WASHINGTON: Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting US troops, a senior US defense official told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger’s junta to expel US forces.
The military officers ruling the West African nation have told the US to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, which until a coup last year had been a key partner for Washington’s fight against insurgents who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.
A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian forces were not mingling with US troops but were using a separate hangar at Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital.
The move by Russia’s military, which Reuters was the first to report, puts US and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the nations’ military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly acrimonious over the conflict in Ukraine.
It also raises questions about the fate of US installations in the country following a withdrawal.
“(The situation) is not great but in the short-term manageable,” the official said.
Asked about the Reuters report, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin played down any risk to American troops or the chance that Russian troops might get close to US military hardware.
“The Russians are in a separate compound and don’t have access to US forces or access to our equipment,” Austin told a press conference in Honolulu.
“I’m always focused on the safety and protection of our troops ... But right now, I don’t see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection.”
The Nigerien and Russian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US and its allies have been forced to move troops out of a number of African countries following coups that brought to power groups eager to distance themselves from Western governments. In addition to the impending departure from Niger, US troops have also left Chad in recent days, while French forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso.
At the same time, Russia is seeking to strengthen relations with African nations, pitching Moscow as a friendly country with no colonial baggage in the continent.
Mali, for example, has in recent years become one of Russia’s closest African allies, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deploying there to fight jihadist insurgents.
Russia has described relations with the United States as “below zero” because of US military and financial aid for Ukraine in its effort to defend against invading Russian forces.
The US official said Nigerien authorities had told President Joe Biden’s administration that about 60 Russian military personnel would be in Niger, but the official could not verify that number.
After the coup, the US military moved some of its forces in Niger from Airbase 101 to Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez. It was not immediately clear what US military equipment remained at Airbase 101.
The United States built Airbase 201 in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018 it has been used to target Islamic State and Al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) fighters with armed drones.
Washington is concerned about Islamic militants in the Sahel region, who may be able to expand without the presence of US forces and intelligence capabilities.
Niger’s move to ask for the removal of US troops came after a meeting in Niamey in mid-March, when senior US officials raised concerns including the expected arrival of Russia forces and reports of Iran seeking raw materials in the country, including uranium.
While the US message to Nigerien officials was not an ultimatum, the official said, it was made clear US forces could not be on a base with Russian forces.
“They did not take that well,” the official said.
A two-star US general has been sent to Niger to try and arrange a professional and responsible withdrawal.
While no decisions have been taken on the future of US troops in Niger, the official said the plan was for them to return to US Africa Command’s home bases, located in Germany.
Russian troops enter base housing US military in Niger, US official says
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Russian troops enter base housing US military in Niger, US official says
- The US and its allies have been forced to move troops out of a number of African countries following coups
French school to be named after teacher beheaded by militant
New name plates would be put up in the course of the current school year
VERSAILLES, France: A school in France will be named after Samuel Paty, a teacher who worked there until he was murdered by a militant for discussing Prophet Muhammad drawings in class, local authorities said after a unanimous vote in favor of the change.
Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was stabbed and then beheaded near his secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on October 16, 2020 in an attack that horrified France.
Paty’s attacker, 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov, was shot dead at the scene by police.
He murdered Paty after messages spread on social media that the teacher had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
“By naming the Bois d’Aulne school Samuel Paty College, we incarnate the French ideal, the republican hope that knowledge brings progress, by giving it the face of a humble, devoted and enthusiastic man, the face of Samuel Paty,” said Pierre Bedier, president of the Yvelines department where the school is located.
New name plates would be put up in the course of the current school year, his office added.
Some parents’ associations had called for the name change to be delayed, arguing that children who were deeply shocked by the 2020 events could be traumatized all over again by revisiting those memories.
They wanted the change to be delayed until after mid-2025 when all pupils who knew Paty personally will have left the establishment, to no avail.
The children “had to live through something unimaginable,” they said in a message to the town’s mayor.
Paty had used the Charlie Hebdo magazine as part of an ethics class to discuss free speech laws in France, where blasphemy is legal and cartoons mocking religious figures have a long history.
His killing took place just weeks after Charlie Hebdo republished the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
After the magazine used the images in 2015, Islamist gunmen stormed its offices, killing 12 people.
