French President Emmanuel Macron has called on his ministers and army chiefs to work on the country’s military postures in Africa, amid the complete withdrawal of thousands of its troops from Mali.

Macron made the statement while addressing French troops ahead of the July 14 Bastille Day parade in the capital, Paris, on Thursday, saying he wanted a “rethink of all our (military) postures on the African continent.”

His remarks come as French officials are heading to Niger to purportedly redefine the country’s strategy to allegedly fight armed groups in the Sahel region.

France’s new foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu are due to arrive in Niger on Friday to seal a regional redeployment.

“Beyond Mali, the democratic decline in West Africa is extremely worrying with successive putsches in Mali twice, in Guinea in September 2021, in Burkina Faso in January of this year,” Colonna told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday. “France will nevertheless continue despite these events, this withdrawal from Mali, to help West African armies fight against terrorist groups,” he said.

Niger will now become the hub for French troops, with some 1,000 soldiers based in the capital, Niamey, with fighter jets, drones, and helicopters.

Some 300-400 soldiers would be dispatched for special operations with Nigerien troops in the border regions with Burkina and Mali, French officials told reporters in a briefing.

Another 700-1,000 would be based in Chad, with an undisclosed number of special forces operating elsewhere in the region.

The officials said that at this stage, there had been no formal request for further military assistance, amid concerns about whether French and European troops will also support countries in the coastal Gulf of Guinea nations, such as Benin, Togo, and the Ivory Coast, where there is an increase in militant attacks.

Some European countries had shown an interest in continuing regional operations post Mali, the officials said.

Lecornu will travel to the Ivory Coast, which also hosts French troops, on Saturday, while Macron is likely to travel to Benin at the end of July, Colonna said.

Back in February, France declared that it would withdraw thousands of its troops from Mali due to a breakdown in relations with the country, a decade after launching a war without the initial approval of the United Nations or the French parliament.

The decision applies to the 2,400 French troops in Mali, where France first deployed forces to in 2013, and a European force of several hundred soldiers that was created in 2020.

France has been a former colonizer in Africa, which, after many years of outright colonization, still controls countries spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens. It has had more than 50 military interventions in Africa since 1960, when many of its former colonies gained nominal independence.

France currently has 5,100 troops in the arid and volatile Sahel region. Under a new plan, they will be reduced to 2,500-3,000.

Although France remains the only Western country with a significant military presence in the Sahel, its relationship with its former African colonies has grown increasingly tense in recent months, with an evident increase in anti-French sentiment.

Sources

Tunisian President Kais Saied published a planned new constitution on Thursday that he will put to a referendum next month, expanding his own powers and limiting the role of parliament in a vote that most political parties have already rejected.

Saied has ruled by decree since July, when he brushed aside the parliament and the democratic 2014 constitution in a step his foes called a coup, moving towards one-man rule and vowing to remake the political system.

His intervention last summer has thrust Tunisia into its biggest political crisis since the 2011 revolution that ousted former autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and introduced democracy.

Voters will be asked to approve the new constitution in a July 25 referendum for which there is no minimum level of participation.

With most of the political establishment opposed to his moves and urging their supporters to boycott the vote, analysts say the measure is likely to pass, but with only limited public involvement.

Many Tunisians are far more focused on a growing economic crisis and threats to public finances that has caused salary delays and threatens shortages of key subsidised goods.

The draft constitution published in the official gazette late on Thursday says Saied would continue to rule by decree until the creation of a new parliament through an election expected in December.

The new constitution would also allow him to present draft laws and have sole responsibility for proposing treaties and drafting state budgets, the gazette said.

It would create a new ‘Council of Regions’ as a second chamber of parliament.

Previously, political power was more directly exercised by the parliament, which took the lead role in appointing the government and approving legislation.

Under the new constitution the government would answer to the president, not to the parliament, though the chamber could withdraw confidence from the government with a two-thirds majority.

The president could serve two terms of five years each and has the right to dissolve parliament. A separate electoral law laying out how voting would work under the new political system will be published later, the draft constitution said.

However, judges, police, army and customs officials would not have a right to go on strike. Judges have recently been on strike for weeks in protest at Saied’s moves to curtail judicial independence.

In a move that may chafe with conservatives, Islam will no longer be the state religion, though Tunisia will be regarded as part of the wider Islamic nation.

