According to the International Labor Organization, small- and medium-sized businesses account for the majority of enterprises and employment in Nigeria. But about 80% of these businesses fail within the first five years. In this report from Abuja, Gibson Emeka explores why these businesses fail and what the Nigerian government is doing to help them achieve long-term success. Amy Katz narrates.
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Pollution from discarded plastic, metals and other items is a persistent problem in Nigeria. Some young people are doing what they can to clean up the trash and make strides toward sustainable development. Gibson Emeka has this story from Abuja, Nigeria, narrated by Salem Solomon.
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Sudan’s conflict has caused prices in the border region of neighboring South Sudan to rise sharply, according to local market traders. Meanwhile, the production and export of South Sudanese oil through Sudan, which the World Bank says makes up 90% of the country’s revenue, is being strangled by the conflict too. Henry Wilkins reports from Renk, South Sudan.
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With the growing impact of droughts caused by climate change and high food prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, food banks are emerging as a growing solution to hunger and poverty in Africa. A non-profit group in Nairobi, Food Banking Kenya, distributed more than 500,000 kilograms of food last year to hungry families. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.
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Analysts say Sudan’s conflict has reached a stalemate both militarily and diplomatically, with little hope of a swift end to the war. Meanwhile, those arriving in South Sudan having just fled from Khartoum describe a city on the verge of collapse. Henry Wilkins reports from Joda, South Sudan.
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Military chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States meet Thursday and Friday in Ghana to discuss a potential military intervention in response to last month’s coup in Niger.

ECOWAS said Wednesday it had “commenced the activation of the ECOWAS Standby Force for the restoration of constitutional order in the Republic of Niger.”

The regional bloc said the meetings in Accra would be to finalize plans for deploying the standby force.

The talks follow an insurgent attack in which Niger’s military junta said 17 of its soldiers were killed.

Junta leaders have said deposing President Mohamed Bazoum was necessary to respond to violence by Islamic extremists.

ECOWAS said in a statement following the attack that junta leaders should restore constitutional order in Niger “in order to focus on the security of the country that has become increasingly fragile” since the coup.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Dozens of migrants headed for Spain are believed missing and feared dead after coast guards off the Atlantic Island of Cabo Verde rescued 38 people on a boat that had left Senegal in West Africa over one month ago with more than 100 aboard, authorities and migrant advocates said.

Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry said the boat was rescued on Tuesday with 38 survivors and several dead on board by the coast guard in Cabo Verde, about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa. Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died, or what caused the trip to fail.

The Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders said the vessel was a large fishing boat, called a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 migrants on board.

Families in Fass Boye, a seaside town 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Dakar, had reached out to Walking Borders on July 20 after 10 days without hearing from loved ones on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzón said.

Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen’s association, said he has two nephews among the missing. “They wanted to go to Spain,” Boye said.

The route from West Africa to Spain is one of the world’s most dangerous, yet the number of migrants leaving from Senegal on rickety wooden boats has surged over the past year.

Nearly 1,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2023, Walking Borders says. Factors such as youth unemployment, political unrest and the impact of climate change push migrants to risk their lives on overcrowded boats.

On Aug. 7, the Moroccan navy recovered the bodies of five Senegalese migrants and rescued 189 others after their boat capsized off the coast of Western Sahara.
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The start of the rainy season in Sudan and neighboring Chad is making it difficult to deliver aid to refugees from Sudan’s war. From Adenour, Chad, Henry Wilkins looks at some of the logistical challenges faced by those trying to deliver aid. Camera: Henry Wilkins.
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The United Nations warned Wednesday that the crisis in Niger could significantly worsen food insecurity in the impoverished country, urging humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and border closures to avert catastrophe. 

The U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA highlighted that even before Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was toppled in a coup late last month, the country counted more than 3 million acutely food-insecure people. 

More than 7 million others, who are considered to be moderately food-insecure, “could see their situation worsen due to the unfolding crisis,” OCHA warned, citing a preliminary analysis from the World Food Program. 

Bazoum, 63, was detained on July 26 by members of the presidential guard, in the fifth coup to hit Niger since independence from France in 1960. 

The U.N. food agency said it was continuing to deliver aid in Niger, despite the political crisis wracking the poor, landlocked country in the heart of the arid Sahel.  

“Our work is vital for the most vulnerable in Niger and needs to continue, particularly in the current circumstances,” Margot van der Velden, WFP’s acting regional director for western Africa, said in a statement. 

