world’s three poorest countries, has been under sanctions from its major donors since 2015, when Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term as president triggered violent unrest and political chaos.

At least 1,200 people have died and 400,000 have fled the country in violence that continues to this day.

So far this year’s election has not seen a repeat of that violence.

Rwasa has already hinted he would not take to the streets in protest and would appeal to the Constitutional Court, though he considers the process imperfect.

Tensions were high during the campaign and on voting day, when both sides accused the other of fraud and several CNL officials were arrested.

Burundi is tightly controlled by the ruling party and its youth wing, the Imbonerakure, have been accused of a forceful crackdown against the government’s critics in the aftermath of 2015.

If the election commission announces Ndayishimiye the winner as expected, he will be sworn in for a seven-year term in late August, when Nkurunziza’s term ends.

It is unclear whether Ndayishimiye would be able to rule free from interference by Nkurunziza, who in February was elevated by parliament to the rank of “supreme guide for patriotism” and will remain chairman of the party’s highly influential council of elders.

The final election results will be declared by the Constitutional Court on June 4.

Source: AFP

For years, Nigeria has been caught in the web of terrorism. Regrettably, the nation’s military, which has won many accolades at the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and at the regional level, has not been able to restore peace especially to the North-East where the terror groups operate.

Book Haram launched a full-scale attacks on Nigeria following the killing/death of its commander, Mohammed Yusuf, in a controversial circumstance.  The dreaded Boko Haram which was regarded as a ragtag army of youths has continued to give the Nigerian military as well as the military of some neighbouring nations a serious headache, killing scores of troops and carting away their weapons on some occasions.

Although the insurgents have also had many casualties, their ability to recruit more fighters, resilience, arms cache and capability to get intelligence reports, which they often deploy in attacking the soldiers, have been worrisome despite many claims that they have been technically defeated.

The terrorists   became very emboldened before the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), came to power in 2015 to the extent that the United Nations Office in Abuja was bombed while the Police headquarters was also bombarded, among other places.

However, the devious attacks were not limited to Nigeria as the terror group also carried out attacks in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. These deadly attacks and the push by the insurgents to establish their government in these countries accounted for the reorganisation of the Multi-National Joint Task Force in 2015.

This was why the headquarters of the regional force was moved from Baga, Borno State, to N’Djamena, Chad Republic, and their mandate was to end the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin.

Despite the reorganisation, the terrorists have continued to carry out attacks especially on military bases just to show that their alleged ‘technical defeat’ as claimed by the Federal Government was a ruse.

In March, Boko Haram inflicted a heavy blow on the Nigerian military by killing about 47 troops in a deadly ambush while the troops were moving around Alagarno in Yobe State.

The insurgents also killed 92 Chadian troops when they carried out an attack on a base in Bohoma, Chad. The attack is still being regarded as the worst military loss in the history of Chad.

Infuriated by the heavy defeat, the Chadian President, Idriss Deby, vowed that Chadian troops would deal with the insurgents. A few days after and in a surprise move, he actualised the threat as his troops launched a full-scale attack on the stronghold of Boko Haram killing hundreds of them and taking control of their arms store.

However, after the onslaught, the president who is a retired military officer, was quoted by Aljazeera as saying that Chad would no longer be part of any regional force in the Lake Chad region and the Sahel.

 He said, “Our troops have died for Lake Chad and the Sahel. From today, no Chadian soldier will take part in a military mission outside Chad. Chad is alone in shouldering all the burden of the war against Boko Haram.” But the Nigerian military downplayed the statement, saying Chad had not pulled out of the regional force.

Nonetheless, investigations by our correspondents revealed that rivalry, lack of commitment and underfunding of the regional force were some of the reasons the MNJTF had not been able to defeat the insurgents completely.

Military sources noted that some of these reasons were also responsible for the inability of the Nigerian armed forces to end the Boko Haram terrorism within the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa since 2009.

A top military source in Borno, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said chief among the reasons for the slowdown over the years was an unwritten rivalry and controversy over funding among the countries, with Nigeria and Chad in the forefront.

