NIAMEY, Niger: Nigeria’s president, who is also head of the West African bloc ECOWAS, has not ruled out military intervention in Niger but believes diplomacy is the “best way forward” to resolve the crisis, his spokesman said Tuesday.
President Bola Tinubu weighed in for the first time since the soldiers behind the coup in Niger defied the bloc’s Sunday deadline to reinstate elected president Mohamed Bazoum or face the possible use of force.
Meanwhile efforts by ECOWAS and the United States to parlay with Niger’s new rulers have made no headway ahead of a crisis summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday.
“No options have been taken off of the table,” Tinubu’s spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said, while adding that Tinubu and other West African leaders favor diplomacy.
The United States said it still held out hope for reversing the coup but was “realistic” a day after a top US envoy made no visible progress in an unannounced visit.
“We do have hope that the situation will be reversed but at the same time, we are making clear, including in direct conversations with junta leaders themselves, what the consequences are for failing to return to constitutional order,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Earlier, the soldiers who seized power in Niamey on July 26 blocked a mission by ECOWAS ahead of the summit.
In a letter, the coup leaders said that public “anger” triggered by ECOWAS sanctions meant the delegation’s safety could be at risk.
ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger after the rebel soldiers toppled Bazoum.
The bloc also gave Niger a seven-day ultimatum to reinstate Bazoum or face potential use of force, but the coup leaders defied the warning.
A source close to ECOWAS said Monday that military intervention was not being immediately envisaged and that the path to dialogue still appeared open.
The bloc sought to send a delegation to Niamey on Tuesday ahead of the crisis summit due to be held in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Thursday.
But the coup leaders’ letter, dated Monday, said: “The postponement of the announced mission to Niamey is necessary, as is the reworking of certain aspects of the (delegation’s) schedule.”
The schedule “includes meetings with certain personalities which cannot take place for obvious reasons of security given the atmosphere of the threat of aggression against Niger,” it said.
ECOWAS is struggling with a cascade of coups that since 2020 have now hit four of its 15 members.
In Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger, all of the takeovers have been fueled by jihadist insurgencies that have claimed many thousands of lives, forced at least two million from their homes and dealt crippling blows to some of the world’s poorest economies.
On Monday, Victoria Nuland, a veteran US envoy, met with Niger’s military rulers for more than two hours but came away empty-handed.
She described her talks as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult.”
She said she offered the coup leaders “a number of options” to end the crisis and restore relations with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid.
“I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer,” she told reporters before her departure.
Niger’s new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani, did not attend the meeting, and Nuland was unable to see Bazoum, who has been detained since July 26.
The military leaders in Mali and Burkina Faso have expressed solidarity with Niger, saying that any military intervention would be seen as a “declaration of war” against them.
Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military incursion, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be “a direct threat” to his country.
Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger’s first-ever peaceful transition of power.
He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence, and survived two attempted putsches before he himself was ousted.
His support was a key factor in France’s decision last year to refocus its Sahel anti-jihadist mission on Niger after withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso.
France has 1,500 troops in Niger and the United States has 1,000 personnel, most of whom are deployed at two major air bases.
Mali and Burkina Faso sent letters Tuesday to the United Nations and the African Union, calling on them to prevent “military intervention against Niger” where the security and humanitarian consequences of such action “would be unpredictable.”
Diplomacy ‘best way forward’ in Niger, force still on table: Nigeria
https://arab.news/r82s7
Diplomacy ‘best way forward’ in Niger, force still on table: Nigeria
- President Bola Tinubu weighed in for the first time since the soldiers behind the coup in Niger defied the bloc’s Sunday deadline to reinstate elected president Mohamed Bazoum
Zelensky-Trump meeting planned Wednesday: Ukraine presidency
KYIV: Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump are planning to meet Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, a senior source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.
“The teams are finalizing the details,” the source told AFP, adding that the talks were scheduled for the “early afternoon” in the Netherlands and would focus on sanctions against Russia and arms procurement for Kyiv.
Myanmar woman arrested for Suu Kyi ‘happy birthday’ post: local media
- The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported on Monday that Hinn Yin Phyu was an MRTV employee who had been arrested after posting a “happy birthday” message for Suu Kyi, citing sources close to the detained woman
YANGON: A Myanmar woman arrested by the junta for “spreading propaganda” is being detained over a Facebook post celebrating the 80th birthday of jailed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, local media said.
Suu Kyi was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming de facto leader as it opened up from military rule, but she has been incarcerated since February 2021 when the generals snatched back power in a coup.
She is serving a 27-year sentence on charges rights groups dismiss as fabricated and on Thursday marked her birthday behind bars while her son urged followers to publish messages declaring their support.
Myanmar’s junta said in a statement over the weekend it had arrested two Facebook users for “inciting and spreading propaganda on social media with the intention to destroy state stability.”