In the first week of August, the agency said it had delivered lifesaving food to 140,000 people across the country, and vital malnutrition care to 74,000 children. 

WFP said it expected to reach more than 1 million people with emergency food assistance this month alone. 

But it cautioned that sanctions and border closures linked to the political crisis were “greatly affecting the supply of vital foods and medical supplies into Niger.” 

“We urge all parties to facilitate humanitarian exemptions, enabling immediate access to people in need of critical food and basic necessities,” van der Velden said. 

She also called for more financial support, warning the worsening humanitarian situation in Niger was coming at a time when WFP was being forced to cut rations globally because of a lack of funds. 

A multi-agency appeal issued in March for $584 million to respond to the towering needs in Niger until the end of 2025 is only 39% funded, OCHA said. 

And the food security and malnutrition portion, representing more than a third of that appeal, has received 27% of the requested funds, it said. 
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The new U.S. ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, will arrive in Niamey following a coup last month, the State Department said on Wednesday, in a signal of Washington’s continued engagement with the situation.

A U.S. official said she is expected to arrive in Niger later this week. The Senate confirmed FitzGibbon, a career foreign service officer, as U.S. ambassador late last month just after the coup, nearly a year after she was nominated.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that there are no plans for her to present her credentials to coup leaders and that it is not necessary for the work at the embassy.

“She is going there to lead the mission during a critical time and to support the American community and to coordinate on the U.S. government’s efforts,” Patel said.

“Her arrival does not reflect a change in our position, and we continue to advocate for a diplomatic solution that respects the constitutional order in Niger,” he said.

Western powers and democratic African governments have called for the coup leaders to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, whom coup leaders have been detaining since July 26, but the military leaders have refused and rejected attempts at negotiation.

The coup and its aftermath have sucked in international powers with strategic interests in the region.

The U.S. State Department’s acting No. 2 traveled to Niger and held talks earlier this month with senior officials from the country’s junta, but made no progress in meetings she described as “difficult.”
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Trade between Nigeria and Niger has been halted because of sanctions due to Niger’s July coup. In Nigeria, officials say they could lose over $200 million in export trade. That’s causing some economic hardship for many communities on the border. Alhassan Bala reports from the border town of Magama Jibia, Nigeria. Camera: Gibson Emeka
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A new report by Human Rights Watch finds that racist content denigrating Black people is increasingly common on the Chinese internet, and that major social media platforms and Chinese authorities have failed to address the issue systematically.

HRW analyzed hundreds of videos and posts on popular Chinese social media platforms, including Bilibili, Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo and Xiaohongshu, since late 2021. It found that content portraying Black people based on offensive racial stereotypes has become rampant.

It says much of the content is created to generate money.

“There are clicks and viewership involved, and that usually means profit for social media content creators,” Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at HRW, told VOA.

Racism fueled by stereotypes and censorship

According to the report, one type of video that’s widely shared on Chinese social media usually portrays Africans as poor and dependent while framing Chinese people, who are often the content creators of those videos, as wealthy providers of jobs, housing and money.

In addition to stereotypes against Black people, online content featuring interracial relationships often attracts hostile comments or threats to individuals in the photos or videos.

HRW found that Chinese internet users will accuse Black people married to Chinese people of “contaminating and threatening” the Chinese race and unleash online threats against Chinese women who share photos with their Black male partners.

In some cases, these women will receive death or rape threats or experience doxing, meaning their personal information is shared online without their consent.

In 2019, a “study buddy” program involving foreign and Chinese students at Shandong University became the target of racist and sexist attacks online. Some netizens accused the school of assigning Chinese female students to foreign male students, particularly Black students. Some Chinese female students involved in the program experienced harassment and intimidation on campus.

Wang from HRW says the rampant circulation of racist content against Black people and Africans on Chinese social media is prompted by the Chinese government’s portrayal of Africa as a “poor, backward” continent that needs investment from China.

“This gives Chinese people the impression that Africans are less developed, less intelligent and less diligent, and it contributes to the rampant racism [against Black people] in China,” she told VOA in a phone interview.

Videos or posts that promote racial equality or criticize racism in China will often be censored after becoming a trending topic on Chinese social media platforms. “Unlike the U.S., where racism is widely discussed in the media and academia, there is no press and academic freedom in China, so it’s hard for good content on racism to spread,” Wang said.