The source said, “When the MNJTF was in Baga, Borno State, between 2009 and 2015, Nigeria provided much of the funding and supplied the most troops with little or no contributions from the three other countries. Nigeria still does. But then, the Boko Haram struck Baga and ruined the MNJTF headquarters in one of the most devastating attacks of that year on our troops.

“There was suspicion that the attack on Baga came because of unspoken bitterness from the other countries. So, the headquarters was moved to Chad in 2015. Yet, it was agreed that a Nigerian officer would be the Force Commander, a Cameroonian as a Deputy Commander and a Chadian as the Chief of Staff. Again, the Commander position was not rotational and this is another problem.

“It is difficult, even if I become the commander, to get the allegiance of the Chadian troops, where the MNJTF is headquartered, to commit more to the MNJTF than to their nation. They will naturally owe allegiance first to their army chief and the President than to a Nigerian commander. Chad just feels they are not in charge and that in a way affects the military cooperation.”

Despite operating from Chad and being a regional force, the choice of who becomes the MNJTF commander has always been done almost solely by the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff (currently Lt Gen Tukur Buratai), whom military sources believe should not be making such decision without the input of other army chiefs in the joint military force.

In the latest appointment in November 2019, Buratai in a press release named Maj Gen Ibrahim Yusuf as the MNJTF commander, replacing Maj Gen Chikeze Ude, the hitherto head of the force.

“This kind of choice of the MNJTF leadership is very faulty, if you ask me. The four countries have Chiefs of Defence Staff and at worst, the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff is supposed to make such appointment and seek approval from the other three countries’ heads of military to show they are in the decision making channel,” a captain in the Nigerian Army explained.

It was not surprising therefore when Chad, in the first week of April 2020, hinted that it might no longer be taking part in any regional force. Although the announcement looked unclear as it houses the MNJTF, the Chadian president lamented that the country’s troops had died in droves for Lake Chad and the Sahel and they might no longer be taking part in a military mission outside his country.

Analysts believe that the message was subtly targeted at Nigeria to show that Chad wanted some more leverage in the force, than for its troops to await orders from Nigerian commanders.

It was learnt that Niger Republic and Cameroon were not in contention for such prominence in the MNJTF with their troops not being able to stop the terrorists from coming into their respective territories, most times after escaping heat from Nigeria and Chad.

“The funding of the MNJTF has therefore been a major challenge, with most resources lopsided and coming from Nigeria and Chad, which again limits the penetration of the regional force into the two other countries,” a top military source in Abuja said.

On April 10, 2020, the operations of the MNJTF were reviewed at the Ministry of Defence building in Abuja, but only the Ministers of Defence from Nigeria and Chad, Maj Gen Bashir Magashi (retd.), and Mahamat Salah, respectively were at that meeting where tactical decisions were taken.

The Chadian defence minister had come to Abuja to review the MNJTF. He came in company with the Chief of Staff to the Chadian President, the Chadian Ambassador to Nigeria and the Chadian Director of Military Cooperation.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram has managed to keep its fangs alive in the Lake Chad region, partly due to the emergence of its deadlier faction, the Islamic State West African Province, and the recruitment and indoctrination of thousands of youths across the four countries to fight in the sect under the guise of religious and ideological war.

On April 27, the MNJTF itself raised the alarm that it had obtained information regarding a plot by the insurgents to carry out an “aggressive recruitment in the coming weeks.” It said the forced recruitment was expected to target young and adult males. However, the sect’s backup plan was to kidnap unwilling targets.

The MNJTF Chief of Military Public Information, Col Timothy Antigha, therefore urged youths in the North-Eastern states of Nigeria, Lake Province of Chad, Diffa Region of Niger and Extreme North Region of Cameroon to be vigilant and shun all promises of opportunities for quick money and misguided teachings about jihad.

On the whole, military sources agree that the MNJTF needs to first win the confidence and trust of its four member countries and their armed forces before tangible successes can be recorded against the Boko Haram and its affiliates.