Hamas leader’s death creates chance for ceasefire, US Defense Secretary says
- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says that US Forces in the Middle East stand ready to support Israel’s defense
BRUSSELS: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s killing opens a major opportunity to negotiate a lasting ceasefire, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Friday, after attending a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
He added that US Forces in the Middle East stand ready to support Israel’s defense.
“Sinwar’s death also provides an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire, to end this awful war and to rush humanitarian aid into Gaza,” he said.
North Korean troops in Russia readying for combat in Ukraine war, South Korea says
- Facial recognition artificial intelligence technology used to identify North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region
- North Korea has shipped artillery rounds, ballistic missiles and anti-tank rockets to Russia since August last year – South Korean spy agency
SEOUL: North Korea has shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s far east for training and acclimatizing at local military bases and will likely be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) also said it had been working with Ukrainian intelligence service and had used facial recognition artificial intelligence technology to identify North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region supporting Russian forces firing North Korean missiles.
In more than 13,000 containers, North Korea has shipped artillery rounds, ballistic missiles and anti-tank rockets to Russia since August last year, the agency said, based on the remnants of weapons recovered from the battle front in Ukraine.
In all, more than eight million artillery and rocket rounds have been shipped to Russia, it said.
“The direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed,” the spy agency said in a statement.
Earlier, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called an unscheduled security meeting with key intelligence, military and national security officials to discuss North Korean troops’ involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine, Yoon’s office said.
“The participants ... shared the view that the current situation where Russia and North Korea’s closer ties have gone beyond the movement of military supplies to actual dispatch of troops is a grave security threat not only to our country but to the international community,” it said.
Yoon’s office said South Korea, together with its allies, has been closely tracking North Korea’s troop dispatch to Russia from the initial stages.
South Korea will respond to the North’s activities with all available means, it added, without elaborating on what actions it might take.
South Korea, which has emerged as a major global arms exporter, selling fighter jets, mechanized howitzers and missiles, has come under pressure from some Western allies including Washington to help arm Ukraine with lethal weapons but has stopped short of openly doing so.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo of King’s College in London said despite the gravity of the development, it may not be heavy enough to shift Seoul’s position.
“When it comes to South Korea, I think that its red line is Russia providing support to North Korea that allows Pyongyang to substantially improve its nuclear and missile program, not North Korea’s support for Russia.”
RUSSIAN UNIFORMS, FAKE IDS
Vessels belonging to Russia’s Pacific Fleet were detected moving about 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to Vladivostok from Oct. 8 to 13 and are expected to resume the shipment of troops soon, the NIS said.
The troops have been supplied with Russian military uniforms and weapons as well as fake identification documents for when they are deployed for combat, the NIS added.
The agency said it used facial recognition AI to identify with a high degree of accuracy technical military officers from the North Korean military in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine where they are supporting Russia’s missile offensive and helping with technical glitches.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to help Moscow’s war effort, although NATO’s chief Mark Rutte said there was no evidence of Pyongyang’s presence at this stage.
Since their leaders’ summit in the Russian far east last year, North Korea and Russia have dramatically upgraded their military ties and they met again in June to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership that includes a mutual defense pact.
Russia and North Korea both deny they have engaged in arms transfers. The Kremlin has also dismissed South Korean assertions that North Korea may have sent some military personnel to help Russia against Ukraine.
North Korea has 1.28 million active duty troops, according to South Korea’s latest data, and has stepped up its development of a series of ballistic missiles and a nuclear arsenal, fueling regional tension and drawing international sanctions.
Deploying troops to Russia, if confirmed, would be its first major involvement in a war since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea reportedly sent a much smaller contingent to the Vietnam War and to the civil conflict in Syria.
Putin says BRICS will generate most of global economic growth
- Putin hopes to build up BRICS — which has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa
MOSCOW: The BRICS group will generate most of the global economic growth in the coming years thanks to its size and relatively fast growth compared with that of developed Western nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
Putin hopes to build up BRICS — which has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — as a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.
The Kremlin leader is due to host a BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan on Oct. 22-24.
