The two West African countries, Nigeria and Niger, recently signed a security agreement in response to the common threat they face. This is despite the regional problems that arose from the July 26, 2023 coup in Niger. Since the coup, sanctions, and fallout have marred relations between these neighboring countries.
Here is an analysis and presentation on the previous phases that led to the signing of such a mutual defense and security agreement between Niger and Nigeria.
ECOWAS “Diplomyopic – Myopic Diplomacy”
TRI CONSULTING KYOTO TRI CK USA 0 Said El Mansour Cherkaoui ECOWAS wanted to run faster than the train of change crossing the region and they started singing faster than the music, now they can sell their musical instruments “Diplomyopique – Myopic Diplomacy” to the West before they oxidize and rust and relearn how to sing like a Griot and play the Kora, to … Continue reading ECOWAS “Diplomyopic – Myopic Diplomacy”
French version
July 28, 2023
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political developments in Niger
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🌍 Arrival of Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, an economist by training, was Minister of Economy and Finance between 2002 and 2010
🌍 Coup d’état in Niger: diplomacy “is the best way” to resolve the crisis, says ECOWAS
🌍 Coup d’état in Niger: ECOWAS favors diplomacy to get out of the crisis, but “no option” is ruled out
Africa in shock from nationalist coups
In Africa, money is not a chic that collapses Politics as a quarrel and a parody of democratic elections
Every man for himself and God for all
Africa’s problem is that it is far from God and too close to Europe and the West – Far from God and close to the colonial past
Protection of France in Niger: uranium exploitation by France
Everyone has their tour of the institutional pettiness of the ruling elites from the colonial legacy and the continued economic subjugation of the sub-capitalist order of Africa.
African territories disrupted by the borders of the colonial era and spaces broken by the legacy of the political structures of conflicts
ONE OF THE REASONS FOR THE ANGER OF THE NEW AFRICAN MILITARY IS THE URANIUM OF NIGER
The Voice of the Authentic West
URANIUM OF NIGER
The Voice of the Authentic West
TRI CONSULTING KYOTO TRI CK USA 🌍AFRICA 🌍 AFRIQUE 🌍 Said El Mansour Cherkaoui France Admits Niger Bid to up uranium levy legitimate Issued on: 06/02/2014 – 10:16 France has admitted that Niger’s demand for more revenue from uranium mining on its soil is legitimate. French-owned energy giant Areva is renegotiating the amount of royalties it should pay Niger for its mining … Continue reading – Orano Niger No Uranium
Economic troubles in the west, social unrest in the center, political instability in the east and civil wars in the southeast
Paradox of History, Niamey is the place of expression of the establishment of a commercial integration of Africa and today it is the heart of the military overthrow and the coup d’état against an elected President.
The largest trading platform and the chasm of instability
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was established by an agreement adopted on 21 March 2018 and entered into force on 30 May 2019. As of that date, 24 countries had deposited their instruments of ratification. Subsequently, 54 countries have signed the agreement, of which 43 (80%) have deposited their instruments of ratification by May 2022.
In terms of the operational phase, the AfCFTA was launched on 7 July 2019 at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union on the AfCFTA held in Niamey, Niger.
To name a few of the structural gaps and institutional inadequacies that dominate the dashboard of central power legitimacy in Africa:
Leaders are no longer seen as liberators and freedom fighters as they were during the postcolonial period, such as the activists some of whom escaped execution and became leaders of Africa after being opponents and guerrillas against colonial power. Nor are current opponents identified as defenders of the interests of a marginalized ethnic group or region struggling against a central power parachuted in with the direct intervention of the former colonial armies.
Since independence and the turn of the 21st century, Africa has gradually transformed into a scene of violent conflicts where actors, protagonists, and warlords have played at different levels of the international and regional scene the support of one against the other to enrage their opposition and their regional explosion of guerrilla violence based on ethnic grievances. These ideological guerrillas have transformed into regional and national conflicts motivated by the monopoly and appropriation of political power or financial gain.
Regional armed groups have been financed and trained by the former colonial powers and their mercenaries to dominate and control the trade of precious mineral resources, thereby asserting their ideology or settling their grievances.
One of the consequences of these geostrategic manipulations is that these interferences have magically become the reasons and justifications for the presence of foreign troops in African countries, thus allowing the continuation of colonialism and the institutionalization of a new form of Military Protectorate under the cover of the new globalized security policy.