A former Director-General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Prof Bola Akinterinwa, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, identified poor funding, poor equipment and logistical problems as some of the factors incapacitating the MNJTF.

Akinterinwa said the MNJTF was established in the 1990s for economic reasons but its mandate was changed to security when it was reorganised.

He said, “You know the countries funding the MNJTF but you don’t know the financiers of the Boko Haram. I will like to remind you of what late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya said and what a former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, also said and you will know why the task will be very difficult for any joint task force whether national or multinational.

“Gaddafi made it abundantly clear that Nigeria could not have peace unless the country was divided into Muslim North and Christian South. Now the Boko Haram wants to establish an Islamic State particularly in the North.

“In this case, the powerful Muslim states appear to be funding them, aiding and abetting them. Nobody is talking about which countries are involved but accusing finger is pointing at Iran for supporting the Shiite; accusing fingers are pointing at Saudi Arabia and other countries. But the issue is that Boko Haram cannot have the kind of sophisticated weapons they are using if they are not being supplied from outside the country.

“In this case, when you have an opposition like Boko Haram that is heavily funded and equipped fighting against the MNJTF that is poorly equipped, how can they succeed?

“Also, some Nigerians went to protest at the French Embassy in Abuja accusing France of aiding and abetting Boko Haram. Jerry Rawling said the solution to Nigeria problems was to kick out all new-colonialist leaders in Nigeria. When you look at this also, you will see that it is very difficult for the joint task force because there may be colonial support for Boko Haram as well. This is a fundamental issue.

“Multi-national joint task force means the troops there are from different countries with different cultures. They do not use the same type of weapons and their military training and doctrines are not the same. Yet they are brought together under one commander who is expected to harmonise their activities. In terms of signal and strategies, they may not be the same. There is logistical problem and above all who is the leader? “

A former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, said in February at the first public lecture in honour of the late founder of Oodu’a Peoples Congress, Dr Fredrick Fasehun, that Nigeria had not been able to defeat Boko Haram because the terror group was getting support from outside. He, however, did not reveal where the external support for the jihadists was coming from.

But, a fellow of the International Institute of Professional Security, Mr Jackson Ojo, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, said despite the fact that the terror group’s activities affected Nigeria more than the other three nations in the region, Nigeria had been lackadaisical in its approach to the force.

Ojo said, “There is a lot of unserious mess on the side of Nigeria despite the fact the counrty can be regarded as the epicentre of Boko Haram activities. Apart from this, I believe there are many saboteurs in Nigeria and even in the military. Boko Haram has a lot of sympathisers even among those in government. Some are sympathetic to the group based on ethnic, religious or just emotional sympathy.

“Boko Haram fighters do not fly to their bases, they come through our land borders with their supplies and security agents are supposed to be there. Nigeria has not queried that. These are some of the signs that we are not very serious about it. Our Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai, just relocated to the North-East after the Chadian troops led by their President had routed the Boko Haram in an offensive battle.”

Proffering solution to the challenges, Akinterinwa said the MNJTF should re-strategise to end the insurgency. He explained that the troops of all the countries in the regional force should fix a particular day and a particular time of the day and encircle the whole area where “the Boko Haram fighters are and advance.”

He said with this, they would be able to neutralise the insurgents and there would be no need for the Joint Task Force to continue to play preventive role.

Culled from PUNCH

Guillaume Soro, the former rebel leader running for president in Ivory Coast, was convicted in absentia on Tuesday of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement. The former prime minister, who is in exile in France, has denied the charges claiming they are politically motivated.

The verdict, announced after a trial in Ivory Coast that lasted only a few hours and was boycotted by Soro’s lawyers, is likely to exclude Soro from October’s election, when President Alassane Ouattara is due to step down.

Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Soro in December for allegedly plotting a coup against his former ally Ouattara’s government and stealing public funds.

Soro, who has been living in Europe, diverted his plane in the air instead of returning home in December to Ivory Coast  — where he planned to launch his campaign — when it became clear that Ivorian authorities had issued an arrest warrant for him.