However, Saied has maintained most parts of the 2015 constitution that enumerated rights and liberties, including freedom of speech, the right to organise in unions and the right to peaceful gatherings.

Source: REUTERS

Belgium on Monday handed over the last remains of slain Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba — a tooth — to his family, turning a page on a grim chapter in its colonial past.

Chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw gave the relatives a small, bright blue box containing the tooth in a televised ceremony, and said legal action they had taken to receive the relic had delivered “justice”.

The tooth was placed in a casket that was then draped in the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which celebrates Lumumba, who was murdered by separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961, as an anti-colonial hero.

Lumumba’s assassination — and the brutal history of Belgian control of the Congo — have been enduring sources of pain between the two countries.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo reiterated that his country’s authorities bore a “moral responsibility” over the killing.

“I would like, in the presence of his family, to present in my turn the apologies of the Belgian government,” he said.

“A man was murdered for his political convictions, his words, his ideals.”

Lumumba’s son Francois told Belgium’s RTBF broadcaster that his relatives had been waiting “more than 60 years” for this event.

“I think it will provide solace for the family and the Congolese people,” he said.

“We are opening a new page in history.”

A fiery critic of Belgium’s rapacious rule, Lumumba became his country’s first prime minister after it gained independence in 1960.

But he fell out with the former colonial power and the United States and was ousted in a coup a few months after taking office.

He was executed on January 17 1961, aged just 35, in the southern region of Katanga, with the support of Belgian mercenaries.

His body was dissolved in acid and never found.

But the tooth was kept as a trophy by one of those involved, a Belgian police officer.

The tooth was seized by Belgian authorities in 2016 from the daughter of the policeman, Gerard Soete, after Lumumba’s family filed a complaint.

‘National mourning’

The casket containing the tooth is set to be flown back to the DRC where it will be officially laid to rest at a memorial site.

The country is set to hold three days of “national mourning” from 27 to 30 June — its 62nd anniversary of independence — to mark the burial ceremony.

Lumumba’s older son Francois filed a complaint in Belgium in 2011, pointing the finger of responsibility for his father’s killing at a dozen Belgian officials and diplomats.

The investigation for “war crimes” is still ongoing but only two of the targeted officials are still alive.

A Belgian parliamentary commission of enquiry in 2001 concluded that Belgium had “moral responsibility” for the assassination and the government presented the country’s “apologies” a year later.

De Croo said Belgian officials “chose not to see, chose not to act” to stop the killing, even if they had not directly intended it to happen.

Lumumba’s children were also received Monday by Belgium’s King Philippe, who this month travelled to DR Congo to express his “deepest regrets” over the colonial past.

Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under Belgian rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.

Source: AFP

Belgium’s King Philippe on Wednesday decorated the last surviving Congolese World War II veteran, an AFP correspondent said, during a historic visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Belgian sovereign landed in DRC’s capital Kinshasa on Tuesday afternoon for a six-day visit billed as an opportunity for reconciliation between the vast central African country and its former colonial master.

On Wednesday morning, Philippe visited a memorial for combat veterans in Kinshasa and laid a wreath.

He also decorated 100-year-old Corporal Albert Kunyuku, who enlisted in Belgium’s colonial Force Publique in 1940 and saw service in Burma — the former name of Myanmar.

Kunyuku, the last surviving Congolese veteran of World War II, shook hands with the king for a long time.

Belgium’s colonisation of the Congo was one of the harshest imposed by the European powers that ruled most of Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

King Leopold II, the brother of Philippe’s great great grandfather, oversaw the conquest of what is now DRC, governing the territory as his personal property between 1885 and 1908 before it became a Belgian colony.

Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under his rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.

In 2020, Philippe wrote a letter to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi to express his “deepest regrets” for the “wounds of the past.”

Near the combat veterans’ memorial on Wednesday, some bystanders suggested that decorating Kunyuku was a cosmetic gesture.

“We should also compensate the families of these veterans who lost their lives in a war that did not concern them,” said Madeleine Yowa, a 43-year-old nurse.

Marie-Therese Bakuku, a street vendor, also urged financial reparations and called the ceremony hypocritical.

“There were thousands of them,” she said, referring to Congolese WWII veterans.

“Now there’s one left and they’re trying to save the day.”

