News Round-up, August 10, 2023
Try to understand the controversy surrounding the Sahel region in a single paragraph
The Sahel region faces complex challenges including poverty, conflict, and climate change, leading to food insecurity, displacement, and underdevelopment. The United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS) defines the Sahel political region as a group of ten countries, including Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Nigeria. In the vast Sahel region, stretching across ten countries, a deep-seated resentment persists towards France, stemming from its historically flawed colonial policies. The arduous quest for a stable and enduring democracy in this area remains besieged by numerous obstacles. Amidst this delicate state of affairs, Russia has adroitly capitalized on the prevailing discontent by shrewdly engaging in arms trading and offering military assistance in exchange for valuable resources. The formidable presence of the Wagner Group has further complicated the situation. Consequently, in the case of Niger, France finds itself at the forefront, suffering significant losses due to the repercussions of its colonial past and the imminent threat to its vital uranium reserves.
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Wildfires in Hawaii’s Maui Leave Six Dead as Evacuations Continue
Tourist town of Lahaina on Maui’s west coast among worst-hit areas; three fires still burning.
WSJ by Alicia A. Caldwell and Jennifer Calfas, Aug. 9, 2023 Oil dips as demand concerns mount; eyes on US inflation data
China's post-COVID economy has yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel and is virtually "impossible" to revive.
Reuters by Muyu Xu, edited by Germán & Co, August 10, 2023Trump Is Spooked and His 2024 Rivals Know It
Donald Trump Pleads Not Guilty to 2020 Election Charges in Federal Court.
TIME bY PHILIP ELLIOTT, August 8, 2023Ecuador declares a state of emergency after the killing of a presidential candidate at a campaign event
The victim, Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old MP running on an anti-corruption platform, was one of eight candidates in the first round of the presidential election, which will are to be held as scheduled on August 20.
Le Monde Whit AP, published today at 3:38 am (Paris)Fallout from the Putsch in Niger Anger Against France Grows in Africa's "Coup Belt"
With the coup in Niger, Europe and the United States are losing their last reliable partner in the Sahel as Russia's influence grows. The development could severely inhibit the West's ability to fight terrorism in the region.
Spiegel by Matthias Gebauer, Christina Hebel, Marina Kormbaki, Britta Sandberg and Fritz Schaap, August 9, 2023Leaders of Amazon nations gather in Brazil for summit on rainforest’s future
Conclave represents handbrake turn in Brazilian government policy since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took power
The Guardian Tom Phillips in Belém, August 8, 2023The AES Corporation is committed to accelerating the future of energy transitions by delivering greener and more innovative solutions. AES firmly believes that energy infrastructure plays a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of our sector. Recently, the AES President and CEO, Andrés Gluski, had the privilege of moderating a captivating discussion titled "Harnessing Diplomacy for the Energy Transition and Universal Access" at the @EEI_Intl panel. This engaging conversation highlights the importance of collaboration and innovative approaches in driving the energy transition forward.
Smoke and flames filled the air from wildfires on Lahaina’s Front Street in Maui. PHOTO: ALAN DICKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESSWildfires in Hawaii’s Maui Leave Six Dead as Evacuations Continue
Tourist town of Lahaina on Maui’s west coast among worst-hit areas; three fires still burning
WSJ by Alicia A. Caldwell and Jennifer Calfas, Aug. 9, 2023 Six people have been confirmed dead after wildfires fueled by hurricane winds began burning in Maui overnight, destroying much of the popular tourist town Lahaina.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a press conference Wednesday that it was too early to know how many homes, businesses or other structures had been destroyed or damaged. He said “many have been burned to the ground,” particularly in the Lahaina area on Maui’s west coast.
Three wildfires caused the damage and were still burning Wednesday afternoon, Bissen said. More than 1,000 acres of the island’s Upcountry, an agricultural inland area that includes Haleakala National Park, have been charred.
Evacuations have been ordered in 13 communities and towns and many roads closed around Maui, while roughly 2,100 people have taken refuge in shelters. State and county authorities have urged tourists to stay away from the region or leave Maui if they can.
Bissen said he didn’t know how the six people killed in the fires died and whether they were local residents or tourists.
Earlier Wednesday, smoke and fire caused people to flee to the ocean, Maui County officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard transported 12 people from the waters off Lahaina to safety.
Videos posted online show flames on both sides of a single lane of fleeing vehicles. Buildings, palm trees and cars are engulfed in flames. Others show wind-whipped walls of fire and smoke spreading through Lahaina. Devastated areas include Front Street, an eclectic road popular with tourists that is lined with shops, businesses and historic architecture.
