TheNewsGuru

Tag: Junta

  • Burkina Faso junta extends regime for another five years

    Burkina Faso junta extends regime for another five years

    The Junta regime in Burkina Faso who took over the reigns of affairs in the country in 2022 has announced it will will extend its rule for five years under an accord adopted during national consultations on Saturday, the talks’ chairman said.

    “The duration of the transition is fixed at 60 months from July 2, 2024,” Colonel Moussa Diallo, chairman of the organizing committee of the national dialogue process, said after the talk.

    According to the coup leader and acting president Ibrahim Traore can run in any elections at the end of the transition period.

    What was supposed to be a two-day national dialogue began earlier Saturday, ostensibly to chart a way back to civilian rule for the West African nation beset by jihadist violence.

    The army has governed Burkina Faso since 2022, carrying out two coups that it justified in large part due to the country’s persistent insecurity.

    Jihadist rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged a grinding insurgency since 2015 that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

    An initial national dialogue adopted a charter that installed Traore as president, and put in place a government and a legislative assembly.

    Under the new charter agreed Saturday, quotas will no longer be used to assign members of traditional parties seats in the assembly. Instead, “patriotism” will be deemed the only criteria to select deputies.

    The initial charter set the duration of the transition to civilian rule at 21 months with the deadline due to expire on July 1, but Traore had repeatedly warned that holding elections will be difficult given the perilous security situation.

     

  • Niger junta agree to return country to democratic government

    Niger junta agree to return country to democratic government

    The military government in Niger Republic has agreed to return the country’s administration under democratic government at a later time.

    This was made known by the Togo Foreign Minister Robert Dussey on Friday in Niamey.

    According to Dussey who spoke on Niger’s national television, said he has reached an agreement “on the content and timing of the transition” with Niger’s junta-appointed prime minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine and foreign minister Bakary Yaou Sangare.

    “We are ready to present the plan… to the mediating heads of state and the ECOWAS Commission,” he said, referring to the Economic Community of West African States.

    After Niger became the latest country in the Sahel to experience a coup with July’s ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum, the regional grouping imposed tough sanctions and suspended trade, while also floating the option of military intervention.

    The sanctions and suspension of international finance and aid have left Niger, already one of the world’s poorest countries, economically hanging by a thread.

    In October, the military leaders announced a 40-percent cut in the 2023 budget due to the “heavy sanctions imposed by international and regional organisations”.

    On Sunday, ECOWAS leaders in Abuja said any easing of the punitive measures against Niger was contingent on a “short transition” period.

    The bloc also decided that a committee made up of the presidents of Benin, Togo and Sierra Leone would lead negotiations with the Nigerien military leaders on the commitments to be implemented.

    According to Niger’s broadcaster, Tele Sahel, mediator Dussey will return to Niamey in January with his counterpart from Sierra Leone, Timothy Kabba.

  • How ousted Niger President tried to escape to Nigeria

    How ousted Niger President tried to escape to Nigeria

    Niger junta says it foiled on Thursday an attempt by ousted President Mohamed Bazoum to escape from his place of detention to Birni-Kebbi in Nigeria.

    In a statement, the military regime said President Bazoum was in the company of his his family, his two cooks and two security elements.

    According to the statement, the plan was for to first escape from his recovery point near the presidential palace, where it was said a trivialised vehicle was waiting for them.

    “This vehicle should lead them to a hide-in in the Tchangarey district on the northern outskirts of the city of Niamey.

    “From this hiding place, a trip would be planned using two helicopters belonging to a foreign power supposed to exfiltrate them in Birni-Kebbi, Nigeria,” the statement reads.

    The junta disclosed that it took the prompt reaction of the defence and security forces to thwart the escape, which they described as a plan to destabilise our country.

    “The National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland and the government salute the professionalism and composure of our valiant Defence and security forces that have made it possible to preserve lives, despite the irresponsible attitude of the deposed president and his accomplices.

    “For the time being, the main perpetrators and some of their accomplices have been arrested. The public prosecutor seized of the case has already opened an investigation.

    “The NSC and the Government are keen to reassure national and international opinion of their firm determination to bring the transition to an end, in accordance with the aspirations of the dignified and sovereign Nigerien people,” the statement added.