Source: AFP

West African leaders on Saturday opened a meeting in Ghana’s capital Accra to decide whether to ease or ramp up sanctions against junta-ruled Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is expected to decide whether to keep, lighten or lift retaliatory measures on Mali, imposed in January after its military regime announced an intention to rule for another five years.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo Ado opened the summit, attended by the heads of state of most of the 15-member countries but without any representative from Mali, Burkina Faso or Guinea visible in the audience.

“This present summit will re-examine and assess the situations in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso in light of recent developments within the region and global context,” he said.

“Our objective has always been to find ways to help these countries return to constitutional order.”

Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali are currently suspended from ECOWAS bodies.

While Mali has already been slapped with sanctions, the other two countries risk further punitive measures from the bloc after ruling juntas in their respective capitals vowed to hold onto power for another three years.

West Africa has seen a succession of military coups in less than two years — two in Bamako, followed by Conakry last September and Ouagadougou in January.

Insurgency

ECOWAS, keen to limit political instability spreading further, has held summits and piled on the pressure to shorten the juntas’ so-called transition periods before a return to civilian rule.

But strongmen Colonel Assimi Goita in Mali, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya in Guinea and Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in Burkina Faso, have all flouted that pressure and since been sworn in as presidents.

They invoke the severity of domestic crises — that span jihadist insurgency to social problems — and claim they need time to rebuild their states and organise elections.

A UN report published last week said the West African sanctions had contributed to worsening living conditions, particularly for the poor.

One of the most volatile and impoverished countries in the world, Mali is battling a decade-old jihadist revolt, which began with a regional insurrection and then spread to Niger and Burkina Faso.

ECOWAS closed borders and suspended trade and financial exchanges, except for basic necessities.

In Guinea, the military overthrew president Alpha Conde last September and has vowed a return to civilian rule in three years.

Burkina Faso’s government was overthrown in January, when disgruntled colonels ousted elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

Source: AFP

African Union head Macky Sall on Friday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take into account the suffering in African countries from food shortages caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

Sall, the Senegalese president, told Putin on a visit to Russia to “become aware that our countries, even if they are far from the theatre (of action), are victims on an economic level” of the conflict, adding that food supplies should be “outside” of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over Ukraine.

Source: AFP

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has reportedly sent a letter to prominent MPs in the South African parliament, calling on the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa to take measures to stop the Biya French Cameroun regime forces from killing innocent civilians including women and children in Ambazonia.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that in the letter to the South African lawmakers, Dabney Yerima called on the ANC administration to take immediate, concrete steps to stop the ongoing war in Southern Cameroons.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader has also met with heads of parliamentary groups in South Africa including the much respected Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters party urging all to immediately take action against the despotic Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

Yerima told an anti French rally recently in South Africa that the international community must hold the Biya Francophone government in Yaoundé accountable for its atrocities against the people of Southern Cameroons.

By Isong Asu

Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force fighting jihadists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5 regional group, which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and Niger.

“The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force” fighting the jihadists, it said in a statement.

The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force launched in 2017.

A conference of heads of state of the G5 Sahel scheduled for February 2022 in Bamako had been due to mark “the start of the Malian presidency of the G5”.

But nearly four months after the mandate indicated this meeting “has still not taken place”, the statement said.

Bamako “firmly rejects the argument of a G5 member state which advances the internal national political situation to reject Mali’s exercising the G5 Sahel presidency”, the statement said, without naming the country.

The Mali government said “the opposition of some G5 Sahel member states to Mali’s presidency is linked to manoeuvres by a state outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali”, without naming that country.

Mali has been since January 9 the target of a series of economic and diplomatic sanctions from west African states to punish the military junta’s bid to stay in power for several more years, following coups in August 2020 and May 2021.

The junta has opted for a two-year transition while the Economic Community of West African States has urged Bamako to organise elections in 16 months maximum.

Beyond Mali and Burkina, the G5 Sahel, composed of around 5,000 troops, includes Mauritania, Chad and Niger.

The military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso are undermining the regional force’s operational capacity, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a report to Security Council on May 11.

“I am deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sahel, as well as by the potentially debilitating effect the uncertain political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and beyond will have on efforts to further operationalise the G5-Sahel Joint Force,” Guterres’ report said.

Source: AFP

Burkina Faso’s interim president, Paul-Henri Damiba, has approved a new government, retaining the defense minister who served in the Roch Kabore government before his ouster in a January coup.

Damiba was sworn in on Wednesday as the transitional president for three years, almost two months after spearheading a coup against Kabore.