One of those detained — Hinn Yin Phyu — was arrested at accommodation for employees of state media station MRTV in the capital Naypyidaw on Saturday, the statement said, without providing details of her posts.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported on Monday that Hinn Yin Phyu was an MRTV employee who had been arrested after posting a “happy birthday” message for Suu Kyi, citing sources close to the detained woman.
“May you live long and be free from illness, may you be free from the suffering caused by separation from your loved ones throughout your life, and may you only meet good people,” said the now-deleted post, according to DVB.
Despite being blocked in a digital crackdown accompanying the coup, Facebook remains Myanmar’s most popular social media platform.
State notices announcing arrests over social media use are commonplace but usually provide scant detail of alleged transgressions.
A spokesman for Myanmar’s junta could not be reached for comment on the arrest.
Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize as she refused to enter exile to escape her first period of incarceration by Myanmar’s military.
As she guided the country through its democratic interlude her reputation was tarnished on the international stage after she defended the military for their crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority.
When the generals toppled her government it sparked a protest movement that security forces swiftly crushed in the streets.
Since then the country has descended into civil war as pro-democracy activists formed guerrilla units to fight back, alongside ethnic armed organizations that have been battling the military in Myanmar’s fringes for decades.
China plans to show off new equipment at parade marking 80th anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender
BEIJING: China plans to hold a military parade Sept. 3 marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender and featuring the People’s Liberation Army’s newest weaponry.
President and head of the military Xi Jinping will deliver a speech on the occasion, which will feature “new-type combat capabilities,” including hypersonic weapons and a range of electronic gear, said Wu Zeke, identified as a senor officer of the PLA, the ruling Communist Party’s military wing.
The force is the world’s largest standing military with more than 2 million members and an increasingly sophisticated arsenal of missiles, aircraft carriers and fighter aircraft.
Military parades are a favorite of Xi’s, held primarily to mark the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, Japan’s surrender and the anniversary of the PLA’s founding. Relentlessly drilled marching units, armored columns and aerial units all feature on such occasions.
Wu said inclusion of the latest generation weaponry demonstrates the PLA’s “strong ability to adapt to technological trends and evolving warfare, and to prevail in future wars, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Japan launched an invasion of China in 1937, seizing much of eastern China. Most of the fighting against Japan was carried out by the Nationalists, who later withdrew to the island of Taiwan after being driven out of the mainland by the Communists.
Much of China’s massive military upgrading has been aimed at conquering Taiwan, which China still considers part of its territory, as well as replacing the United States as the main military power in the Asia-Pacific.
China’s Xi urges Singapore leader to jointly resist ‘hegemony’
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Singapore’s prime minister to join the fight against “hegemony” and protectionism in trade as they met in Beijing on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s first official visit to China lasts until Thursday.
He met Xi on Tuesday morning at Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People, with the Chinese leader urging their two countries to work to “stand on the right side of history and on the side of fairness and justice,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.
He told Wong that “the world cannot return to hegemony or be dragged back to the law of the jungle,” a veiled swipe at the United States, after President Donald Trump launched a barrage of tariffs this year on countries including China and Singapore.
Wong, in turn, told Xi he believed the Singapore-China relationship was “more important than before” in a time of “global turbulence and uncertainty.”
“We can work together to establish closer ties and... continue to strengthen multilateralism and the rules-based global order for the benefit of all countries,” Wong said.
Wong, who succeeded Lee Hsien Loong, the son of founding premier Lee Kuan Yew, in 2024, has warned the trade-dependent city-state could be hit hard by Trump’s tariffs.
Although Trump imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on Singapore, the country is vulnerable to a global economic slowdown caused by the much higher levies on dozens of other countries because of its heavy reliance on international trade.
Following his meetings in Beijing, Wong will head to the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for a meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Uganda’s long-serving President Museveni to seek reelection, official says
KAMPALA: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni will seek reelection for another term in polls due early next year to extend his nearly four-decade rule, according to a senior official from the ruling party.
Although he was widely expected to run for office again, it is the first confirmation from his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Uganda will hold its general election in January, in which voters will also elect lawmakers.
Museveni, 80, has been in power since 1986 and is Africa’s fourth longest-ruling leader. The ruling party has changed the constitution twice in the past to allow him to extend his rule.
In a video posted late on Monday by state broadcaster UBC on social media platform X, the chairperson of the ruling party’s electoral body Tanga Odoi said Museveni would pick up forms on June 28 to represent the party in the polls.
“The president ... will pick (up) expression-of-interest forms for two positions, one for chairperson of the party and the other to contest if he is given chance for presidential flag bearer,” Odoi said.
NRM and other political parties are at present vetting and clearing their candidate for the polls.
Museveni’s closest opponent will be pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine who came second in the last polls in 2021 and has already confirmed his intention to run in 2026.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, rejected the 2021 results, saying his victory had been stolen through ballot stuffing, intimidation by security forces and other irregularities.
Rights activists and critics have long accused Museveni of using patronage and security forces to maintain his grip on power but he has denied the accusations and says his long rule is due to popular support.