Maui County officials said early Wednesday that all roads were closed in Lahaina. “Do NOT go to Lahaina town,” the County of Maui said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation Wednesday encouraging the suspension of all nonessential air travel to Maui. Luke, who is serving as acting governor while Gov. Josh Green returns from a trip, activated Hawaii’s National Guard to help with response efforts.
Ed Sniffen, director of the state’s Transportation Department, said Maui airports remained open and at least 2,000 people stayed in them overnight because they couldn’t get flights out. An additional 4,000 visitors were trying to leave the island, he said.
Hawaiian Airlines issued a waiver allowing travelers to receive a refund or change their plans without penalty. The airline is operating its full flight schedule and is working with the state of Hawaii to support the transfer of first responders and supplies as needed, a spokesman said.
Three wildfires were also burning on the island of Hawaii on Wednesday, though authorities didn’t report any deaths there.
Authorities said they had prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Dora on Tuesday, but not for the wildfires that followed. “We never expected a hurricane which did not touch down on our land would cause this kind of wildfires,” Luke said.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, adjutant general of Hawaii’s Department of Defense, said the wildfires were fueled by long-running dry conditions, low humidity and high winds. “That set the conditions for the wildfires,” said Hara, adding that he didn’t know how the blazes were sparked.
About 6,200 people were without power Wednesday in Maui, and cellphone service was down. At least 29 utility poles were knocked down amid the fires and sections of fiber-optic cables were also burned. Authorities said it was unclear how long power and phone lines might be down, but that the repair of fiber-optic cables could take a month or more.
Maui is the second-most visited Hawaiian island, after Oahu. In the first half of the year, there were nearly 1.5 million visitors to Maui, up 5.7% from the same period in 2022, according to the state’s department of business, economic development and tourism. Total visitor spending during that time was $3.47 billion, up about 25% from last year.
A view of the Johan Sverdrup oilfield in the North Sea, January 7, 2020. Carina Johansen/NTB Scanpix/via REUTERS File PhotoOil dips as demand concerns mount; eyes on US inflation data
China's post-COVID economy has yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel and is virtually "impossible" to revive.
Reuters by Muyu Xu, edited by Germán & Co, August 10, 2023Aug 10 (Reuters) - Oil retreated on Thursday from multi-month peaks hit in the previous session as higher U.S. crude inventory and sluggish economic data from China raised concerns about global fuel demand.
Brent crude fell 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $87.46 a barrel by 0408 GMT, after settling at its highest since Jan. 27 in the previous session.
West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) dropped 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $84.34, after settling at its highest since November 2022.
U.S. crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) rose by 5.9 million barrels in the last week to 445.6 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.6 million-barrel rise, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday.
U.S. crude oil exports fell by 2.9 million barrels per day last week, the steepest fall on record, to 2.36 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the data. But the market is going to expect crude exports to go up because of the U.S. crude futures and Brent spread, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.
Weighing on market sentiment, the consumer sector in China fell into deflation, and factory-gate prices extended declines in July, as the world's second-largest economy struggled to revive demand.
"A 5% growth forecast from China, which looked way too modest to digest at the beginning of 2023 has started to look way too optimistic as China is failing to hold economic revival post-COVID," said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst from Phillip Nova.
The market is awaiting July's Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the United States, due on Thursday, which will indicate the Fed's future monetary policy. Market watchers expected the CPI to show a slight year-over-year acceleration, while on a month-to-month basis, consumer prices are seen increasing 0.2%, the same rate as in June.
Meanwhile, Chevron (CVX.N) and Woodside Energy Group (WDS.AX) said on Thursday they are holding talks with unions to avert threatened strikes at gas facilities that together supply about 10% of the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market.
Concerns over LNG supply drove European gas prices to a nearly 2-month high on Wednesday and buoyed the demand outlook for diesel as alternative fuel.
However, oil prices remained supported by supply tightness worries as tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea region could threaten shipment of Russian oil.
"Oil prices have been resilient to a weak economic showing out of China in recent weeks, with market participants choosing to place their focus on the tighter supplies conditions from Saudi Arabia and Russia's output cuts to continue their unwind from previous bearish positioning," wrote Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG, in a note.
Top exporter Saudi Arabia's plans to extend its voluntary production cut of 1 million barrels per day for another month to include September. Russia also said it would cut oil exports by 300,000 bpd in September.
