Africa

Subterms

    More stories

    • 175 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      Mali Claims Death of Abu Huzeifa, Terrorist Who Helped Lead Fatal Ambush in Niger

      by

      The West African country said it killed Abu Huzeifa, a commander in an Islamic State affiliate who was involved in a 2017 attack in neighboring Niger that killed American Green Berets and Nigerien forces.Mali said on Monday that it had killed a high-value Islamist commander who helped lead a 2017 attack in which four American and four Nigerien soldiers were killed alongside an interpreter.The U.S. State Department had put a $5 million bounty on the head of the commander, Abu Huzeifa — a member of an affiliate of the Islamic State — after his participation in an attack in Tongo Tongo, Niger, on American Green Berets and their Nigerien comrades.At that time, the attack was the largest loss of American troops during combat in Africa since the “Black Hawk Down” debacle in Somalia in 1993.In a post on social media on Monday, Mali’s armed forces said that on Sunday they had “neutralized a major terrorist leader of foreign nationality during a large-scale operation in Liptako” — a tri-border region that contains parts of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.Officials at the U.S. State and Defense Departments said on Tuesday that they are aware of the report, but are seeking more information.Mali has been in crisis since 2012, when rebels and jihadists took control of swaths of its desert north. The intervention of foreign forces — led by France, which deployed thousands of troops — failed to stop the unrest.In 2020, coup plotters overthrew Mali’s elected government, using the security crisis to justify their power grab. But since then the ruling junta has pursued the same military-first strategy that the foreign forces did, and nearly four years later, analysts say the situation is worse.After a ten-year fight against the Islamists, French troops pulled out in 2022. The junta in Mali turned instead to Russian military advisors and mercenaries with the Wagner group, who were accused of committing atrocities in the course of pursuing the militants.Eric Schmitt More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Dam Collapses in Western Kenya, Killing at Least 40

      by

      The country has been pummeled by heavy rains that have caused widespread flooding, part of a broader deluge that has devastated segments of East Africa.A dam collapsed in western Kenya early Monday, killing at least 40 people after a wall of water swept through houses and cut off a major road, the police said.The collapse of the Old Kijabe Dam, in the Mai Mahiu area of the Great Rift Valley region that is prone to flash floods, sent water spilling downstream, carrying with it mud, rocks and uprooted trees, a police official, Stephen Kirui, said.Vehicles were entangled in the debris on the roads, and paramedics treated the injured as waters submerged large areas.The rains in Kenya have caused flooding that has already killed nearly 100 people and postponed the opening of schools. Heavy rains have been pounding the country since mid-March, and the Meteorology Department has warned of more rainfall.Kithure Kindiki, the interior minister, ordered the inspection of all public and private dams and water reservoirs within 24 hours starting on Monday afternoon. The ministry said recommendations for evacuations and resettlement would be done after the inspection.The Kenya National Highways Authority warned motorists to brace for heavy traffic and debris that blocked roads.The wider East African region is experiencing flooding because of the heavy rains. At least 155 people have reportedly died in Tanzania, and more than 200,000 people have been affected in neighboring Burundi.A boat capsized in Garissa County, in Kenya, on Sunday night, and the Kenyan Red Cross said that it had rescued 23 people but that more than a dozen people were still missing.Kenya’s main airport was flooded on Saturday, forcing some flights to be diverted. Videos shared online showed a flooded runway, terminals and cargo section.More than 200,000 people across the country have been hit by the floods, with houses in flood-prone areas submerged and people seeking refuge in schools.President William Ruto has instructed the National Youth Service to provide land for use as a temporary camp for those affected. More

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Rwanda Marks Anniversary of 1994 Genocide

      by

      The Central African country is marking the anniversary of a monthslong rampage by militiamen that killed some 800,000 people.When the marauding militiamen arrived at her door on that morning in April 1994, Florence Mukantaganda knew there was nowhere to run.It was only three days into the devastating 100-day genocide in Rwanda, when militiamen rampaged through the streets and people’s homes in a bloodshed that forever upended life in the Central African nation. As the men entered her home, Ms. Mukantaganda said her husband, a preacher, prayed for her and their two small children and furtively told her where he had hidden some money in case she survived.He then said his final words to her before he was hacked to death with a hoe.“He told me, ‘When they come for you, you have to be strong, you have to die strong,’” Ms. Mukantaganda, 53, recalled on a recent morning at her home in Kabuga, a small town about 10 miles east of Kigali, the Rwandan capital. “There was nothing we could do but wait for our time to die.”The agony of those harrowing days loomed large for many on Sunday as Rwanda marked the 30th anniversary of the genocide in which extremists from the country’s ethnic Hutu majority killed some 800,000 people — most of them ethnic Tutsis — using machetes, clubs and guns.“Today, our hearts are filled with grief and gratitude in equal measure,” President Paul Kagame said on Sunday at a ceremony at an indoor arena. “We remember our dead, and are also grateful for what Rwanda has become.”Representatives from regional and global institutions like the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations were present at the ceremony, as well as ministerial delegations and current and former leaders from some 60 nations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      The U.S. Is Rebuilding a Legal Pathway for Refugees. The Election Could Change That.

