ATACORA, Benin: The insurgents pressured Zackari to join their movement, and he turned them down.
Now he’s frightened of their revenge. He has been on the run from the jihadi fighters for more than a year. They regularly call the 33-year-old, warning: “We haven’t forgotten about you.”
Groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group have been spreading for years from the vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert — the Sahel — into wealthier West African coastal states like Benin. Militants once were believed to want to use coastal nations like Benin, Togo and Ghana as bases for attacks on Sahel governments. Now militancy is taking root.
Benin has been the hardest hit. This year it had more than ten times the number of violent incidents involving jihadis than Togo did, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Attacks by jihadis against civilians in Benin nearly tripled from last year, from more than 30 to approximately 80. The overall number of incidents involving jihadi groups rose by more than 70 percent.
“There’s full expansion, regular preaching. They’re establishing cells, they have a lot of presence,” said Kars de Bruijne, senior research fellow and head of the Sahel program at the Clingendael Institute.
The jihadis’ activity in Benin is concentrated in the north of the country, where they try to recruit people or get them to be informants, creating division within local populations. Residents of one small town tucked behind lush hills and windy unpaved roads told The Associated Press last month that civilians can no longer move freely.
People in Materi live in constant fear because of the jihadi threat. The fighters are planting explosives and carrying out abductions in the area, instilling fear among the population while eroding state legitimacy. The government has imposed a curfew and a ban on gatherings.
“I can’t sleep at night, we’re not free to travel, to move,” Materi resident Florence Bati said. “People are too afraid.”
Kidnappings by jihadis in Benin surged from zero in 2021 to 33 this year, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, which analyzed the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project data and other sources. Explosions have also increased, residents say.
Several months ago, a woman was killed by an explosive while fetching wood, said locals. Women have stopped going into the forest, instead finding kindling closer to home, they said. In October, one aid group distributed portable ovens, which require less wood.
People are being displaced from their homes as attacks increase, sparking concerns of a humanitarian crisis.
In August, more than 12,000 people were displaced from their homes in the Atacora and neighboring Alibori departments, up from about 5,000 in March, according to the United Nations. Violence is also pushing people from their farms. The UN estimates that tens of thousands of people could face crisis levels of food insecurity.
The government is trying to stem the problem by reinforcing the military along the borders and recruiting thousands of soldiers. Locals in the north say they’ve seen a surge of soldiers but say the army is underequipped and sometimes responds hours late when called about an attack.
The government denies that.
The military is well-equipped, able to respond to the incursions that occur and is conducting advanced training while trying to acquire more ground and airborne resources, said Col. Faizou Gomina, commander of the Mirador operation, which is dedicated to fighting the jihadis.
Unlike neighboring Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, which are being overrun by violence, and which ousted French troops after undergoing military coups and seeing surging anti-French sentiment, Benin is still open to help from its former colonial power, which left in 1960. The French don’t have a permanent base in the country, but at the behest of Benin, its troops deployed in the region can participate in training programs with Beninese soldiers, French military spokesman Col. Pierre Gaudilliere said.
While Benin’s government is shoring up its borders, it’s also trying to conceal the scale of the crisis to maintain its image, say residents in the north. It’s cracked down on freedom of speech and arrested journalists who report on insecurity.
Local officials insist the problem doesn’t extend beyond the border with Burkina Faso.
“There is no terrorist, no movement, no organization, no group that has settled or tried to settle in our department,” said Robert Wimbo Kassa, the mayor of Materi.
An agricultural nation of 13 million people, Benin has invested billions of dollars in propping up culture and tourism and is building a $1.5 billion industrial zone 27 miles (45 kilometers) outside of the city of Cotonou aimed at creating 300,000 jobs by 2030.
The information gap has left people in other parts of the country unaware of the security issues in the north. People in Cotonou said that they didn’t know about the jihadi problem, believed it was fake news, or that it was a problem limited to neighboring countries.
Rights groups say the government’s attempts to control the information space, while arbitrarily arresting people believed to be working with the jihadis, is pushing people into the militants’ hands.
“The jihadists live with the populations, the citizens know them, but they refuse to denounce them because the government doesn’t encourage people to do so,” said Bertin Assogba, coordinator for Durable and Develop Reference, a local aid group focused on defending human rights.
The international community is trying to implement lessons from the Sahel by sensitizing people into not joining the jihadis, and organizing community dialogues with officials to foster trust. Diplomats and aid groups also say there’s been a rush of investment.