Lack of incentive to censor racist content online

Even though most Chinese social media platforms have community guidelines that ban content promoting racism and discrimination, the HRW report argues that the amount of racist content on the internet suggests that these platforms either fail to enforce content moderation based on their guidelines or their existing policies are inadequate to address racist content.

In one case, the Chinese Embassy in Malawi said it strongly condemns “racism in any form” and that it urged social media platforms to “strictly prohibit the dissemination of all racist contents.” The comments came after the BBC released a documentary exposing a Chinese man using local children to film personalized greeting videos that contained racist content. 

Following the BBC expose, Chinese social media platforms censored videos containing the term “Africa,” which affected some educational videos. Analysts say this incident reflects Chinese social media platforms’ typical practice of suppressing content that has generated widespread public discussion.

“When social media platforms try to silence discussions related to certain issues, they usually impose search bans on words or phrases,” Eric Liu, an analyst at China Digital Times, told VOA. “[In the BBC case,] Chinese social media platforms censored the word ‘Africa’ for a short period of time, and when the news had blown over, they removed censorship over the word.”

And since censorship tools on Chinese social media platforms focus on only blocking keywords, deleting posts or suppressing public opinion, they can’t effectively stop the circulation of discriminatory content, said Liu, a former censor operator for Weibo. “They can censor the word ‘Africa,’ but they can’t respond to discriminatory content,” he said.

Some Black people living in China expressed shock at the lack of actions taken to do away with online hate speech.

“For me, it’s shocking that [racist] stuff like that doesn’t get censored or banned given how quickly the Great Firewall works to ban,” a West African man in Shanghai told HRW. He was referring to China’s internet firewall.

VOA reached out to Chinese social media companies, including Bytedance, Weibo and Tencent, for comments, and so far, only Tencent has responded. In an e-mailed response, Tencent referred VOA to clauses related to inciting national hatred or hate speech in its community guidelines but didn’t explain how the platform addresses racist content against Black people.

In a written response to HRW’s inquiry, the Chinese short video platform Douyin said that it relies on a combination of people and technology to enforce content moderation guidelines, and that it takes action on approximately more than 300 videos and comments per day that “include violative content targeting Black people.”

Wang from HRW says Chinese social media platforms’ ways of handling online racist content is an “appeasement” of the Chinese government. “When the Chinese government no longer pays attention to this issue, they just go back to the old ways of allowing racist content to spread as it creates business for them,” she told VOA.

HRW said that while Beijing often touts China-Africa anti-colonial solidarity and unity, Chinese authorities have ignored pervasive hate speech against Black people on the Chinese internet. “Beijing should recognize that undertaking investments in Africa and embracing China-Africa friendship won’t undo the harm caused by unaddressed racism,” Wang said.

To effectively address online hate speech against Black people, HRW urged Beijing to implement efforts that include public education, promotion of tolerance, publicly countering incendiary misinformation and strengthening the protection of individuals whose security is threatened.

Despite these suggestions, Liu from China Digital Times said he thinks it’s unlikely that online racist content will disappear anytime soon.

“Instead of cultivating capabilities to combat online racist content, [Chinese] social media platforms may respond to the report by blocking words such as ‘Black people’ or ‘Africans,’ ” he told VOA.
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In Malawi, a southern African nation that criminalizes homosexuality, faith leaders have spoken out against same-sex relations. While parliament recommends a referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage, civil society organizations say human rights should not be subject to a popular vote. From the capital, Lilongwe, Chimwemwe Padatha has the story.
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Niger’s defense ministry said late Tuesday an attack by suspected jihadists in the western part of the country killed 17 Nigerien soldiers.

A defense ministry statement said its forces were ambushed near the town of Koutougou, which is located near Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.

In addition to those killed, the statement said the attack wounded 20 other soldiers, and that all of the casualties had been evacuated to Niamey.

The defense ministry also said Nigerien troops killed more than one hundred militants.

The incident comes three weeks after a military coup in Niger, with leaders saying they acted after the elected government’s lack of action to control jihadi violence.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Internet shutdowns, a TikTok ban and journalist arrests show a downward trend in press freedom in Senegal, a country once hailed as an example of “democratic success.”

Press freedom advocates and journalists working in the West African country say the decline comes amid mass protests over the arrest of a key opposition figure and ahead of elections scheduled for early 2024.