According to an official decree, the 25-member new cabinet includes General Barthelemy Simpore, the former defense minister, who has surprisingly retained his position.

The appointment of economist Albert Ouedraogo as the West African nation’s transitional prime minister was announced on Thursday.

Burkina Faso’s military coup was the fourth in West Africa in less than two years, following two in Mali and one in Guinea, reaffirming the region’s reputation as the ‘coup belt.’

Last week, the country adopted a transitional charter that would allow the junta to lead a three-year transition period.

A “national forum” of political parties, trade unions, and grassroots groups approved the charter after a day-long debate in the capital, Ouagadougou.

The charter was later signed by junta leader, Lieutenant Colonel Henri-Paul Damiba, last Tuesday.

Damiba has had first-hand experience of the insurgency by Takfiri terrorists.

He was commander of the 3rd Military Region, before seizing power, which covers eastern Burkina Faso – one of the worst-hit areas.

A military official, speaking after the coup, described Damiba as “a tough commander who has been on the front line with his men”.

In late January, Burkina Faso was suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) to pressure the country to return to constitutional order.

Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been under relentless attack from Takfiri groups linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh that seek control of its natural resources.

Sources

The new decade has brought about a series of seismic changes in the African political system. There has been an increase of the number of coups across the continent that has seen long standing head of states lose power. Despite this, there still remains a number of African leaders who have continued to consolidate their power through constitutional changes and have constructed legal dictatorships.

Here are the 10 longest serving African leaders in 2022:

10. Alassane Ouattara

Alassane Ouattara has been the president of Ivory Coast since 2010. Prior to his presidency, he was the Prime Minister of Ivory Coast and worked as an economist for the IMF and the Central Bank of West African States. He recently won a 5-year term in 2020 in what can be considered a constitutional coup.

Ouattara assumed his position after a bloody power struggle with then incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo, after a stalemate in the 2010 elections. With the aid of France and the US, Ouattara’s military forces arrested Gbagbo and he became de facto leader

Ouattara has continued his repressive streak as his government is known for corruption, cronyism, and human right abuses. The state of Ivory Coast is nuanced. Economic growth has been around 7% since he took over. The government has invested heavily in telecommuting, electricity and roads but poverty, education and healthcare remain a huge challenge.

9. Faure Gnassingbe

Faure Gnassingbe has been the President of Togo since 2005. After the sudden death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, he was installed by the military has head of state which resulted in international and domestic backlash. After resigning and winning the hotly contested elections of 2005, he has become a mainstay. Gnassingbe won his fourth term in 2020 after removing presidential term limits amidst of allegations of rigging the elections.

Like his father, Gnassingbe rules the country with an iron fist. He ordered the arrest of his half brother and former defence minister on suspicion of planning a coup attempt in 2009. The constitutional changes he proposed in 2017 to allow him to continue to stand for election were heavily protested by opposition leaders and the people of Togo. The resistance was harshly squashed as the military used live bullets, teargas and internet blackouts.

8. Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame is the current president of Rwanda and has been since 2000. He has won three terms. He rose to power after defeating the Rwandan National Army to end the genocidal war that broke out in Rwanda in 1994 as the leader of the RPF rebel forces.

In his current 22-year long reign, Kagame has been lauded for his efforts that have stabilized the economy and promoted economic growth, but he is also known for his tyrannical streak. It said that Kagame has defence agency networks dedicated to assassinating, imprisoning, and exiling his critics.

Rwanda has somewhat benefitted from leadership as he has been able to procure vast amounts of foreign aid that has helped the country greatly. Government reports claim to have lifted 1 million people out of poverty between 2008 and 2012 and that the country’s economy has grown by a steady 8% in the same time frame.

7. Ismali Omar Gulleh

Ismali Omar Gulleh has ruled over Djibouti since 1999. He succeeded his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, after being in his cabinet as head of national security and chief of staff for more than 20 years.

Known by many as a dictator, Guelleh has been in power for 22 years and 5 terms. In the latest election, held in 2021, He beat his only opponent, Zakaria Farah, by winning over 97% of the votes. The lead up to the alleged rigged elections was marked by street protests by the people of the country as they have grown tired of Guelleh’s suppressive reign.

Guelleh’s regime has been characterized by inequality, corruption, poverty, unemployment, restriction of free press, rampant malnutrition, and poor healthcare systems. The country is not poor by any means, but Guelleh has turned it into a commercial state-city controlled by one man.