Last year, the World Bank invested $450 million in a five-year project aimed at reaching some 4,600 border communities in northern Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Togo. It will be focused on preventing the spread of conflict by strengthening local institutions and economic opportunities. But residents say development projects take too much time to materialize.
In the meantime, militants are winning in the realm of public perception.
Jihadis enter impoverished villages promising to build roads and hospitals if they come to power, residents say.
“(The government) should hurry and bring infrastructure. It’s important because jihadists are around and their message is very clear: They want to change things,” said Raoufou Bandele, the coordinator for Action for Mutual Aid and Development, a local group. “Some families give their sons the blessing to go with the jihadists because of frustration with the government.”
Groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh take root on the coast of West Africa
https://arab.news/6dqyn
Groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh take root on the coast of West Africa
- Attacks by jihadis against civilians in Benin nearly tripled from last year, from more than 30 to approximately 80. The overall number of incidents involving jihadi groups rose by more than 70 percent
Russia launches drone attack on Ukraine port providing access to Black Sea, officials say
- The US reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks over the Black Sea
- The mayor of Mykolaiv said there were emergency power outages early on Wednesday in the city
Russia launched an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv, which provides the country with access to the Black Sea, and struck Kryvyi Rih in what Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday was the war’s biggest drone attack on the city.
The United States reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks over the Black Sea and against each other’s energy targets, but it was not clear when and how the deals would come into force.
The mayor of Mykolaiv said there were emergency power outages early on Wednesday in the city, following a report by the region’s governor that seven drones were destroyed overnight over the region.
It was not immediately clear whether the power cuts were precautionary or a result of the overnight attack on Mykolaiv.
Russia also attacked the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, igniting fires and damaging buildings but causing no deaths, the head of the city’s military administration said.
The Ukrainian military said its air defense units had shot down 56 of 117 drones launched by Russia in the overnight attack. It noted that 48 drones were lost, referring to the Ukrainian military’s redirecting them with electronic warfare.
“Apparently, this is how the occupiers ‘want peace’,” Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, describing it as the war’s biggest drone attack on the city. “Most importantly, there were no deaths or injuries.”
Reuters could not independently verify the reports from Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih. The size of the attack on Kryvyi Rih and what was targeted there were not immediately clear.
Vilkul had reported at least 15 explosions in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown and a frequent target of Russian attacks.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, but the Russian defense ministry said that its air defense units destroyed nine Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the waters of the Black Sea.
Kenyan UN peacekeeper missing in Haiti following gang attack
- Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed
- Gang violence has left more than one million people homeless in the Caribbean country
NAIROBI: A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said on Wednesday.
The Kenyan officers were on their way Tuesday to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” according to the mission’s statement, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer.
Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media.
Gang violence has left more than one million people homeless in the Caribbean country in recent years, according to the UN, with many crowding into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after gunmen razed their homes.
The Kenya-led force was launched last year and tasked with fighting gangs trying to seize full control of Haiti’s capital. Kenya had promised to send 1,000 officers to Haiti. Since June, 800 have been deployed.
Another Kenyan officer who was shot and killed by the gangs in Haiti in February was buried in Kenya last week. Opposition leaders in the east African country called for the mission’s officers to be better equipped.
The mission has been struggling with a lack of personnel as gangs that control 85 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, keep seizing more territory. The force’s funding has also been dealt a blow after the US, its biggest backer, froze some of its funding, part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.
South Korea says 19 dead in raging wildfires
- More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast
- The blazes forced around 27,000 residents to urgently evacuate
ANDONG, South Korea: At least 19 people have been killed in one of South Korea’s worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple raging blazes causing “unprecedented damage,” the acting president said Wednesday.
More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast, forcing around 27,000 people to urgently evacuate, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents fled in panic.
Overnight into Wednesday, the death toll jumped to 19 as wind-driven flames tore through neighborhoods and razed an ancient temple.
Eighteen people were killed in the wildfires and a pilot in a firefighting helicopter died when his aircraft crashed in a mountain area, officials said.
According to the interior ministry, the wildfires have charred 17,398 hectares (42,991 acres), with the blaze in Uiseong county alone accounting for 87 percent of the total.
The government has raised the crisis alert to its highest level and taken the rare step of transferring thousands of inmates out of prisons in the area.
“Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day... are causing unprecedented damage,” South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo said.
He told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were “developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations.”
“Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked,” he added.
In the city of Andong, some evacuees sheltering in an elementary school gym said they had to flee so quickly they could bring nothing with them.