Deep wounds have resulted and continue to open with the repetition of a cascade of coups d’état, interference by foreign powers, arms races, and races against time to monopolize and acquire the riches of the African subsoil.
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Modernization and sophistication of the military intelligence apparatus in Africa, a new challenge for civilian governments
Since independence, no stable governance has become the main component of African regimes, and no serious and measurable effort has been able to be truly and authentically implemented and have large-scale results in terms of economic development, social justice, and public health. These failures have renewed the scourges and impacts of causes and reasons in the socio-economic and political domains that have exacerbated the problems of poverty and inequality in African regions where armed violence and coups are seen as an escape route.
The critical question for Africa therefore remains:
Can we build African integration and unity at the continental level when we are experiencing regional insecurity, instability, and all the follies and deformations of a ravaged, vulnerable state subjected to all forms of institutional deprivation?
Share with us all, your thoughts and perceptions on these critical issues that determine Africa’s progress today and shape the destiny of the current African generation.
TRI CK USA CALIFORNIA – January 24 to 27, 2024 – Oakland, San Francisco Bay Area.
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By Said El Mansour Cherkaoui Ph.D. – ★ Senior Policy and Business Adviser ★ Consultant ★ News Executive Editor ★ Public Speaker ★
Published weekly 1,132 subscribers – 94 articles – September 3, 2024
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Africa Destiny: Power and Energy Challenges in Ghana
Said El Mansour Cherkaoui September 30, 2023
More details can be read in this publication on Ghana’s gradual drive toward resolution and solutions for the energy crisis. While Ghana aspires to modernize and expand economic opportunity, it is constrained by a struggling power
Troubles in West, Central, and East Africa
Africa has not yet found the path to conciliation through dialogue on solutions and resolution alternatives, and the de-escalation of the reasons for political-military and bureaucratic-technocratic rivalries and competitions as well as the race to seize power and use it to purge the country of opponents, opponents and activists who do not share its will, political objectives, and institutional objectives.
The coup d’état in Africa has been used as a reward and valorization of personal gains in the ranks of the military. The hoarding of wealth under the pretext of the decadence of political rules and the degradation of institutional equity is presented as the cause of social violence, non-compliance with the law, the rise of organized crime and delinquency, the absence of social programs for the development of the workforce and the creation of jobs for the troubling waves of young generations, the spread of corruption accompanied by favoritism, injustice, corruption, despotism, nepotism and clientelism among the new rising hybrid elites resulting from a social crossbreeding of technocrats and “militarists” formed by foreign schools of thought and martial eco-management strategies. The incumbent political parties in search of popular legitimacy have remained attached to the past neocolonial relationships that shaped the leadership and ruling classes in Africa where power was concentrated in a few hands that received the blessing of the European colonial powers that facilitated the transfer of central state power to their benefit under the pretext of facade independence.
Many treaties and agreements with foreign countries and entities were signed to consolidate the “grip” of these hereditary neocolonial politicians, especially in the French-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa. These elites were also handpicked because of their allegiance to the former colonial power by their adherence to the militaristic approach favored in the process of power transfer. This militaristic strategy reinforced the rivalries between the different ethnic tribes and existing religious practices.
These social and cultural divisions were premeditated as part of the divisive strategy favored by the European leaders. African society was then shaped according to the decision of the metropolis and its new need for regional domination based on the selection of individuals who had lived and been educated by the former colonial power. These new “metropolitan” castes became the civil servants, translators, and lower administrative links forming and serving the function of gears between the centralized colonial power and the regional tribal chiefs.
- What specific examples are there of African military leaders who acquired strategic knowledge?
- How has the professionalization of the military impacted relations between military and civilian governments?
- Are there potential solutions to the problem of military leaders having more knowledge and sophistication than elected officials?
- What are the potential consequences if military leaders have more knowledge and sophistication than elected officials?
These are the questions that are being addressed as reasons for forcibly changing governments.
As we all know, since the time of independence, Africa has always received aid, advice, guidance, investment, and promotion in all areas, and even its military has been fortunate to acquire sophisticated strategic knowledge, not only on military management but also on technology, know-how and new forms of governance, all based on the knowledge, identification, and prevention of insecurity and social unrest.