Reporting by Muyu Xu in Singapore and Laura Sanicola in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
Illustrations by Germán & CoTrump Is Spooked and His 2024 Rivals Know It
Donald Trump Pleads Not Guilty to 2020 Election Charges in Federal Court
TIME bY PHILIP ELLIOTT, August 8, 2023Back during the first months of the Trump presidency, then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich made a prescient—if not entirely original—observation about his one-time rival for the Republican nomination: “You don't put an animal in the corner without the animal striking back, [and] you don't put a politician in the corner … without them expecting to strike back at you.”
Kasich was correct in his assessment of Trump’s approach to leading Washington, and it’s a strategy that’s re-emerged as the ex-President faces increasingly urgent risks coming at him from all directions. Luck, it turns out, is a finite commodity. And a ginned-up gerbil can do more damage than a complacent cheetah.
Trump is under indictment in three separate criminal cases and is out on bond. A fourth criminal case out of Georgia could come as soon as this week, and preparations underway in Fulton County sure look like prosecutors in Atlanta are bracing for a chaotic scene. The trials would derail Trump for weeks if not months at the exact time he would need to be pandering to voters. And, despite being atop the polls of Republicans looking to be the presidential nominee in 2024, the risks to both his frontrunner status and his freedom are real enough that it’s sending him spiraling in search of a distraction.
“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” That’s what Trump posted on his Truth Social account over the weekend, prompting Justice Department lawyers to ask a judge in the case involving election interference to issue a protective order. The not-at-all-subtle warning was part of a litany of all-caps threats that brought to mind various unhinged stretches of posts when he used to frequent the platform previously known as Twitter. When Trump wasn’t complaining that he was a victim of a politically motivated prosecution (“WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE IS DOING TO ME IS THE SAME THING DONE BY THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES ALL OVER THE WORLD.”), he was going after the U.S. team for its loss in the Women’s World Cup, singling out star player (and Trump critic) Megan Rapinoe for an errant foot: “WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA.”
Sure, Trump’s social-media footprint has never been a particularly sophisticated logic-based realm. But for the first time since he joined the presidential fray back in 2015, Trump sounds genuinely scared, like he finally seems to be realizing his luck may be unique but not limitless. His knack for defying political gravity has been evidenced since his first campaign, when any other nominee would have been felled by the same series of missteps, scandals, and self-immolation; Trump instead somehow rode the fire-engulfed dumpster all the way to the North Lawn of the White House.
Trump has long enjoyed lashing out at those he perceives as insufficiently loyal. No one has been immune, be they real challengers like Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or just perceived threats, as were the cases of Pope Francis, George W. Bush, and Megyn Kelly. But these latest attacks, somehow, feel different in a changed environment that no longer guarantees fearful fealty from his rivals. Where he previously launched his rockets with abandon, he is now being more direct to respond to would-be usurpers.
To Trump’s credit, his reflex appears to be more tactical than in the past.
Take, for instance, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the closest thing that Trump has to a rival for the nomination next year. While Trump enjoys a massive lead over the Anti-Woke Warrior from the Sunshine State, DeSantis has been working on retooling a failure-to-launch bid, and it seems like he’s rethinking his deference to Trump. In an interview that aired on NBC News this week, DeSantis for the first time finally stopped pussyfooting around whether Trump won in 2020. "No, of course he lost," DeSantis said. "Joe Biden’s the President." After more than 1,000 days of playing coy games and dodging any declaration about Biden’s legitimacy, DeSantis has finally concluded it is time to treat Trump like the man to dethrone.
DeSantis, who on Tuesday replaced his top political hand, had been walking the line. For months, the default has felt like a backhanded defense of Trump at every turn, living both in contempt and cower of the ex-President. But two weeks ago, during a swing through Iowa, DeSantis subtly jabbed his one-time self-considered patron. “I don’t consider myself to be an entertainer,” DeSantis said in Osceola. “I’m a leader. And that’s what you get for me, somebody that will deliver results.” The ceiling of the distillery where he spoke didn’t collapse, and DeSantis marched on. (Trump, naturally, told a conservative radio host that DeSantis should drop out for the good of the party.)
DeSantis’ footing—and Trump’s counter-punch—has seemed to grow stronger in recent days. Until recently, only former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been an unabashed critic of Trump’s return to power, a lonely spot but one that is starting to have some pals testing its viability. After all, 78 looming felony charges gives even the most mild of candidates permission to at least raise the question of Trump’s true viability in a rematch against Joe Biden. “This election needs to be about Jan. 20, 2025, not Jan. 6, 2021,” DeSantis said in Waverly, Iowa, during that weekend bus tour.