      by

      President Biden is restoring resources and staffing for the refugee program, which was gutted during the Trump administration.With national attention focused on the chaos at the southern border, President Biden has been steadily rebuilding a legal pathway for immigration that was gutted during the Trump administration.The United States has allowed more than 40,000 refugees into the country in the first five months of the fiscal year after they passed a rigorous, often yearslong, screening process that includes security and medical vetting and interviews with American officers overseas.The figure represents a significant expansion of the refugee program, which is at the heart of U.S. laws that provide desperate people from around the world with a legal way to find safe haven in the United States.The United States has not granted refugee status to so many people in such a short period of time in more than seven years. The Biden administration is now on target to allow in 125,000 refugees this year, the most in three decades, said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman.By comparison, roughly 64,000 refugees were admitted during the last three years of the Trump administration.“The Biden administration has been talking a big talk about resettling more refugees since Biden took office,” said Julia Gelatt, an associate director at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “Finally we are seeing the payoff in higher numbers.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares139 Views

      in Elections

      Young Opposition Candidate Wins Senegal’s Presidential Election

      by

      Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who turned 44 on Monday, was little known until he received the backing of Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s most formidable opposition politician. Both men were released from jail only 10 days ago.With the concession of his main rival, a young political outsider backed by a powerful opposition figure has won a surprise outright victory in Senegal’s presidential election only 10 days after being released from jail.Bassirou Diomaye Faye is the anointed candidate of Senegal’s popular and controversial opposition politician Ousmane Sonko. Mr. Faye’s main rival, the governing party candidate Amadou Ba, conceded in a statement congratulating his rival on Monday.Mr. Faye, who celebrated his 44th birthday on Monday, will become the West African country’s youngest ever president. He had been jailed on charges of defamation and contempt of court, and was awaiting trial. “I wish him a lot of success, for the well-being of the Senegalese people,” Mr. Ba said in the statement released Monday afternoon that addressed Mr. Faye as president.The national electoral commission has not yet announced the tally, but Mr. Ba’s concession followed reports by local media that Mr. Faye had won more than 50 percent of the vote, ruling out a runoff.Mr. Faye and Mr. Sonko have captivated young people by excoriating political elites, pledging to renegotiate contracts with oil and gas companies, and promising “monetary sovereignty” — Senegal is one of 14 countries that use the CFA, a currency pegged to the euro and backed by France.Mr. Ba, who stepped down as prime minister in order to campaign, was backed by Senegal’s president, Macky Sall. Mr. Sall had served two terms and for years refused to say whether he would try for a third. He threw the country into chaos when he suddenly called off the election, which was supposed to happen in February, and then, almost as suddenly, changed course. Residents of Dakar, Senegal’s coastal capital, began celebrating at 8 p.m. on Sunday, before many polling stations had even had a chance to count the contents of their ballot boxes. People danced, waved flags, and piled into cars and onto motorcycles, sounding a cacophony of horns and shouting “Get out, Amadou Ba!” as they raced through the streets.Mr. Faye after casting his ballot at the École Ndiandiaye polling station in Ndiaganiao, Senegal, on Sunday.Seyllou/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAnd at midnight, supporters began to sing “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Faye, who has gone from obscurity to winning the presidency in a few short months.But Mr. Faye was not the only winner. Many Senegalese casting their ballots for him saw him merely as a proxy for Mr. Sonko, the fiery orator who was jailed and barred from running, and who anointed Mr. Faye in his place.Mr. Faye is a former tax collector who was jailed on charges of defamation and contempt of court, after he accused magistrates of persecuting Mr. Sonko, who was himself convicted of defamation and, separately, of corrupting a minor, after he was accused of raping a young massage parlor employee.Mr. Sonko has been keen to emphasize that a vote for Mr. Faye — known to many as Diomaye — was a vote for him.“Diomaye is Sonko,” read ubiquitous posters bearing the two men’s youthful, glowing faces.Supporters of Mr. Faye burned a shirt bearing the picture of Amadou Ba in Dakar, on Sunday.Zohra Bensemra/Reuters More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Dozens of Children Kidnapped in Nigeria Are Released, Officials Say