African military leaders have visited Western war schools, research and development centers, think tanks on security and guerrilla warfare, and even on the use of high technology to control masses and populations, and even other military units that could be sources of instability. This new mix of African military through technocratic and managerial formations is so advanced that the promoters of such formations could become the disruptors of intelligence flows and intelligence on state management. We have witnessed, in the case of Sudan and other armies in Latin America, Asia, and the rest of Africa, this type of extreme professionalization of the military that created a schism in their ranks as well as a separation from the central state: a new permanent militaristic state developed within the state that until then was composed only of presidents, parliamentarians and elected administrators – elected heads of regional and local councils.
The state presidents as career politicians and the rest of the politicians practicing the art of political controversy did not have the level of knowledge acquired by military officers. As a result, these “politicians” could not compete with the level of sophistication of practical knowledge and political awareness that the army leaders acquired and developed through their direct participation in training programs and by joining the coalition of military personnel of different nationalities conducting exercises and security operations in Africa.
The issue of security, the presence of foreign troops, and the development of jihadists
The three-border zone: the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara
In the Liptako-Gourma zone, known as the three borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, it is also from these two neighboring countries that jihadists launch attacks inside Niger before retreating.
On its western flank, Niger is mainly confronted with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) group, which has gained the upper hand over its rival affiliated with Al-Qaeda, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), which is more established in Mali.
In March 2023, the Nigerien army announced that it had killed 79 jihadists that it had chased into Malian territory. In this regard, the Nigerien authorities extended by three months at the end of April 2023 the state of emergency declared in the border regions of Tillabéri and Tahoua in the west, established in 2017, as well as that of Diffa in the southeast, bordering Nigeria and Chad.
In the southeast, on the border with Nigeria and Chad: Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa
Unlike Liptako-Gourma, the southeastern flank constitutes another major source of insecurity. Here too, the threat is cross-border and comes from Nigeria and Lake Chad, where the jihadists of Boko Haram and its dissident branch, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), are active.
In this area, the Nigerien army can penetrate the neighboring territory of Nigeria to track down the jihadists who retreat there, for example from Boko Haram. As a sign of the relations between the various armed extremist groups, in 2022, the EIGS joined the Islamic State in West Africa.
Read: Niger: around thirty “terrorists” who fled Nigeria killed by the army
The distress of populations forced to move. Attacks by extremist armed groups in the west, south, and east of Niger, against localities or army positions, are causing flows of civilian populations to flee the violence.
According to the UN, in Niger, 698,000 people are forced to move in June 2023: among them, 358.000 displaced persons, 251,000 refugees, and 50,000 asylum seekers. Most of the refugees fled the conflicts in Mali and Burkina Faso, but also in northeastern Nigeria.
Niger: the disarray of Malian refugees
Other refugees are also flocking to the northern border with Algeria, which is expelling them across the desert. Since the beginning of 2023, more than 9,000 migrants turned back at the border by Algeria have found themselves stranded in Assamaka, in the desert region of Agadez, report UN organizations.
Military aid and foreign bases in Niger
After the coups d’état in Mali and Burkina Faso, which resulted in the withdrawal of French forces and even a rapprochement with Russia, Niger has become the West’s best ally in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel.
Recently, the European Union granted €5 million in aid to supply weapons to the Nigerien forces.
The United States and France are among the key partners. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a first visit to Niger during an African tour in mid-March 2023.
The United States built Air Base 201 in Agadez, in the north of the country. It is used in particular for the take-off of American drones and surveillance and intelligence missions.
France was forced to redeploy its presence in the Sahel to Niger. Some 1,500 French soldiers are present there. Air Base 101 located near Niamey airport is the hub. This is where French drones and fighters take off.
Niger: Eighth coup d’état since independence in 1960
In #Niger, gathered under the name of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP), a group of soldiers announced on national television on Wednesday evening the end of the era of President Mohamed Bazoum, democratically elected in 2021.
“Soldiers claimed, late in the evening of Wednesday, July 26, to have overthrown the regime of Nigerien President #MohamedBazoum, in a statement read by one of them on national television in #Niamey, on behalf of a National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP). An act motivated in particular by “the continuing deterioration of the security situation” in Niger, according to Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane Sandjodi.”