Similarly, former Vice President Mike Pence—the one who spent four years as Trump’s loyal and self-censoring understudy—has started to rev up his critique of the ex-boss, and thus draw his ire. While Pence has hinted at his antipathy toward Trump and, in particular, his former boss’ conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, the intensity has increased of late. And not coincidentally, Trump has targeted more of his public attacks on Pence, as he realizes that his former vice president poses a real threat to his legal woes, given his first-hand access to the West Wing during the final weeks of Trump’s tour there.
Pence predicted Trump’s realization was coming, telling The New York Times on July 30: “I think we’re coming to a fork in the road.”
It’s more of a pitchfork, based on Trump’s reaction. “He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy,” Trump sniped at his former running mate, who testified for more than five hours before the federal grand jury back in April and spoke candidly about the events before and during the Jan. 6 uprising. Should Trump move forward to trial, Pence may end up testifying—a development that could move the actual argument against a third Trump nomination away from the theater-focused debate stage and to a far more extraordinary courtroom testimony, one where Trump would have to sit in silence and hear his one-time loyalist turn over all of their secrets.
Trump’s allies have started to pick up on the shift, too. During a stop last week in Londonderry, N.H., hecklers stood outside the American Legion post and held signs calling Pence a traitor. Inside, skeptics asked Pence point-blank why he didn’t take steps to keep Trump in power, even in electoral defeat.
Unflinching, Pence said he followed the Constitution and, ever one to cite Scripture down to chapter and verse, urged voters in that lead-off primary state to look up Article Two, Section One, Clause Three.
Similarly, Trump’s best ally in the field vowed to find everyone involved in investigating Trump and fire them. The maneuver won Vivek Ramaswamy applause and tracks with his larger strategy of running against Trump while also being his biggest booster in the field. Other rivals, all the while, have picked up the House Republicans’ chorus that the Department of Justice has been weaponized by Biden and his cronies.
Elsewhere, of course, criticism of Trump has been a moderated rumble through the GOP campaign to this point. With the first debate scheduled for Aug. 23—and Trump’s participation an open question—the GOP will be watching closely if Christie’s open antagonism is no longer the clear loser of a strategy that it seemed a few months ago. The party remains loyal to Trump, but the sober reality of nominating a thrice-indicted ex-President is finally sinking in. And Trump, it seems, is starting to sense that and responding to the threats he had previously—and maybe wrongly—assumed were immaterial.
“AES El Salvador Team Awarded the “Golden Hard Hat” Award 2022.
Bernerd Da Santos, First AES Executive Vice President - President Global Renewable and AES Clean EnergyAES Executive Vice President - President Global Renewable and AES Clean Energy“The AES El Salvador team has been awarded the 2022 "Golden Hard Hat" Award, a highly prestigious accolade that recognizes their unwavering commitment to safety. This award, presented by AES Corporation, highlights the team's exceptional dedication to making safety a priority. The team demonstrated professionalism and dedication by working 8 million hours, conducting 30,000 inspections, and dedicating 45,000 hours to technical and environmental training to ensure safety standards. However, the most important thing to note here is that the AES El Salvador team achieved a remarkable feat without any fatalities, demonstrating their exceptional commitment.
I would like to congratulate the union's leader and management team of AES El Salvador: Abraham Bichara, Daniel Bernardez, Roberto Sandoval, John Davenport, and Wilfredo Flores. Their combined efforts have been instrumental in making this outstanding achievement possible.
Once again, my heartfelt congratulations to the AES El Salvador team for this well-deserved recognition. Their tireless efforts and unwavering commitment to safety are an inspiration to us all.
Image by Karen Toro/ReutersEcuador declares a state of emergency after the killing of a presidential candidate at a campaign event
The victim, Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old MP running on an anti-corruption platform, was one of eight candidates in the first round of the presidential election, which will are to be held as scheduled on August 20.
Le Monde Whit AP, published today at 3:38 am (Paris)A woman is assisted after being wounded after shots were fired at the end of a rally of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito, on August 9, 2023. STR / AFP
An Ecuadorian presidential candidate known for speaking up against cartels and corruption was shot and killed Wednesday, August 9, at a political rally in the capital, an attack that comes amid a startling wave of gang-driven violence in the South American country.
President Guillermo Lasso confirmed the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio and suggested organized crime was behind his slaying. Villavicencio was one of eight candidates in the August 20 presidential vote, though not the frontrunner.