      by

      The military of the West African nation, which is plagued by kidnappings largely driven by demands for ransom payments, said 137 children had been freed in the country’s north.Dozens of Nigerian schoolchildren who were kidnapped this month have been released, officials said on Sunday. The Nigerian military said that 137 children had been freed by security forces in the northwest of the country.The children were abducted on March 7 from their school in Kuriga, a small town in the state of Kaduna, the latest in a long series of kidnappings that have plagued Africa’s most populous nation. The exact number of children taken from Kuriga remains murky.The state’s governor, Uba Sani, announced the return of the children, but he did not provide additional information on the circumstances of the abduction or of their release.Nigeria’s military said in a statement that 76 girls and 61 boys had been freed in the northern state of Zamfara, and were being taken back to Kaduna. The military did not confirm the total number of children abducted on March 7, or provide further details about the operation.Residents had told the local news media that armed men kidnapped the students just after they had finished their morning assembly and taken them into a nearby forest.The episode evoked memories of the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok by Boko Haram, an Islamist armed group, which shocked the nation and prompted outrage abroad. Many of the girls were released, reportedly in exchange for ransoms, but 98 of them are still missing, according to Amnesty International.On Sunday, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, thanked the military for securing the children’s release and said that his administration was trying to ensure “that our schools remain safe sanctuaries of learning, not lairs for wanton abductions.”Days before the children were abducted, about 200 people were kidnapped in Nigeria’s Borno state, officials said. The state is at the center of the Boko Haram insurgency. The victims, who had ventured into the countryside to collect firewood when they were abducted, have not been returned yet.More than 3,600 people were reported kidnapped in Nigeria last year — the highest number in five years, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. But the figure could be higher given that many abductions are not reported.The kidnappings are mainly driven by a quest for ransom payments, according to the Nigerian analysis firm SBM Intelligence, which can be paid in cash but also in food or medicine. They are a feature of all of the conflicts ravaging the West African nation, including Islamist insurgencies, separatists movements and piracy, SBM Intelligence said.“The scourge of banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurities must be decisively tackled to restore peace and stability to our beloved nation,” the Alumni Association of the National Institute, part of a Nigerian research center, said in a statement on Sunday. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Senegal’s Opposition Leaders Freed from Jail Days Before Election

      by

      The presidential candidate of the main opposition party, as well as its powerful founder, were released 10 days before the West African country is set to hold a national election.Two opposition party politicians were released from jail in Senegal on Thursday night, just 10 days before a nationwide election in which one of them is running for president.Hundreds of supporters celebrated in the streets of Dakar after Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s foremost opposition leader, was freed along with Bassirou Diomaye Faye, his party’s candidate in the election on March 24.“You never gave up even when we were absent. You kept on fighting.” Mr. Faye told supporters in Dakar on Thursday evening. “Today we are ready to join you in the same fight.”The release is the latest in a series of unexpected moves by the incumbent president, Macky Sall, who cited allegations of corruption when he announced last month that he was canceling the election. Facing a backlash, he reversed course and set the election for Sunday, March 24 — just nine days before his term ends.After years of hinting that he might run again, Mr. Sall finally confirmed last July that he would step down after his two terms were up.Senegal, a coastal West African nation of 17 million people, is seen as a bastion of democracy relative to some of its West African neighbors, which are ruled by military juntas following a spate of coups in recent years.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Senegal Parliament Delays Elections Until December After Opposition Showdown

      by

      President Macky Sall abruptly postponed elections scheduled for this month, and on Monday, legislators in the West African nation voted to allow him to stay in office months after his presidency is to end.Senegal’s Parliament voted late Monday to delay elections until December, after opposition lawmakers seeking to block the vote were thrown out of the National Assembly. The vote came after President Macky Sall last week postponed the upcoming ballot, a move critics condemned as an “institutional coup.”Voters had been preparing to go to the polls on Feb. 25, until Mr. Sall — who has said he is not seeking a third term — announced on Saturday that he was postponing the election. Experts and many opposition and civil society leaders called it a power grab by an unpopular president who is not certain that his chosen successor would win.But on Monday night, police officers in helmets and bulletproof vests expelled opposition members from the National Assembly, preventing them from voting after a marathon session debating the legality of Mr. Sall’s move. The bill then passed with a vote of 105 to 1. In effect, Mr. Sall will be allowed to stay on until the election is held on Dec. 15, nearly 10 months after his presidency is supposed to conclude.Anticipating an outburst of protest, the government on Monday morning cut internet access to cellphones, banned motorcycles in the capital, Dakar, and sent hundreds of security forces into the streets in a show of force. The big public protests that had been expected for Monday afternoon never materialized; Dakar’s streets emptied, as many residents chose to stay indoors.When Mr. Sall announced that he was postponing the election, he said in his address to the nation that a dispute between the national assembly and the constitutional court needed to be resolved before a vote could be held, but critics dismissed this as a “manufactured crisis.”On Sunday, isolated protests broke out across Dakar, but they were quickly put down by security forces who used tear gas and arrested several demonstrators, including former Prime Minister Aminata Touré.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More