“All institutions of the 7th Republic are suspended. The Secretary General of the Ministries will be responsible for managing current affairs. The defense and security forces are managing the situation. All external partners are requested not to interfere”
“Land and air borders are closed until the situation stabilizes. A curfew is in effect from today, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. throughout the territory until further notice”
“Among the officers who participated in the declaration reading, we can cite among others the head of the Nigerien special forces, General Barmou Batouré, General Toumba, chief of staff of the army, and the high commander of the national guard.”
National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland
This group of soldiers, grouped within a National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (#CNSP) claimed to have dismissed President Mohamed Bazoum. The coalition of soldiers forming this National Council imposed a curfew and closed the borders. The statement was made in the presence of senior army officers, including Generals Mohamed Toumba and Moussa Salaou and Colonels Adamou Ibro (presidential guard) and Ahmad Sidian (national guard). This Thursday morning 27/7/2023, the Chief of Staff rallied to the cause of the putschists to “preserve the physical integrity of President Bazoum” and cohesion within the army.
The #CNSP called on the “French partner” to respect the provisions of press release number 3, relating to the closure of air and land borders, after noting the landing of a military plane at Niamey airport on Thursday at 6 a.m.
After Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger After Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger becomes the third Sahel country to experience a coup d’état since 2020; another “Barkhane” country will therefore be led by the military.
Jean Luc Mélenchon: “A new military coup after Mali and Burkina; each time, the French presence is denounced”
This coup in Niger is one example among many of the decline in security and the rule of law in Africa. Indeed, nearly 70% of the African population lives in a country where the security environment and the rule of law are worse in 2021 than in 2012, mainly due to the deterioration of the security situation according to the Mo Ibrahim index.
Compared to ten years ago, the levels of violence against civilians and armed conflict are much higher.
The United States and African military elites: Military Supremacy Over Civilian Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa
Since 2012, American taxpayers have spent more than $500 million in Niger, making it one of the largest security assistance programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Across the continent, the State Department recorded only nine terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003, compared with 2,737 last year in Burkina Faso, Mali, and western Niger, according to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense think tank.
U.S. troops train, advise, and assist their Nigerien counterparts. They have fought and even died in the country. Over the past decade, the number of U.S. troops deployed to Niger has grown from 100 to 1,016. Niger has also seen a proliferation of U.S. outposts.
Barmou and Braga met in June 2023 to “discuss counterterrorism policy and tactics across the region,” according to a military press release. The Pentagon says the U.S. partnership with the Nigerien military, particularly its commandos, is critical to countering militants.
Department of Defense agencies partner with the Nigerien military and special operators to combat violent extremism across Northwest Africa, but experts say the focus on counterterrorism is part of the problem.
“The primary issues fueling conflict in Niger and the Sahel are not military. They stem from people’s frustration with poverty, the legacy of colonialism, elite corruption, and political and ethnic tensions and injustices.” Yet rather than addressing these problems, the U.S. government has prioritized sending weapons, funding, and training the region’s militaries to fight its wars on terrorism,” said Stephanie Savell, co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University and an expert on U.S. military efforts in West Africa. “One of the hugely negative consequences has been the strengthening of the region’s security forces at the expense of other government institutions, and that’s certainly a factor in the list of coups we’ve seen in Niger, Burkina Faso, and elsewhere in recent years.” » Nick Turse – July 27, 2023, 6:27 p.m.
Africa of the people and Africa of the elites torpedoed from outside
African presidents of ECOWAS want to be the policemen of West Africa to save their positions
ECOWAS leaders meet to discuss the coup in Niger
Nigerian military leaders have warned against any armed intervention in the country as West African leaders are due to meet on Sunday 30/07/2023 in the Nigerian capital for an emergency summit to decide on further actions to pressure the military to restore constitutional order.
Heads of state from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union could suspend Niger from their institutions, isolate the country from the regional central bank and financial market, and close its borders.
Chad, Niger’s eastern neighbor and not a member of either regional organization, has been invited to the ECOWAS summit, a statement from the Chadian presidency said Saturday (July 29, 2023).
Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries, receiving nearly $2 billion a year in official development assistance, according to the World Bank. It is also a security partner of former colonial powers France and the United States, which use it as a base to fight an Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa.
West African leaders could also consider for the first time a military intervention to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted when General Abdourahamane Tiani was proclaimed the new head of state on Friday 28/07/2023.