“The countries in our association are essentially the drivers of global economic growth. In the foreseeable future, BRICS will generate the main increase in global GDP,” Putin told officials and businessmen at BRICS business forum in Moscow.
“The economic growth of BRICS members will increasingly depend less on external influence or interference. This is essentially economic sovereignty,” Putin added.
Next week’s summit is being presented by Moscow as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine have failed.
Russia wants other countries to work with it to overhaul the global financial system and end the dominance of the US dollar.
China, India and the UAE confirmed on Friday that their leaders would attend the summit in Kazan.
Putin cited some of the
initiatives
that Russia has previously outlined ahead of the summit, including a joint cross-border payments system and a reinsurance company.
He called on the New Development Bank, the BRICS’ only functioning multilateral development institution, to invest in technology and infrastructure across the countries of the Global South.
“As a development institution, the bank already serves as an alternative to many Western financial mechanisms, and we will naturally continue to develop it,” Putin said. He called for more investment in e-commerce and artificial intelligence.
Putin sought to promote Russia’s new transport megaprojects such as the Arctic Sea Route and the North-to-South corridor, linking Russia to the Gulf and Indian Ocean through the Caspian Sea and Iran.
“It is the key to increasing freight transportation between the Eurasian and African continents,” he said.
King Charles arrives in Australia for landmark tour
- The king is on a nine-day tour of his far-flung Australian and Samoan realms
- His long-planned trip is designed to bolster the monarchy among an increasingly ambivalent Australian public
SYDNEY: King Charles III touched down in Australia Friday, kicking off the most strenuous foreign trip since his life-changing cancer diagnosis eight months ago.
After a grueling 20-plus hour journey, the 75-year-old monarch and his wife Queen Camilla landed in a rain-sodden Sydney, and were greeted by local dignitaries and posy-bearing children.
“We are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special,” the couple said in a social media post ahead of their arrival.
The king is on a nine-day tour of his far-flung Australian and Samoan realms that will feature a public barbecue, famed landmarks and reminders about pressing climate dangers.
He is the first reigning sovereign to set foot Down Under since 2011, when thronging crowds flocked to catch a white-gloved wave from his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
His long-planned trip is designed to bolster the monarchy among an increasingly ambivalent Australian public, whose British heritage is now just one element in a melting-pot nation.
There was an early hiccup, however. Plans to project a montage of images of Charles onto the sails of Sydney’s famed Opera House were briefly delayed because a cruise ship called the Queen Elizabeth was blocking the view.
“I think most people see him as a good king” said 62-year-old Sydney solicitor Clare Cory, who like many Australians is “on the fence” about the monarchy’s continued role in Australian life.
“It’s a long time. Most of my ancestors came from England, I think we do owe something there,” she said, before adding that Australia now looks more to the Asia-Pacific region than a place “on the other side of the world.”
Still, Australia is a land of many happy memories for Charles and the trip is said to be personally important to him after a period of cancer treatment.
He first visited as a gawky 17-year-old in 1966, when he was shipped away to the secluded alpine Timbertop school in regional Victoria.
“While I was here I had the Pommy bits bashed off me,” he would later remark, describing it as “by far the best part” of his education.
Bachelor Charles was famously ambushed by a bikini-clad model on a later jaunt to Western Australia, who pecked him on the cheek in an instantly iconic photo of the young prince.
He returned with wife Diana in 1983, drawing mobs of adoring fans eager to see the “people’s princess” at landmarks like the Sydney Opera House.
In 1994, a would-be gunman fired two blanks at Charles as he gave a speech on Sydney harbor — a mock assassination staged as a human rights protest.
With six days in Australia and five more in Samoa, it will be Charles’s longest overseas tour since starting treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer.
He made a brief trip to France this year for D-Day commemorations.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a lifelong republican, has made no secret of his desire to one day sever ties with the monarchy.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth, his government replaced the monarch’s visage on the country’s $5 note with an Indigenous motif.
A recent poll showed about a third of Australians would like to ditch the monarchy, a third would keep it and a third are ambivalent.
For now, at least, the question of a republic is a political non-starter.
Charles’s looming presence has so far done little to stoke republican sentiment.
He carefully tiptoed around the question on the eve of his arrival, reportedly saying it was ultimately a “matter for the Australian public to decide.”