6. Isaias Afwerki

Isaias Afwerki has held the office of the President of Eritrea since the country gained its independence in 1991. As a revolutionary, he led the Eritrean Liberation Front to victory, ending the country’s 30-year long war for independence. He continues to lead both the country and the only legitimate party in the country.

Afwerki’s reign has been marked by the lack of elections, constitution, parliament or independent judiciary. The president is an authoritarian who uses his considerable power to eliminate rivals and free press. He has gone as far as aiding Islamist extremist groups in Somalia in order to destabilize neighbouring Ethiopia.

Eritrea remains one of the world’s poorest countries. Poverty rates are exacerbated by war and drought. The country is plagued by homelessness, disease and a lack of water, educational and healthcare systems.

5. King Mswati III

King Mswati III is the last absolute monarch in Africa and has reigned over Swaziland since 1986. The king assumed power as he turned 18 after receiving an education at Sherbone School in England. He routinely appoints his own cabinet, parliament and fills key governmental positions with allies and CEO’s.

The king has ruled with a ruthlessness and his methods have become more violent. The monarch’s security forces are known for extra judicial killings, unfounded arrests, detentions, and torture. This was evident in the 2021 pro-democracy protests that took over the country. Security forces enacted a dusk to dawn curfew, shut off the internet and murdered 50 people.

The king uses Swaziland’s resources as his own personal line of credit. He is listed as one of the richest monarchs and leads an extravagant lifestyle. Meanwhile, Swaziland’s unemployment rate stands at more than 46% and 65% of the people live on less than $1.25 a day.

4. Youweri Museveni

Youweri Museveni is Uganda’s 9th President and has ruled over the country since 1986. He led the rebel forces that toppled former Ugandan Presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin and recently won his sixth term in 2021.

Like so many of his authoritarian counterparts, Museveni has scrapped term limits, rigged elections, and suppressed opponents. Museveni’s regime is a display of wide-reaching corruption and an intolerance for minority groups.

Uganda is primarily plagued by rising youth employment, lack of electricity and limited infrastructure as the country lacks sufficient road and railway systems.

3. Dennis Sassou Nguesso

Dennis Nguesso has been Congo’s head of state for more than 37 years. He served his first term as president from 1979 to 1990 but was stripped of executive power and subsequently lost the 1991 presidential elections. He returned to power in 2002 after leading his rebel forces during the Congo civil war in which they ousted President Lissouba. In 2021, he won his fifth term which will see him stay in power until 2026.

Nguesso rules like a true totalitarian. Political opponents have either been jailed, exiled or are dead. Elections are routinely rigged, and dissidence is violently quelled. The population of Congo doesn’t enjoy any civic freedoms. Nguesso is well known for decades of gross corruption

Although, Congo is an oil rich country and generates huge revenues, it remains one the poorest countries. Nguesso and his allies use state resources for personal enrichment. Half the population live below the poverty line, the economy’s stagnant, civil servants go mouths without wages and hospitals rarely have the capacity to treat people.

2. Paul Biya

Paul Biya has been the president of Cameroon since 1982. He has been in office for 40 years after the resignation of President Ahmadou Ahidjo. He has won seven terms, the latest in 2018.

Biya’s presidency become more repressive with each passing year and intensified after an attempted coup in 1984. Since then, elections are often fraudulent, political opponents disappear and free speech is restricted. His French-backed regime has often targeted the Anglophone people of Cameroon resulting in a deadly crisis.

Due to widespread corruption, Cameroon is in a dire state. 40% of Cameroonians live below the poverty line. Another 6.2 million are in need of humanitarian aid. The economy is on the brink of collapse and the national currency has been devalued.

1.Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang is the longest serving African leader. He took office of the President of Equatorial Guinea in 1979 after orchestrating a military coup against his uncle, Franciso Macias Nguema. Since then, Equatorial Guinea is has one party system and the constitution of the country grants Obiang virtually all the power.

Like previous African strongmen, Obiang’s regime is characterized by unlawful kidnappings, murders, and torture of anyone who dares to criticize it. The only media outlets allowed to operate in the country are those owned by his allies. Local activists often face intimidations, harassment, and reprisals.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the leading oil producing countries in Africa and has one the highest adult literacy rates. Despite this, wealth inequality is rife due to corruption. About three quarters of the population live below the poverty line and are without access to healthcare, infrastructure or drinking water.

Source: The African Exponent