“Once a beacon of press freedom, the country’s reputation has been tarnished by many factors, the most important of which being the multiplication of threats of physical and verbal violence from political actors,” Sadibou Marong, West Africa director of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders told VOA.

Between April 2022 and August 2023 his organization recorded at least 20 violations against journalists “with various level(s) of atrocity, including unlawful arrests, attacks and judicial persecution.”

Those incidents, “as well as the suspension of mobile phone internet access and the ban on TikTok, fuel concern about a decline in press freedom in Senegal,” the Dakar-based advocate said.

One of the most high-profile cases is that of Pape Alé Niang, an investigative journalist and director of news website Dakar Matin, who has been sent to jail three times in less than a year.

More recently, police in Dakar on Tuesday detained reporter Abdou Khadre Sakho on accusations of false news for coverage of the detained opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, said the Committee to Protect Journalists.  

Niang’s apparent crime: “instigating an insurrection” after broadcasting a live video about the jailed opposition politician.

When he spoke with VOA via a messaging app, Niang was in a hospital after staging a hunger strike to protest being taken into custody in July.

“For this last arrest, the objective was still to silence me. As soon as I was arrested I started a hunger strike, after seven days I was evacuated to the hospital,” he said.

Niang believes the government of President Macky Sall is “drifting towards becoming dictatorial.”

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry referred VOA to the Justice Ministry. As of publication, the ministry had not responded to the request for comment.

Niang is not the only journalist to face legal action.

Two journalists were detained in May. One of those — Maty Sarr Niang — is still in detention, said the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And authorities detained Pape Ndiaye, a reporter for Walf TV, from March until June, over accusations of false news. They also suspended the privately owned broadcaster for a month in June over its coverage of protests.

For other journalists in Senegal, the recent actions have left some feeling cautious.

Mady Camara, a freelancer who writes for the New York Times among other publications, said that while he personally has not faced any issues, “Journalists don’t feel free to write about any topic.”

“It’s a little bit tricky for journalists to work freely without feeling threatened,” he said.

Camara said the decline in the media environment had come as a surprise to many, as Sall had been considered an advocate of democracy in the region.

He pointed to the “remarkable” change in Senegal’s annual press freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders. In 2021 the country ranked 49 out of 180 countries where 1 marks the best environment. But in 2023, it had fallen 55 places to 104 on the annual index.

The Media Foundation for West Africa said in an August statement that it was “deeply concerned by these events in Senegal, a country otherwise celebrated as an example of democratic success in Africa.”

Borso Tall, who contributes to media including the BBC, said not only can the law be used to punish those who oppose the government, it can also be used to punish anyone who simply reports on its critics.

“Press freedom is always attacked when change is about to happen,” she said. But, Tall noted, what’s happening right now “is unprecedented, and it goes against everything that we know about Senegal.”

Many press organizations and journalists believe the popularity of the opposition party, violent protests, and the media’s coverage of both account for the apparent change.

Late last month the government dissolved the PASTEF party led by outspoken Sall critic Sonko, who is facing charges that include plotting an insurrection.

Against that backdrop, access to the internet has been cut and authorities have ordered access to be blocked to some social media platforms.

The global #KeepItOn coalition, which fights internet shutdowns, has called on Senegal’s government to end the blackouts.

“Internet shutdowns are never a necessary or proportionate response to public unrest. The government of Senegal must immediately end the ongoing escalation of internet shutdowns and refrain from flipping the kill switch whenever they feel like it,” the group said.

Also in August, the government ordered the video-sharing platform TikTok to be blocked, citing “hateful and subversive messages.”

Others believe it is because of content focused on the protests.

Even with the block in place, journalist Tall said, young Senegalese find ways to get around it.

“If local people cannot share what’s happening, they’ll still film it and share it later when they have internet or VPN,” she said.

As for Dakar Matin director Niang, speaking from a hospital, he told VOA he is undeterred, saying, “I will continue my work once my health is restored.”
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Niger’s military-appointed prime minister made an unannounced visit to neighboring Chad on Tuesday as West African states set talks for mulling possible military intervention to reverse his country’s coup and the United States and Russia urged a diplomatic solution.

Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, a civilian appointed by the military rulers who ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, arrived in Chad for a “working visit,” the Chadian government said on Facebook.

In a statement issued after meeting Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, Zeine said he had brought a message of “good neighborliness and good fraternity” from the head of Niger’s regime.