"I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished," Lasso said in a statement. "Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law." Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said that one suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight after the killing, and police detained six suspects following raids in Quito.
In response to the attack, Lasso declared a state of emergency for 60 days throughout the country on Thursday, August 10. "The Armed Forces as of this moment are mobilized throughout the national territory to guarantee the security of citizens, the tranquility of the country and the free and democratic elections of August 20," Lasso said in an address broadcast on YouTube after a meeting of the Security Cabinet and other senior officials.
The announcement came as part of a joint statement with Diana Atamaint, the head of the National Electoral Council, who said: "The date of the elections scheduled for August 20 remain unalterable, in compliance with the constitutional and legal mandate."
Authorities said that at least nine others were injured in the Wednesday shooting, including officers and a congressional candidate, in what they described as a “terrorist act.”
The President also declared three days of national mourning "to honor the memory of a patriot, of Fernando Villavicencio Valencia."
Brave final words
In his final speech, before he was killed, Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would root out corruption and lock up the country’s “thieves.” Prior to the shooting, Villavicencio said he had received multiple death threats, including from affiliates of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups. “Here I am showing my face. I'm not scared of them,” Villavicencio said in a statement, naming detained crime boss José Adolfo Macías by his alias “Fito.”
The killing comes as Ecuador is rattled by rising violent killings and drug trafficking. As drug traffickers have begun to use the country’s coastal ports, Ecuadorians have reeled from violence not seen for decades. The sounds of gunfire ring in many major cities as rival gangs battle for control, and gangs have recruited children. Just last month, the mayor of the port city of Manta was shot and killed. On July 26, Lasso declared a state of emergency covering two provinces and the country's prison system in an effort to stem the violence.
Supporter Ida Paez said that Villavicencio's campaign had given her hope that the country could overcome the gangs. At the rally, she said, “We were happy. Fernando even danced. His last words were, if someone messes with the people, he is messing with my family.”
Videos of the rally on social media appear to show Villavicencio walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows the candidate getting into a white pickup truck before gunshots are heard, followed by screams and commotion around the truck. This sequence of events was confirmed to The Associated Press by Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser. The politician, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement.
He was married and is survived by five children.
A critical voice against corruption
Zuquilanda told the Associated Press the candidate had received death threats before the shooting, which he had reported to authorities, resulting in one detention. He called on international authorities to take action against the violence, attributing it to rising violence and drug trafficking. "The Ecuadorian people are crying and Ecuador is mortally wounded," he said. "Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society."
Other candidates echoed Zuquilanda in their demands for action, with presidential frontrunner Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution party saying: “When they touch one of us, they touch all of us." Former vice president and candidate Otto Sonnenholzner said in a news conference, "We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears and we do not deserve to live like this. We demand that you do something".
Villavicencio was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former President Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017. He was also an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments, later entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner.
He filed many judicial complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government, including against the ex-president himself. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over his criticisms of Correa, and fled to indigenous territory in Ecuador, later receiving asylum in neighboring Peru. Edison Romo, a former military intelligence colonel, said the anti-corruption complaints made Villavicencio “a threat to international criminal organizations.”
A context of political turmoil
President Lasso, a conservative former banker, was elected in 2021 on a business-friendly platform and clashed from the start with the left-leaning majority coalition in the National Assembly. A snap election was called after Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree in May, in a move to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company.
Ecuador’s constitution includes a provision that allows the president to disband the assembly during a political crisis, but then requires new elections for both the assembly and the presidency. The country has faced a series of political upheavals in recent years.
Image: Germán & CoCooperate with objective and ethical thinking…
A demonstrator in Niamey, Foto: Sam Mednick / dpaFallout from the Putsch in Niger Anger Against France Grows in Africa's "Coup Belt"
With the coup in Niger, Europe and the United States are losing their last reliable partner in the Sahel as Russia's influence grows. The development could severely inhibit the West's ability to fight terrorism in the region.
Spiegel by Matthias Gebauer, Christina Hebel, Marina Kormbaki, Britta Sandberg and Fritz Schaap, August 9, 2023It has been just a few hours since the gate to the French Embassy went up in flames, thousands paraded through the streets of Niamey and Russian flags flew under the hot Savannah sky. Boubaca Adamou is sitting in his small house in the Fada-Loubatou district with around 20 of his fellow campaigners, rejoicing in the destruction.