  • Ex-rebel leader, Ag Boula initiates anti-coup movement in Niger

    Ex-rebel leader, Ag Boula initiates anti-coup movement in Niger

    Ex-rebel leader and politician, Rhissa Ag Boula, has launched the Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR), opposing the military junta that seized power on July 26.

    This marks the first internal challenge to the junta in this key Sahel nation. The CRR aims to reinstate the detained President Mohamed Bazoum.

    Ag Boula’s statement asserted: “Niger is the victim of a tragedy orchestrated by people charged with protecting it.”

    Amid failed diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup, the junta denied access to both African and UN envoys, while Mali and Burkina Faso, both supporters of the coup appealed to the UN against military interference.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) had earlier reported Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday will deliberate on potential forceful actions.

    Ag Boula’s CRR supports ECOWAS and international entities striving to restore Niger’s constitutional order.

    Notably, Ag Boula had significant roles in past Tuareg uprisings. His influence among the Tuaregs, powerful players in Niger’s northern commerce and politics, may pose concerns for the junta.

    The international community, including the U.N and ECOWAS member states like Nigeria, urged the junta to reinstate the previous civilian government, especially given Niger’s role as a major uranium producer.

  • Niger Coup: Junta announces economist as country’s Prime Minister

    Niger Coup: Junta announces economist as country’s Prime Minister

    Two weeks after the military dethroned Mohamed Bazoum, they have announced former economy minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the country’s new prime minister.

    This was made known by the Junta’s spokesperson, on television late on Monday night.

    Lamine Zeine was formerly the minister of economy and finance for several years in the cabinet of then-president Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in 2010, and most recently worked as an economist for the African Development Bank in Chad, according to a Nigerien media report.

    Recall that the Junta after taking up power in Niger suspended the country’s constitution.

    Under Bazoum, Niger had been one of the last strategic partners of the West in the fight against the advance of Islamist terrorists in the Sahel.

    ECOWAS issued a seven -day Ultimatum to the Junta to return president Bazoum or risk forceful eviction  but it has since elapsed.

     

    There are reports that ECOWAS will converge again on Thursday in Abuja to discuss the Coup in Niger.

  • Niger coup: Junta warns against intervention as West African leaders meet

    Niger coup: Junta warns against intervention as West African leaders meet

    Niger’s military leaders have warned against any armed intervention in the country as West African leaders are set to gather in Nigeria’s capital on Sunday for an emergency summit to decide on further actions to pressure the army to restore constitutional order.

    Heads of state of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union could suspend Niger from its institutions, cut off the country from the regional central bank, and financial market, as well as close borders.

    Niger’s eastern neighbour Chad, a non-member of both regional organisations, has been invited to the ECOWAS summit, a statement from the Chadian president’s office said on Saturday.

    Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, receiving close to $2 billion a year in official development assistance, according to the World Bank.

    It is also a security partner of former colonial power France and the United States, which both use it as a base to fight an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa’s wider Sahel region.

    The West African leaders could also for the first time, consider a military intervention to restore President Mohamed Bazoum who was ousted when Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani was declared the new head of state on Friday.

    Ahead of the Sunday summit, the military leaders in Niger on Saturday night, warned in a statement read on Niger national television on Saturday night against any military intervention.

    “The objective of the (ECOWAS) meeting is to approve a plan of aggression against Niger through an imminent military intervention in Niamey in collaboration with other African countries that are non-members of ECOWAS, and certain western countries,” junta spokesman Col. Amadou Abdramane said.

    “We want to once more remind ECOWAS or any other adventurer, of our firm determination to defend our homeland,” he said.

    The junta issued a second statement on Saturday night inviting citizens in the capital to take to the streets from 7 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) to protest against ECOWAS and show support for the new military leaders.

    The military coup in Niger has been widely condemned by its neighbours and international partners who have refused to recognise the new leaders and have demanded that Bazoum be restored to power.

    Bazoum has not been heard from since early Thursday when he was confined within the presidential palace, although the European Union, France, and others say they still recognise him as the legitimate president.

    The European Union and France have cut off financial support to Niger and the United States has threatened to do the same.

    After an emergency meeting on Friday, the African Union issued a statement demanding that the military return to their barracks and restore constitutional order within 15 days.