“We are in a process of transition. We discussed the ins and outs and reiterated our availability to remain open and talk with all parties, but insist on our country’s independence,” he said.

Deby, a key player in the unstable Sahel, had flown to the Nigerien capital Niamey four days after the coup.

Photos later showed him pictured next to the detained Bazoum and, separately, with one of the regime’s leaders, General Salifou Mody.

Diplomacy call

Zeine’s unannounced visit came hours after sources in the region said military chiefs from the regional bloc Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, would meet in Ghana on Thursday and Friday to discuss possible intervention in Niger.

The meeting — originally scheduled for last Saturday but then postponed — flows from an ECOWAS summit last week that approved deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order” in Niger.

Analysts say military intervention would be operationally risky and politically hazardous, given divisions within ECOWAS ranks and fears of worsening the Sahel’s chronic instability.

But the option of force also came with the bloc’s insistence that it preferred a diplomatic outcome — a scenario that Washington strongly backed on Tuesday.

“I believe that there continues to be space for diplomacy in achieving that result,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters.

“The pressure that’s been exerted by many countries including through ECOWAS on the military leaders responsible for disrupting the constitutional order in Niger is mounting.

“I think they have to take that into account, as well as the fact that their actions have isolated them from the region and the world.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a “peaceful political and diplomatic” resolution to the crisis in a phone call with Mali’s junta leader, Assimi Goita, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

Overthrow shocks many

President Bazoum’s election in 2021 was a landmark in Niger’s history, ushering in the country’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

His ousting unleashed a shock wave around West Africa, where Mali and Burkina Faso — likewise battered by a jihadist insurgency — have also suffered military takeovers.

ECOWAS applied a tough roster of trade and financial sanctions, while France, Germany and the United States suspended their aid programs.

The regional bloc gave the new regime a one-week ultimatum on July 30 to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline expired without action.

Regime sends mixed signals

Niger’s military regime has sent mixed signals since the crisis erupted.

At the weekend, the coup leaders said they were open to a diplomatic push after their chief, General Abdourahamane Tiani, met with Nigerian religious mediators.

Those talks came after the ECOWAS military meeting in Ghana was postponed for “technical reasons.”

But on Sunday night, Niger’s rulers declared they had gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute Bazoum for “high treason and undermining internal and external security.”

The legal threat was angrily condemned by ECOWAS, which lashed it as a contradiction of the regime’s “reported willingness” to explore peaceful means. Washington said it was “incredibly dismayed.”

The row overshadowed talks under African Union auspices that began on Monday in Addis Ababa, bringing together representatives from the regime and ECOWAS.

Niger’s fifth putsch

A landlocked nation in the heart of the arid Sahel, Niger is one of the world’s poorest and most turbulent countries.

Bazoum, 63, survived two attempted coups before being ousted, in the fifth putsch in the country’s history.

His ousting deals a huge blow to French and U.S. strategy in the Sahel.

France refocused its anti-jihadist operations on Niger after withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso last year following a bust-up with their juntas.

International concern is mounting for the state of Bazoum and his wife and son, who have been held at the president’s official residence since the coup.
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Two of the Libyan capital’s most powerful armed factions battled across the city on Tuesday, stranding civilians in their homes and raising fears that Tripoli’s worst violence this year could escalate.

The death toll from the clashes remains unclear but a medical unit linked to the Defense Ministry said it had recovered three bodies from Furnaj, Ain Zara and Tarik Shok districts.

The Health Ministry appealed to citizens to donate blood to help casualties. Usama Ali, a spokesperson for the ambulance service, said 19 people had been injured and 26 families evacuated from a strife-hit district.

Dark smoke hung over parts of the city and the sound of heavy weapons rattled through the streets, a Reuters journalist in Tripoli said. Residents and local media reported fighting in different suburbs during the day.

The U.N. envoy to Libya called for an immediate end to the violence.

The clashes between the 444 Brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, which both backed the interim Government of National Unity (GNU) during brief battles last year, shatter months of relative calm in Tripoli.

Libya has had little peace or security since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, and it split in 2014 between warring eastern and western factions.

An assault by eastern forces on Tripoli, in the west, collapsed in 2020 leading to a ceasefire that has halted most major warfare. Turkey, which backed the Tripoli government, maintained a military presence in Libya.

