The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – May 17, 2024 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met with Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine on Friday to formalize the end of the United State’s military presence in the country.

The announcement comes a month after Niger’s military junta revoked a 12-year-old security pact with Washington that allowed U.S. forces on Nigerian soil to combat Islamist terrorists in the region.

The withdrawal is expected to take place over the next few months.

Relations between Niger and the United States have deteriorated since last year when a military coup pushed out the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and installed the current junta.

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Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/04/20/troops-withdraw-niger-military/7581713652263/

The post U.S. to end military presence in Niger first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The ruling military junta on Saturday revoked a major accord known as the status of forces agreement, which allows U.S. forces in Niger. Biden administration officials are aware of this and are “working through diplomatic channels to seek clarification,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

But just last week, a delegation from Washington that included Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander and U.S. Africa Command head Gen. Michael Langley, met with officials with Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).

“The U.S. delegation was there to raise a number of concerns . . . We were troubled on the path that Niger is on. And so these were direct and frank conversations to have those in person, to talk about our concerns and to also hear theirs,” Singh said.

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Source: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4539830-niger-ends-us-military-deal/

The post Niger ordered US troops to leave after Biden officials warned about ties to Russia, Iran: Pentagon first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The three countries are struggling to contain Islamic insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State and have also seen their relations with neighbours and international partners strained because of the coups.

The latest coup in Niger drove a further wedge between the three and countries of the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, which has threatened to use force to restore constitutional rule in the country.

Mali and Burkina Faso have vowed to come to Niger’s aid if it is attacked.

“Any attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of one or more contracted parties will be considered an aggression against the other parties,” according to the charter of the pact, known as the Alliance of Sahel States.

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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/mali-niger-burkina-faso-sign-sahel-security-pact-2023-09-16/

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The post Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso sign Sahel security pact first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Niger coup: France evacuating citizens after embassy attack first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

France is increasingly worried that the military putsch in Niger will push the country into Russia’s lap.

GABORONE, Botswana — An ongoing military coup in Niger is threatening French and American efforts to combat Sahel and North Africa-originated jihadism. Russian flags waved by local Nigerians shortly after the takeover illustrate whose side the rebels are on in the battle of influence between Moscow and the Europeans.

Niger became a key regional country for France following the 2021 military coup in Mali and the ensuing decision by Bamako to sever security ties with Paris. Having championed the battle against Islamist extremists’ groups across Mali for several years, France deployed some 4,500 troops in the north of the country in the framework of Operation Barkhane. The contingent was forced to leave Mali after the severing of security relations.

A familiar scene on a smaller scale took shape last February in Burkina Faso when the Burkinabe army announced the end of cooperation with French troops present in the country in the framework of Operation Sabre. The transition government established in Ouagadougou after the September 2022 military coup had decided to abandon the defense accords linking the two countries.

Pushed out of Mali and of Burkina Faso, Paris decided to lean on Niger (alongside its long cooperation with Djibouti) in its efforts to fight jihadist groups increasingly present in the Sahel region, in North Africa and even in central and south Africa, including al-Qaeda affiliated groups, African Islamic State branches and Boko Haram.

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Source:: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/07/after-niger-coup-france-worries-over-russias-influence-impact-north-africa#ixzz88nVPjBKy

The post After Niger coup, France worries over Russia’s influence, impact on North Africa first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

For years, migrants from West African countries used Niger as a crossing ground on their way to Libya and then onto Europe. But in 2016, under mounting pressure from the EU, Niger began criminalizing immigration and patrolling the deserts for illegal crossings.

“The road is practically closed because of the police,” John Okoroafor, who traveled from Nigeria only to end up imprisoned in Agadez, told VICE News. “They are not taking anything for granted.”

For the EU, this arrangement has led to a dramatic decrease in refugees and migrants on their doorstep. For Niger, it’s meant a 1 billion–euro aid and defense package. But the success comes at a heavy cost: Niger’s jail cells are now packed with migrants and refugees. And the increasingly harsh policy has given birth to a new underworld of illegal activity that EU politicians warn could be creating even bigger problems for the region.

“It has gone underground,” Malin Björk, a member of the European Parliament from Sweden, told VICE News of Niger’s migration economy. “We have seen a larger and more organized network so that more organized crime is taking over. And that certainly can’t be seen as a security progress in any way.”

Niger says drug smuggling, for example, has soared over the last two years. In the country’s capital Niamey, officials showed VICE News a basement packed to the brim with illegal drugs they’d confiscated recently. They also warned that weapons trafficking is on the rise as a result of the new immigration policies.