“The wind was so strong,” Kwon So-han, a 79-year-old resident in Andong said, adding that as soon as he got the evacuation order he fled.
“The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house,” he said.
“Those who haven’t experienced it won’t know. I could only bring my body.”
Authorities had been using helicopters to battle the blazes, but suspended all such operations after a helicopter crashed Wednesday, killing the pilot on board.
Authorities said changing wind patterns and dry weather had revealed the limitations of conventional firefighting methods.
Thousands of firefighters have been deployed, but “strong winds reaching speeds of 25 meters per second persisted from yesterday afternoon through the night, forcing the suspension of helicopter and drone operations,” acting president Han said.
The fires are “the most devastating” yet in South Korea, Han said.
By Wednesday, one of the fires was threatening historic Hahoe Folk Village — a UNESCO-listed world heritage site popular with tourists but now under an emergency alert.
Huge plumes of smoke turned the sky over the village grey, with fire trucks and police cars lined up at the edges of the historic site.
Last year was South Korea’s hottest year on record, with the Korea Meteorological Administration saying that the average annual temperature was 14.5 degrees Celsius — two degrees higher than the preceding 30-year average of 12.5 degrees.
The fire-hit region had been experiencing unusually dry weather with below-average precipitation, authorities have said, with the South experiencing more than double the number of fires this year than last.
Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves or heavy rainfall.
Other phenomena, such as forest fires, droughts, snowstorms and tropical storms can result from a combination of complex factors.
“We can’t say that it’s only due to climate change, but climate change is directly (and) indirectly affecting the changes we are experiencing now. This is a sheer fact,” Yeh Sang-Wook, professor of climatology at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said.
“Wildfires will become more frequent,” he added.
“Basically, as the atmosphere becomes warmer due to climate change, the water vapor in the ground evaporates more easily, so the amount of moisture contained in the ground decreases. So, all this creates the conditions wildfires can occur more frequently.”
The major fire in Uiseong was reportedly caused by a person tending to a family grave who accidentally ignited the blaze.
Apple farmer Cho Jae-oak said that he and his wife had sprayed water around their house all day in a desperate bid to protect it.
“We kept spraying and guarded. When the fire was burning on the mountain, fireballs flew here,” he said, adding that the encroaching flames eventually forced them to leave.
America’s allies alarmed by a leaked group chat about attack plans
- The European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, suggested the security breach could make allies question the reliability of the US as a partner
LONDON: As wake-up calls go, the alarms don’t get much louder.
Allies of the United States see the group chat between top US officials about a planned attack in Yemen that accidentally included a journalist as a jaw-dropping security breach which casts doubt on intelligence-sharing with Washington and the security of joint military operations.
“Scary” and “reckless” was the verdict of one European diplomat about the discussion on the Signal messaging app about strikes on Houthi rebels. Neil Melvin, a security expert at defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute, called it “pretty shocking.”
“It’s some of the most high-ranking US officials seeming to display a complete disregard for the normal security protocols,” he said.
Beyond the security concerns raised by the leaked chat, US officials addressed the country’s trans-Atlantic allies with disdain as Vice President JD Vance complained about “bailing out” Europe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed “pathetic” European “freeloading.”
The criticism is another blow to a long-standing relationship already strained by President Donald Trump’s blunt “America First” approach and disregard for friendly nations.
Melvin said that for America’s allies, “the alarm clock’s been ringing for a long time.”
In public, however, European officials insisted all was well in the trans-Atlantic relationship.
“We have a very close relationship with the US on matters of security, defense and intelligence,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares. “They are our closest ally when it comes to these matters, have been for many years and will be for many years to come.”
France’s Foreign Ministry said “the United States is our ally, and France intends to continue its cooperation with Washington, as well as with all its allies and European partners, in order to address current challenges — particularly in the area of European security.”
A growing divide
Since taking office, the Trump administration has halted government funding for programs that support democratic principles around the world and presented a less welcoming face to visitors.
US embassies in at least 17 countries have posted warnings for would-be travelers that engaging in behavior deemed harmful by the government could get them deported. Several European countries have issued warnings about visiting the United States after international tourists were caught up in Trump’s border crackdown.
Trump has appalled allies with his repeatedly stated aim of taking over Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory that Vance and second lady Usha Vance are due to visit this week — and his desire to make Canada the 51st state.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country has to “take greater ownership” of its own defense in the face of threats: “We have to look out for ourselves.”
Nathalie Loiseau, a member of the European parliament, told the BBC that she was “flabbergasted” by the breach.