However, there has been little progress towards a lasting political solution to the conflict and on the ground armed factions that have gained official status and financing continue to wield power.

Last year factions backing a rival government declared by the eastern-based parliament launched a doomed attempt to oust Dbeibah, leading to a day of heavy clashes in Tripoli. Sporadic fighting has also this year rocked the city of Zawiya, west of the capital.

On Monday the Special Deterrence Force, which controls the capital’s Mitiga airport, seized 444 Brigade commander Mahmoud Hamza as he attempted to travel, a source in the brigade said.

In the following hours, both factions mobilized around the capital and fighting broke out in the evening.

The Special Deterrence Force has been one of Tripoli’s main armed factions for years, holding Mitiga and the surrounding coastal area, including a stretch of the main road to the east.

The 444 Brigade controls large swathes of the capital and areas south of Tripoli. Hamza, a former officer in the Special Deterrence Force, has previously been a key figure in mediating an end to tension between other armed factions.

Another significant Tripoli armed faction, the Stabilization Support Apparatus, had fighters and vehicles out on the street in areas it controls, but was not involved in the clashes, a Reuters witness said.

A resident of the Tarik Shok area of southern Tripoli said he could hear fighting when he went to bed at 1:30 a.m. and more strongly when he woke up at 7:30 a.m.

“We can hear heavy gunfire since early morning. My family lives in the Khalat Furjan area about 7 km (4 miles) away and they also hear clashes,” he said.

Some of the fighting erupted around Mitiga airport, continuing there into Tuesday morning, residents said. Flights were diverted from the airport to Misrata, a city about 180 km (110 miles) east of Tripoli, airlines and airport sources said.

A Turkish defense ministry official said on Tuesday afternoon that “the situation calmed down” in Tripoli and there were no problems regarding the security of Turkish troops. Mitiga hosts a Turkish military presence, diplomats say.

By Tuesday afternoon, fighting was clearly audible in some central Tripoli districts that had been quieter overnight and during the morning, with a loud explosion and exchanges of gunfire, a Reuters witness said.
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At least 26 members of the Nigerian security forces were killed and eight wounded in an ambush by gunmen in central Nigeria late Sunday, two military sources told AFP.   

Additionally, an air force spokesman said a helicopter rescuing the wounded crashed on Monday morning in the area, where the army is fighting criminal groups, without specifying whether the crew and passengers had survived.   

The two military officers asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the incident while military authorities were not available for comment.   

“We lost 23 soldiers, including three officers, and three Civilians JTF [vigilantes] in the encounter while eight soldiers were injured,” said the first source, following “a serious fight” along the Zungeru-Tegina highway.   

A second officer gave the same toll and said the bandits also suffered “heavy casualties”. He also said that communication had been lost with an air force helicopter dispatched to evacuate the casualties, with 11 of the dead and seven of the injured aboard.   

He said the helicopter was carrying 11 of the dead and seven of the wounded. He added that the aircraft had crashed because of gunfire from “bandits.”  

A Nigerian air force spokesman confirmed that its Mi-171 helicopter while on a “casualty evacuation mission” crashed on Monday after take-off from Zungeru.   

“The aircraft had departed Zungeru Primary School enroute for Kaduna but was later discovered to have crashed near Chukuba Village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State,” spokesman Edward Gabkwet said in a statement.    

He said efforts were under way to rescue those aboard and that preliminary investigations had been opened into the cause of the crash.   

Barely a week goes by in Africa’s most populous nation without attacks or kidnappings by criminals known as “bandits” in the northwest and center of the country.   

The gangs, who have been notorious for mass school abductions, maintain camps in a vast forest straddling the states of Niger, Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina.   

Northwest and central Nigeria have for years been terrorized by bandits who raid remote villages where they kill and abduct residents for ransom, as well as burn homes after looting them.   

Impunity as well as insufficient security and wider government presence has allowed the violence to fester, experts say. 
…

In a rare televised speech Monday, the head of Sudan’s military accused the rival paramilitary force of committing war crimes as all-out civil war threatens to engulf the northeast African country.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April when months of simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere.

In a speech broadcast on Sudan TV, Burhan accused the RSF and Dagalo of committing violations under the falsehood of promising to restore democracy.

“How can you bring about democracy by committing war crimes?” he said, in a speech celebrating Sudan’s annual armed forces day.

Earlier this month, rights organization Amnesty International accused both sides of committing extensive war crimes, including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. In its 56-page report, the group said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.