Ahead of Sunday’s summit, Niger’s military leaders warned Saturday night, in a statement read on Niger national television, 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 not members of ECOWAS and some Western countries,” said the junta’s spokesman, Colonel Amadou Abdramane.
The Nigerian army announced Thursday that Niger and Nigeria had finalized a security agreement, following a meeting between the defense chiefs of the two countries on Wednesday in Niamey, the capital of Niger.
A statement from a Nigerian military official said: “Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to resume and strengthen collaboration, intending to ensure regional stability and security.”
Relations between the two countries have been strained for nearly a year, as the regions bordering the two countries have cultural ties.
Niger has in the past accused ECOWAS of failing to help it combat Islamist violence. However, it appears that the two countries have concluded that a partnership is necessary to combat the insecurity they face.
The statement issued by the Nigerian military official noted that the agreement reached this week “reaffirmed its willingness to resume active participation in security cooperation within the framework of the Multinational Joint Task Force.”
The rift between Niger and Nigeria began after the coup in Niger in July 2023
Niger immediately began facing sanctions from the West and its then regional bloc, ECOWAS, including a threat of invasion to restore democracy.
As a result, Niger would join Burkina Faso and Mali in September of that year to form a regional alliance known as the Alliance of Sahel States (ESA), which was intended to operate outside ECOWAS jurisdiction.
In February 2024, ECOWAS lifted the sanctions it had imposed on Niger, including trade, economic, and other sanctions. This would do little to encourage Niger to return to ECOWAS.
During the same period, Niger reiterated its ban on flights from Nigeria, insisting that flights from Nigeria would not be allowed to land in Niger.
Nigeria had previously announced the reinstatement of the ban on flights to and from Niger through a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). This indicated that the measure was being implemented in line with the ECOWAS resolution.
However, in May, Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine invited all ECOWAS countries to join the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which appeared to be on the rise.
July 28, 2023, Said El Mansour Cherkaoui – Version Française: Destin Africa in, Niger: Tensions Extraverties et Richesses Minières Africa Military Coup Niger Niger – Niamey Africa Knocked Out by Coups, Overthrown Regimes, Disrupted Territories, Disputed Borders, Fragmented Spaces. My Africa, Fric is not Chic that erodes Politics like Chicanery and Mocker of Democratic Elections The Problem … Continue reading“
Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali Excluded from the AGOA
Editor: Said El Mansour Cherkaoui Ethiopia, Guinea and Mali excluded the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Offered by the United States of America AGOA is trade preferences program that allows sub-Saharan African countries to export to the United States duty-free Ambassador Katherine Tai, U.S. representative for foreign trade, announced on Saturday [1/1/2022]: “The United States…Continue Reading →
Military Coup d’État en Guinée
Editor Said El Mansour Cherkaoui La Guinée est le premier pays d’Afrique subsaharienne à être devenu indépendant vis-à-vis de la France en 1958. Depuis, l’histoire de la jeune République est jalonnée par des pouvoirs autocratiques, des manifestations et des répressions brutales restées impunies. Alpha Condé, 82 ans, est à la tête de la Guinée depuis 2010. L’ancien…Continue Reading →
Priorités de Burkina Faso: Tensions Régionales et Report de la Coopération Chinoise
Le Capitaine Ibrahim Traoré, Président du Burkina Faso, a pris la décision de ne pas se rendre à la République Populaire de Chine, annulant ainsi sa participation au Forum sur la coopération sino-africaine (FOCAC) prévu du 4 au 6 septembre à Pékin.
Cette visite aurait marqué sa deuxième sortie officielle hors du continent africain, la première ayant été sa participation au sommet Russie-Afrique en juillet 2023.
Cette annulation intervient à la suite d’une attaque terroriste meurtrière survenue le 24 août dans le village de Barsalogho, situé dans le Centre-nord du pays.
“Au regard de la situation nationale avec l’attaque de Barsalogho, la visite du président du Faso en Chine est annulée,” a déclaré une source proche de la Présidence du Faso, soulignant l’urgence de la situation nationale.
Said El Mansour Cherkaoui Ph.D. – Said Cherkaoui Ph.D. – 8 30 24
#Afrique #Africa #Chine_Afrique #AESinfo #Africandiasporaexecutive #BurkinaFaso #Saidelmansourcherkaoui #Trickusa #Triconsultingkyoto