VICE News traveled to Niger to speak to both authorities and smugglers about the EU’s evolving immigration policy and the new trafficking businesses it’s spawned.

Source: https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/pan8kk/heres-what-the-european-union-did-to-stop-migrants-from-coming

The post Here’s what the European Union did to stop migrants from coming first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

In fact, many African migrants face a Catch-22: African migrants can either remain in detention centers, be sold into slavery with promises to reach Europe (which inevitably never happens), risk death in making the passage via boat, or wait for an opportunity for the UN or other international organization to bring them to Europe, which is highly unlikely given the current refugee restrictions in European countries.

Although there is no consensus on when the human trafficking and slavery networks began throughout Africa and the Middle East, Global Slavery Index has estimated large populations of slaves in the area for years. The 2016 Global Slavery Index estimated that there are more than 6 million slaves in Sub-Saharan Africa and another 2.9 million in the Middle East and Northern Africa. In 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released a reportthat found than nearly 70% of migrants using the Mediterranean route from North Africa to Europe endured human trafficking. Even with predictions, slavery networks have remained hidden and prominent in Libya.

The lack of oversight in the war-torn country can be strikingly tied to the on-the-ground departments that manage African migrants. The UN detailed that groups that have been tasked with aiding migrants in Libyan detention centers have been implicated in the selling of slaves. According to a report from June 2017, the UN noted that “International Organization for Migration (IOM) also reported enslavement of sub-Saharan migrants. Smugglers, as well as the Department to Counter Illegal Migration and the coastguard, are directly involved in such grave human rights violations.”

In response, the IOM has transported 13,000 migrants out of detention facilities in Libya and 8,000 detention centers in Niger, according to a November 2017 report from the UN. The UN has also been considering implementing sanctions on Libya for the negligence of human trafficking in the country.

The EU has also responded by pledging a €44 billion “Marshall Plan” for Africa to help block further human trafficking. Leaders in Europe have also pledged to help aid the problem, particularly French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Africa and met with leaders to strategize a solution.

Despite recent plans that advance a façade that the EU has effectively aided the problem, strict immigration laws in countries and recent reports point to the EU as partially responsible. In response to such reports, Macron raised more controversy when he said that the human trafficking is caused by Africans and Africans alone, rather than by Europeans’ strict immigration policies. While he was in Burkina Faso, Macron visited the University of Ouagadougou and said “It’s not the French who are the traffickers, it’s the Africans. So, everyone should understand the responsibility, and we’ve started to do that, to dismantle them. But stop the argument saying, ‘It’s someone else.’”

Even though the traffickers are indeed African, the EU has inevitably become involved in funding policies that regulate migration in Libya. According to a report from Amnesty International, the EU sponsored million-dollar anti-migration measures in Niger, including assisting police operations that block transportation to the Libyan border. In addition, the EU has allegedly supported the Libyan Coast Guard, which has been found to help facilitate human trafficking.

Italy, which boasts some of Europe’s strictest immigration policies, has also been found aiding the Libyan Coast Guard. In February 2017, Italy issued a code of conduct, which required NGOs to enter a “commitment not to enter Libyan territorial waters, except in situations of grave and imminent danger requiring immediate assistance and not to obstruct Search & Rescue by the Libyan Coast Guard.”

The EU’s support for the Libyan Coast Guard did not go unnoticed, however. The UN Human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said “The European Union’s policy of assisting the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept and return migrants in the Mediterranean (is) inhuman.”

With increased international attention to slavery networks in Niger and Libya, the UN has facilitated conversations about possible solutions. Filippo Grandi, the UN refugee chief, told Reuters that the UN has “heard finally authorities—Libyan authorities, the international community—talk about practical measures and how to respond to those abuses, to try to stop them, and to try to find solutions for the people affected by them.”

Grandi also announced that the focus of the aid will be on the detention centers and facilities that have been exposed to have been places where migrants face risks of being trafficked. Grandi said “We will also need to have more access…to the detention centers to do the work that we want to do.”

With the need for reform more urgent than ever, the UN and governments have more motivation than ever to relieve the crisis. Although slavery in Libya has debilitated thousands of people, the situation has translated how the refugee crisis led to such an immoral human tragedy. Most importantly, slavery in Libya has exemplified that despite the illusion of societal improvements in the 21^st century, the world still has devastated and discriminated vulnerable communities of people.

Source: https://www.diplomaticourier.com/slavery-libya-exemplifies-refugee-crisis-led-loss-humanity/

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