In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities in the western region, U.N. officials say.

Last week the violence intensified in South Darfur province, killing dozens. The Darfur Bar Association, a Sudanese legal group focusing on human rights in the western Darfur region, said at least five civilians died in crossfire during intense clashes between the military and the RSF in Nyala, South Darfur’s capital, on Friday.

Some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Nyala, Arab tribesmen in RSF vehicles raided the Kubum area of South Darfur last week, burning down the local market and sacking a police station, the legal group said in a separate statement. At least 24 people were killed in the attack, it said.

Last month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.

The nearly four-month conflict has also reduced the capital, Khartoum, to an urban battlefield. Across the city, RSF forces have commandeered homes and turned them into operational bases, residents and physician groups say. The army, in turn, has struck residential areas from the air and with artillery fire. Over 2.15 million people have since fled Khartoum state, according to U.N. data.

The country’s health minister, Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim, said in June that the conflict has killed upward of 3,000 people but there has been no update since. The true tally is likely far higher, say local doctors and activists.

Meanwhile, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, confirmed to The Associated Press that it had suspended the RSF’s account and the account belonging to Dagalo. Meta told the AP in an email that the group had violated its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy but did not provide any further details.

On its website, Meta says the policy aims to clamp down on “organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence.”

In a statement sent to the AP on Monday, the RSF said the closure of the accounts infringes on the public right to impartial information.

“The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are allowed to disseminate graphic violence on their page while the RSF’s call for democracy and freedom is silenced,” the paramilitary said.

As of Monday, the paramilitary and Dagalo still had active accounts on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
…

Health workers say at least 26 civilians were killed in a drone strike in a town in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Federal government forces and a regional militia that fought on the same side during the recent war in the Tigray region have been fighting each other for the past four months.

The attack Sunday took place in the central town of Finote Selam, in the West Gojam Zone of Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

A doctor at Finote Selam Hospital who spoke on the condition of anonymity said injured people started arriving around midday.

“There are many people who died at the site of the accident, but we do not have the exact numbers of that,” he said. “But the ones who arrived here and passed away are around 26 people as of now.”

Amhara militia known as Fano fought alongside federal troops against Tigrayan forces during the two-year war that ended last November in the Tigray region.

Fighting between the federal government and Fano was sparked in April when the government ordered the militia to integrate with the country’s police or military following the peace deal in Tigray.

Essential supplies for saving lives, including oxygen tanks, have been running short due to roadblocks in the area, according to health workers in Finote Selam.

The doctor said the hospital struggled to deal with the wounded from the drone strike.

“The hospital did not have the capacity to handle even the ones who came yesterday,” he said. “There were more than 100 injured people who came in at the beginning, and many more after that.”

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, in a statement released Monday, said that it received credible reports of shelling in Finote Selam as well as two other locations in Amhara region — Burie and Debre Birhan.

The commission also said that civilians were subject to beatings and killings in many areas of Bahir Dar, the capital city of Amhara region.

The Ethiopian government announced the arrest of 23 individuals in relation to what it called illegal activities last Friday, 10 days after declaring a state of emergency in Amhara.

Among those arrested were an opposition parliamentarian, Christian Tadele, and the editor-in-chief of the online news outlet Alpha Media, Bekalu Alamrew.
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The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali said Sunday it had brought forward its withdrawal from a base in the north of the country due to deteriorating security conditions.

During the operation, three of its soldiers were wounded when they came under fire, the force added a few hours later.

The MINUSMA force’s departure from Ber comes after the Malian army said Saturday that six soldiers died and 24 fighters from “armed terrorist groups” were killed in a skirmish in the area Friday.

Former rebels from the Tuareg ethnic group also said the army and the Russian mercenary group Wagner had attacked their forces Friday in Ber.

“MINUSMA has expedited its withdrawal from #Ber due to the deteriorating security situation in the area & the high risks posed to our #BlueHelmets,” the force said Sunday on Twitter, recently rebranded as “X.”

“It urges all concerned parties to refrain from any actions that could further complicate the operation.”

The number of troops involved or details on the original departure date were not specified.

In a message posted later Sunday, the force added: “The MINUSMA convoy that withdrew from #Ber today was attacked twice,” adding that three wounded peacekeepers had been evacuated to Timbuktu for treatment.