“If I was (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, I would feel jobless. Russia has nothing more to do. … You don’t even need to spy on the US administration. They leak by themselves,” she said.
US reliability questioned
The European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, suggested the security breach could make allies question the reliability of the US as a partner.
The diplomat expressed hope that the Signal lapse was due to a lack of experience in government rather than a deliberate disregard for security.
Asked if he had concerns about sharing intelligence with the US after the Signal incident, Carney said “it’s a serious, serious issue and all lessons must be taken.” He said it would be important to see “how people react to those mistakes and how they tighten them up.”
Britain could be particularly exposed by US security breaches. Its intelligence network is entwined with the US in the Five Eyes alliance, and the countries’ militaries work more closely than those of almost any other nations.
Britain’s Royal Air Force provided air-to-air refueling for US planes during the strike on the Houthis, but UK Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard insisted British personnel had not been put at risk by the breach.
“We’ve got high confidence that the measures that we have got with our allies, including the United States, remain intact,” he told lawmakers.
Ed Davey, the leader of Britain’s opposition Liberal Democrats, said the lapse showed the Trump administration can’t be trusted to protect its own intelligence and “it could only be a matter of time until our own intelligence shared with them is also leaked.”
“This could put British lives at risk,” he said.
Alex Clarkson, a lecturer in European and international studies at King’s College London, said “the professionals and old hands” who “contained the damage” during Trump’s first term are largely gone.
“So what we’re having now is … a manifestation of tendencies that were held in check that we already saw in the first round,” he said.
American frustration
The US has underpinned European security since World War II, and Trump is not the first president to bristle at the burden.
“From the Obama administration (onward), there’s been quite some frustrations in the US security apparatus about the failure of the Europeans … to step up,” Melvin said.
Trump has gone much further than his predecessors in upending the decades-old security arrangements. He has long contended the US needs to completely rethink its relationship with the rest of the world, saying other countries have been “taking advantage” of the nation’s military might by not paying enough for their own defense.
Trump has praised autocrats including Putin and sent chills through NATO during last year’s election campaign with his comment that Russia should “do whatever the hell it wants” to members that don’t meet military spending targets.
“There’s a real sense of divorce, that America is not just disinterested in the trans-Atlantic alliance but views Europe fundamentally as an adversary,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It’s very clear at this point, abundantly clear, that it will be next to impossible to count on the United States for the cause of defending democracy in the world,” said Kevin Casas-Zamora, secretary-general of the pro-democracy group International IDEA.
NATO leaders point out that Trump’s criticism and the war in Ukraine have led to a majority of member states meeting the target of spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
Trump’s reelection and rapprochement with Putin has hastened European military plans, with nations scrambling to ramp up weapons production and create their own security structures – including a UK- and France-led “coalition of the willing” to help guarantee a future ceasefire in Ukraine.
Clarkson said Europe has more strength than many give it credit for, and severing the trans-Atlantic bond would hurt the US, too.
“One shouldn’t underestimate European military industrial capacity,” he said. “There are all kinds of things that can go wrong … but there is an element here also that the Americans are awakening a sleeping giant.”
Judge rules pro-Palestinian student and permanent US resident cannot be detained
- Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas
WASHINGTON: A Korean American Columbia University student, who is a legal permanent US resident and has participated in pro-Palestinian protests, cannot be detained by federal immigration officials for now as she fights the administration of President Donald Trump over attempts to deport her, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Yunseo Chung, 21, has lived in the US since she was seven, and sued the Trump administration on Monday to prevent her deportation. Her legal team was informed this month that her lawful permanent resident status was being revoked, according to court records in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and accused them of supporting Hamas militants, of posing hurdles for US foreign policy and of being antisemitic.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas. Human rights advocates condemn the government’s moves.
The US Department of Homeland Security alleged Chung engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was previously arrested by police during a protest at Barnard College that DHS termed “pro-Hamas.”
Chung has not yet been arrested by federal officials. Immigration agents made multiple visits to her residences looking for her.
US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order against the government that prevents Chung from being detained, court records showed.
Actions against Chung form part of a pattern of government efforts against pro-Palestinian voices critical of Israel’s military assault on Gaza, her lawsuit said.
Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested this month and is legally challenging his detention, is also a lawful permanent resident. Trump, without evidence, accused Khalil of supporting Hamas, which Khalil denies.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian studying at Georgetown University, was detained last week. A federal judge barred Suri’s deportation.
US officials have asked Cornell University student Momodou Taal to turn himself in, his attorneys say, adding his visa was being revoked.