    It did not say what would happen after that.

  • Chad junta leader pardons 110 people held over october protests

    Chad junta leader pardons 110 people held over october protests

    Chadian leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has pardoned 110 more people sentenced to jail terms following deadly protests against the regime last October.

    Demonstrations against the extension of Deby’s transitional rule broke out last October in the capital N’Djamena and several other towns.

    Deby was proclaimed head of state by the army in April 2021 after the death of his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed during anti-rebel operations after ruling for 30 years.

    “Persons tried and sentenced for acts of unauthorised assembly, intentional assault and battery, arson, (and) destruction of property… following the events of October 20… benefit from a presidential pardon,” read the decree, signed by Deby.

    More than 600 young men, including at least 80 minors, were arrested in N’Djamena on October 20 and in the following days, and then sent to a prison in the desert town of Koro Toro more than 600 kilometres, 370 miles, away.

    After months of detention, they were tried without legal representation.

    More than half were sentenced to prison terms, while the others were given suspended sentences or released.

    Local and international rights groups claimed that dozens or even hundreds of people were tortured or executed on the way to Koro Toro, a claim denied by the authorities.

    Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, public prosecutor at the N’Djamena Court of Appeal, told AFP that the 110 people pardoned had been tried and sentenced to between 18 months and five years in prison in Koro Toro, N’Djamena and Moundou, the country’s second-largest city.

    A total of 436 people convicted of taking part in last October’s protests have now been pardoned by Chadian authorities in less than four months.

    At the end of March, 259 demonstrators sentenced to prison terms were pardoned under a similar decree, followed by a second wave of 67 people in May.

  • Mali’s military government presents new constitution project

    Mali’s military government presents new constitution project

    Mali coup leader, Col. Assimi Goita, has presented a new constitution project for the country.

    This decision comes just days after the junta announced on June 6 it would stay in power for two additional years, before organizing democratic elections in March 2024.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the leader of Mali’s military transitional government created a body in charge of writing a new Constitution.

    Colonel Goïta was in charge of choosing the committee members and they were given two months to present to him a draft version of the text.

    The team included a president, two rapporteurs and experts. It will be able to consult, all political parties and civil society including religious organizations and traditional authorities.

    This presidential decree has already been published in the Official journal.

    The West African country is facing sanctions from its regional partners of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as it did not meet the deadline for elections to be held by the end of February this year.

    According to ECOWAS, it regrets the decision of Mali’s head of state (Colonel Assimi Goïta), to extend the duration of the transition by 24 months from March 26, 2022.

    In a statement, the regional bloc expressed disappointment that the decision was taken when negotiations are still taking place to reach a consensus.

    ECOWAS however said its mediator would continue discussions with the Malian authorities, with a view to reaching a mutually acceptable timetable for the transition

    Mali’s ruling junta, which first came to power in an August 2020 coup, issued a decree on Monday fixing the 24-month timetable, to be counted from March 2022.

    The 15-member bloc has been pushing for a shorter extension of at most 16 months. In January, ECOWAS imposed sanctions after Mali’s junta said it would not organize democratic elections the following month as initially planned.

    Heads of state from ECOWAS member countries are expected to hold another summit in Mali before July 3.

  • Burkina Faso to swear in 34-year-old junta head as president

    Burkina Faso to swear in 34-year-old junta head as president

    Captain Ibrahim Traore, the young army captain who led the latest coup in Burkina Faso, will be inaugurated as interim president on Friday, the constitutional council announced Wednesday.

    Captain Traore, 34, led disgruntled junior officers last month in the second coup in eight months to hit the jihadist-torn west African country.

    Junta members had already announced that he would take over the role of transitional president, but Friday will see the official investiture.

    The constitutional council said on Wednesday that it “officially notes the vacancy of the presidency,” adding that Traore had been designated as “president of the transition, head of state, supreme chief of the national armed forces” by a national meeting of the country’s forces.

    Last month Traore toppled Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

    In its statement on Wednesday, the council said it took note of Damiba’s “resignation”.

    Damiba himself had seized power only in January, forcing out Burkina’s last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

    The motive for the latest coup — as in January — was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly two million people from their homes.