A 54-year-old teacher wearing a green shirt and khaki pants, Adamou is an anti-French activist and a supporter of the M62, a movement eager to expel all foreign troops from Niger. In his view, the July 26 military coup that swept democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum out of office was redemption. The mood in the room is cheerful, with the men sitting on white plastic chairs drinking tea, some smoking. They all agree that France has no place in Niger.
"Bazoum was a French puppet," Adamou says. He and his friends claim that the democratic elections won by Bazoum in 2021 were marred by irregularities and manipulated by the French. They believe that only France actually profits from Niger's uranium deposits and not the country itself.
Now, they believe, Niger's sovereignty is at stake. The former colonial power, Adamou explains, may have granted the country independence in 1960, but the French continue to subjugate Niger to this day. Corruption is rampant across the country, and that, he says, must come to an end.
6,000 Kilometers of Military Rule
On July 26, the spokesman for the Nigerien military stated that security forces had decided to "put an end to the regime" – allegedly because of the deteriorating security situation and bad governance.
It was the fifth military coup in Niger since the country's independence, but this overthrow is different from the previous ones. It is the latest in a series of such putsches: Almost the entire Sahel, a strategically important region of Africa, is now ruled by regimes installed by a coup, with six successful overthrows in the region since 2020. The area some are calling the "Coup Belt" stretches south of the Sahara, nearly 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) long, from Guinea on the west coast of the continent to Sudan on the east coast. In Mali, where an estimated 1,500 mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group are stationed, and in Burkina Faso, Moscow has established itself as an important supporter of the new rulers, with both countries now positioning themselves explicitly against the former colonial power France.
And once again, following the coup in Niger, the question is unavoidable: What role might Russia and its Wagner mercenaries have played? And: Could the new regime turn to Russia? So far, the Nigerien junta hasn't suggested it will go in that direction. Shortly after the coup, it promised to honor international commitments – and on Friday, it ended military cooperation with former colonial power France.
In Niger, as in much of the Sahel area, France played a significant role until recent years. Paris released its African colonies into independence in the 1960s, yet it continues to exert massive influence to the present day through military and economic cooperation and close ties with elites. This intricate web of corruption and old dependencies in France's ex-colonies is referred to as "Françafrique."
Russia's Opportunity
Niger, like the entire Coup Belt, has now become a theater of geopolitical power struggles. Russia has emerged as the continent's largest arms supplier, sending Wagner mercenaries to autocrats in need. After Mali and Burkina Faso turned to the Kremlin, the French withdrew from those countries as well.
Representatives of the Russian leadership officially condemned the coup in Niger. But Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner troops, praised the coup in an audio message as the Nigerien people's righteous "struggle" against their country's "colonizers" and offered his services. The coup is a good opportunity for the unscrupulous entrepreneur to expand his business in Africa. And after his failed uprising against the Russian army leadership, he can prove to President Vladimir Putin that he continues to be of service to the Kremlin in Africa. Niger, with its rich uranium deposits, is precisely the kind of country that Prigozhin is keen to exploit.
Indeed, that is another reason why Western governments, including that of Germany, are extremely concerned following the coup. With Niger, they have to fear not only losing their most important partner in the Sahel, but also the last reliable one. Around 1,500 French and 1,100 American soldiers are still stationed in the country, and Niger is of significant geostrategic importance to the U.S. The American military operates several drone bases in the country, which it uses for reconnaissance missions throughout the region, including Libya and Sudan. Around 100 soldiers with Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, are also stationed in the country. The European Union, too, has long regarded Niger as an important partner and Brussels has long been seeking the country's help in curbing irregular migration from Africa. Niger is home to a number of refugee camps.
Misjudgment in the West
In a strategy paper published by the German government this spring, Niger is still highlighted as a prime example of security and development cooperation. The federal government in Berlin viewed it as an anchor of stability in the region. Indeed, Germany spent years training Nigerien elite soldiers in a mission called Gazelle, which began in 2018 and ended at the end of 2022. Now, the Bundeswehr is organizing its withdrawal from Mali.
The German government's crisis team has met several times at the Foreign Ministry since the upheaval. And whereas the French are flying their compatriots out on special planes due to fears of violent attacks, the German government has only issued a travel warning.
According to an internal analysis, the anger of the Nigeriens is directed against former colonial power France and not against the Germans. One representative of the German government even expresses quiet understanding for the resentment against Paris. The source says the French continued to behave in an arrogant and patronizing manner in the region.