Soro has denied the charges, which he says are intended to prevent him from challenging Ouattara’s preferred successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, in the election.

In an interview with a French weekly in December, Soro vowed to lead the “resistance” from abroad “like de Gaulle,” referring to the French wartime resistance leader.

‘Thunderbolt in the sky of Ivorian corruption’

The Abidjan court fined him nearly seven million euros ($7.6 million), ordered the confiscation of his Abidjan home and barred him from civic duties for five years.

The court issued a fresh arrest warrant against him, in effect barring him from contesting elections, and ordered him to pay three million euros in damages and interest to the state.

Soro helped Ouattara to power in 2010 amid political violence that cost 3,000 lives, later serving as premier and then parliamentary speaker.

After falling out with Ouattara, he launched an unsuccessful bid to become president last year.

Government lawyer Ben Meite Abdoulaye dismissed suggestions the verdict was political, calling it a “thunderbolt in the sky of Ivorian corruption”.

“This decision is the start of a new era in Ivory Coast. We must hunt down corruption wherever it is found,” he said.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights had recently ordered Ivory Coast to suspend an arrest warrant against Soro, who had taken his case to a Tanzania-based court last month.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Acts of intimidation and allegations of vote buying marred the final round of legislative elections in Mali on Sunday aimed at reviving confidence in embattled institutions despite a bloody jihadist conflict and a virus pandemic.

In central Mali, the president of a voting station was forcibly removed and representatives of the electoral commission “chased away by armed men”, one of the representatives told AFP.

Military sources confirmed the incident.

Elsewhere, voting was cancelled after jihadists threatened to attack voters, witnesses said.

Already on Saturday, unknown assailants had destroyed voting equipment in northern Mali.

And on Sunday, observer umbrella group Synergie said there had been many incidents of vote buying at several voting stations.

The first provisional results are to be announced at the start of the week.

The election had been repeatedly delayed, and the first round on March 29 was disrupted by jihadist attacks as well as the kidnapping of opposition leader Soumaila Cisse.

‘Consolidate our democracy’

“I voted. It is important despite the economic situation. We need new MPs to consolidate our democracy,” Moussa Diakite, a 23-year-old student, told AFP.

Another student, Hamchetou Toure, said she wore a face mask and observed social distancing rules as she voted in the semi-desert country, which has so far recorded 216 cases of the virus including 13 deaths.

Among the measures taken by the government are a night-time curfew, school closures and restrictions on some activities — but people still filled markets, mosques and public transport.

The Synergie said anti-virus protection kits had been distributed to over 96 percent of polling stations that it visited across the former French colony.

It said poll workers wore masks in over 87 percent of the stations visited.

Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries, is struggling with an Islamist revolt that has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Sunday’s runoff in the West African nation of 19 million people is for 147 seats in the National Assembly.

Voting took place in the capital as well as the troubled central town of Mopti and Gao in the north, according to residents.

Delays

It was the country’s first parliamentary poll since 2013 when President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s Rally for Mali party won a big majority.

Turnout in the first round averaged over 35 percent nationwide but was less than 13 percent in the capital Bamako.

On Sunday’s second-round vote, turnout was 23.2 percent, according to Synergie, which had dispatched election observers.

The election had been meant to take place in late 2018 after Keita was returned to office but was postponed several times, mainly because of security concerns.

A “national dialogue” staged last year to discuss Mali’s spiral of violence called for the ballot to be completed by May.

The hope is that the new MPs will endorse changes to the constitution that will promote decentralisation.

That is the key to pushing ahead with the government’s plans for peace. It signed a deal with armed separatists in northern Mali in 2015 but the pact has largely stalled.

Violence in that region began in 2012 and was then fanned by jihadists.

Defying thousands of French and UN troops, the jihadists took their campaign into the centre of the country and now threaten neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Mali’s conflict zones and poor healthcare infrastructure place it in the category of countries that health experts say are at high risk of coronavirus.

Keita, addressing the nation wearing a face mask, said “every health and security” precaution would be “rigorously applied” during Sunday’s vote.

(AFP)