The Demise of Democratic Governments
Niger is one of the world's poorest countries. The elites have a reputation for corruption, and the state has no presence in many areas of the country, which ranks 189th out of 191 on the United Nations' Human Development Index. Furthermore, Islamist terror plagues the population, and offshoots of both the Islamic State and al-Qaida continue to spread in the Sahel. Still, unlike its neighboring countries, Western aid contributed to some improvement of the security situation in Niger in the past year.
"What we are witnessing is the demise of democratic governments in this region," says Alain Antil, director of the Center for Sub-Saharan Africa at the Institut français des relations internationales in Paris (IFRI).
In June, IFRI published a study on anti-French sentiment in many African countries, concluding that anti-French sentiment in the region is growing. But it is also increasingly being fomented and tapped by the political elites of these countries to explain grievances or their own failures. France has been turned into the scapegoat.
The study identifies another factor for the growing anti-French sentiment in the targeted propaganda spread on social media channels, a campaign which is financed and nourished by Russia. "Still, it would be a mistake to say that Russia in particular created the anti-France attitude in these countries in the first place," says Antil. "It was already there, but it was tapped and exploited by the Russians as well as by the rulers of the respective countries when it served their interests."
A Russian Disinformation Campaign
Since the passage of a law in April 2022 allowing the long-term deployment of foreign troops to fight terrorism, there have been several anti-French protests in Niamey as well. Experts agree that Moscow was not involved in the coup, but they say that Russian disinformation campaigns have likely influenced the mood among the populace.
The group M62, which also supports Boubaca Adamou, appears to have played an important role. According to experts, the group was long ago infiltrated by Wagner people, and its actions are supported by Russian propaganda.
Moreover, according to French military expert Pierre Servent, the movement pays participants in anti-French demonstrations and provides them with flags: Russian ones to wave, French ones to burn. In Mali, too, say diplomatic sources, the leading anti-French movement is co-financed through the Russian Embassy.
Power Struggles with the Military
The cause of the coup in Niger appears to be a conflict between the president and some of his commanders. Bazoum, it is said, didn't want to extend the term of General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the commander of his presidential guard. In addition, Bazoum reportedly rejected closer cooperation with the military rulers of neighboring countries – ties that many in the Nigerien military were in favor of. A short time later, General Tchiani declared himself the country's leader.
The situation has been escalating ever since. A week ago Sunday, the West African economic alliance ECOWAS announced it would use force if necessary for the reinstatement of President Bazoum and issued an ultimatum of one week for that to happen. That deadline passed with nothing but the scheduling of a meeting on Thursday of this week to discuss developments. The German government considers it unlikely that fighting will break out, an assessment is based on the fact that ECOWAS has no troops of its own. And the alliance's major troop contributors, such as Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, are already at the limits of their capabilities, he said.
The military juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are already tied to Russia, announced they would interpret any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war. The military rulers in Guinea joined the chorus as well. It would appear that an alliance of the coup plotters is already forming.
Early last week, on August 1, France began evacuating its own citizens and other Europeans. That same evening, M62 began calling for the borders to be closed and for foreigners to be held in a hostage-like state until the foreign troops left the country.
A New Anti-Terror Plan
Then, on Wednesday, a Nigerien delegation visited the Malian capital of Bamak, followed by speculation that it might have asked for Wagner mercenaries to be sent. Mali works closely with the Russian mercenary group.
For Europe and the United States, the coup now raises the question of how to fight Islamist terrorism in the region in the future. According to the Global Terrorism Index, the Sahel has surpassed the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to become the epicenter of global terrorism. Its data shows that almost half of the approximately 6,700 people killed in terrorist acts around the world in 2022 were located in the Sahel. In 2007, the region accounted for just 1 percent of such deaths.
The West must find new ways of preventing jihadists from spreading further in the region, says Cameron Hudson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. He says the international approach so far has largely been to fight them on the ground. But now, he argues, it is necessary to move to a containment strategy. "That means recognizing that the jihadist forces will continue to exist," he says. Some might think that means giving up on the Sahel. But how can you help in the fight against terrorism in the region if you aren't welcome?"
It's Sunday, July 30, and an aide to ousted President Bazoum named Adamou Amadou is sitting in his home in a white undershirt and chain-smoking. He would actually like to welcome all of the West in the country. He keeps looking at his mobile phone, which won't stop ringing, with an expressionless face. "The international community must remain strong," he says. "And if necessary use force to restore constitutional order in Niger." Only a minority of Nigeriens, he says wearily, actually oppose France. He says Niger needs its partners to survive. That the coup will set the country back economically by up to 20 years.
Niger, the aide sitting lonely and sweating in his quiet house fears, will now descend into chaos.
Seaboard: pioneers in power generation in the country…
…“More than 32 years ago, back in January 1990, Seaboard began operations as the first independent power producer (IPP) in the Dominican Republic. They became pioneers in the electricity market by way of the commercial operations of Estrella del Norte, a 40MW floating power generation plant and the first of three built for Seaboard by Wärtsilä.
Image by Germán & CoLeaders of Amazon nations gather in Brazil for summit on rainforest’s future
Conclave represents handbrake turn in Brazilian government policy since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took power
The Guardian Tom Phillips in Belém, August 8, 2023The leaders of Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia and Peru have gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém for a rare conclave about the future of the world’s largest rainforest amid growing concern over the global climate emergency.
The environmental summit – convened by Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – represents a handbrake turn in Brazilian government policy after four years of Amazon destruction and international isolation under the country’s previous leader, Jair Bolsonaro.
Those who have flown into Belém for the meeting include Bolivia’s president, Luis Arce, Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, Guyana’s prime minister, Mark Phillips, and Peru’s Dina Boluarte. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, pulled out at the last minute blaming an ear infection. The other members of the eight-country Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), Ecuador and Suriname, have sent senior representatives.
“This is a landmark moment,” Lula tweeted on Tuesday morning as his guests were shepherded to the talks by police motorcycle outriders. “What we are doing in defence of the Amazon and its population is historic.”
The Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte (left) talked with the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Amazon summit meeting. Photograph: Ricardo Stuckert/Brazilian Presidency/AFP/Getty Images
At the summit’s opening session, Lula said the “severe escalation of the climate crisis” meant the need for regional cooperation was “more pressing than ever before”.
As politicians began to arrive in the sweltering riverside city on Monday, Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, said: “We come here with the clarity … that the Amazon is drastically threatened … that we cannot allow it to reach a point of no return … and that it will be impossible to reverse this process if we work in isolation.”
Among the issues to be discussed at ACTO’s first such meeting in 14 years are a possible deal to halt deforestation by 2030 and joint efforts to fight rampant illegal mining and the organised crime groups which are tightening their grip on the rainforest region. Colombia’s president has been pushing for an end to oil and gas exploration in the Amazon, although Brazilian moves to develop an oilfield near the mouth of the Amazon River complicate those efforts.
A final communique, known as the Belém Declaration, is expected to be unveiled by ACTO members of at the end of the two-day meeting. Experts say it is likely to contain collaborative strategies for fighting deforestation and financing sustainable development initiatives, and the creation of a law enforcement centre in the Brazilian city of Manaus to promote cooperation among regional police forces.
The challenges facing the group’s members are almost as immense as the Amazon itself – a sprawling 6.7m sq km region that, if it was a single country, would be the seventh largest on Earth. As well as nearly 50 million people, the region is home to an estimated 400bn trees belonging to 16,000 different species, more than 1,300 species of bird, tens of thousands of species of plant, and 20% of the world’s freshwater resources. It is also estimated to contain more than 120bn tonnes of carbon, making it a vital carbon sink.
But over the past half-century, the advance of cattle ranching, logging, mining, soy farming and oil exploration has devastated huge swathes of the region, pushing it towards what scientists fear could be an irreversible tipping point which would cause the forest to die off.
Transnational mafia groups have also expanded their footprint, with one senior Brazilian police chief recently warning “criminal insurgents” could commandeer parts of the Amazon with dire consequences for the rainforest and its inhabitants.
Indigenous activists called for protection ahead of the presidents’ Amazon summit. Photograph: Filipe Bispo/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s summit, thousands of Indigenous activists gathered for a parallel summit in Belém to demand greater government support for their quest to defend the rainforest. The perils of such efforts were laid bare last year with the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. Activists are also pushing for a pledge to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025.
Campaigners voiced a mix of relief that Lula had brought an end to Bolsonaro’s era of Amazon chaos, and anxiety that Brazil’s conservative-dominated congress might prevent the president from enacting his ambitious environmental agenda, which has already achieved a 42.5% drop in deforestation.
“We know we have so many enemies in congress who don’t like us,” said Alessandra Korap, a leader of the Munduruku people.
Korap urged Lula to oppose oil exploration in the Amazon and take a stand against highly controversial draft legislation that would invalidate Indigenous claims to lands such groups could not prove they occupied when Brazil’s 1988 constitution was enacted. “This would mean the death of our peoples,” Korap said.