Attacks against peacekeepers can constitute war crimes under international law, the statement added.

Numerous incidents

Mali’s army in a statement issued Sunday evening, said it had taken possession of the Ber camp “after numerous incidents had marred the movement of our units.”

Army troops were targeted with sporadic fire as they advanced Sunday toward Ber, the statement said, without identifying the assailants.

The army also reported earlier incidents, while it was on the way to Ber.

It said armed “terrorist” groups had staged “an attempted incursion into the camp and harassing fire” against its troops, as well as other clashes, which left a total of six soldiers dead and four wounded, according to a military press release.

For several days now, the Ber area has been the scene of tensions between the army and the Russian Wagner paramilitary group against the CMA, an alliance of Tuareg-dominated groups seeking autonomy or independence from the Malian state and which controls vast areas of the north.

A CMA official, commenting on social media Sunday, had called for MINUSMA to “simply leave” Ber and not hand the camp over to the army.

The junta, which has ruled Mali since 2020 had pushed the U.N. Security Council in June to withdraw MINUSMA by the end of the year.

The U.N. Security Council in June decided to do so, and the first departures happened early this month from the central Ogossagou base.

Increasing tensions

The MINUSMA mission, which had some 11,600 troops and 1,500 police officers in the country, began in 2013 after separatist and jihadi rebellions broke out in northern Mali the previous year.

Its impending withdrawal from all of Mali has exacerbated tensions between the junta and the CMA ex-rebels.

CMA said Saturday that the Malian army was “determined to occupy MINUSMA’s holdings at all costs, including those in areas under CMA control,” in violation of a 2015 peace deal.

On Thursday, the former rebels announced the departure of all their representatives from the capital Bamako for “security” reasons, further widening the gap with the junta.

The CMA also criticizes the military for having approved a new constitution in June, which it says compromises the peace agreement.

Mali’s junta has fallen out with former colonial power France and turned to Russia for political and military support.

The deep security crisis that has engulfed northern Mali since 2012 has spread to the center of the country as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
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Niger’s junta leaders are open to negotiation to avert conflict with West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS, a group of senior Nigerian Islamic scholars said Sunday after meeting with the military insurgents in Niamey.

ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is mulling how to restore civilian rule in Niger, and how to reinstate the constitutionally elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. 

Bazoum was ousted after a military takeover in Niger last month.  This marks the seventh coup in West and Central Africa in three years.

Pursuing a peaceful resolution, ECOWAS chairman and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu approved the clerical diplomatic mission in Niger.

The Islamic scholars met for several hours with junta leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani, who has, reportedly, stated that Niger and Nigeria “were not only neighbors but brothers and sisters who should resolve issues amicably.”

Although ECOWAS has threatened military intervention in Niger, it appears reluctant to deploy troops there, fearing that such a move could plunge Niger into a civil war. 

Any military intervention by the bloc could further strain regional ties as juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea have expressed support for Niger’s military rule.

Tchiani sent a delegation Saturday to the Guinean capital, Conakry, to thank leaders there for their support — a sign of the junta’s drive to affirm alliances as it stands up to regional and other powers.

“We are pan-African. When our people have problems, we are always present, and we will always be there,” Guinea’s interim president, Mamady Doumbouya, said at the meeting, according to a video shared late Saturday night by the presidency.

Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a research group headquartered in Germany, said said Niger’s junta seems to be cementing its rule. “It looks as though the putschists have won and will stay,” he noted.

Laessing said ECOWAS might opt for negotiations pressing the junta to agree to a short transition period.

Europe and the United States will have little choice but to recognize the junta to continue the security cooperation in the region, Laessing added.

The U.S. and France have more than 2,500 military personnel in the region and together with other countries have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training Niger’s forces.

The July 26 coup is seen as a major blow to many Western nations. Niger is a top Uranium producer and, until now, a Western ally in the fight against a growing jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in the sub-Saharan Sahel region. 

Boko Haram rebels have intensified their attacks in the area. At least 40,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced in the 14-year jihadi conflict which has spread to Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Tchiani has maintained the junta could be more effective at protecting the nation from jihadi violence and has exploited anti-French sentiment among the population to shore up its support.

Nigeriens in the capital, Niamey, said Friday ECOWAS has been out of touch with the political realities in Niger and that it shouldn’t interfere.

“It is our business, not theirs. They don’t even know the reason why the coup happened in Niger,” said Achirou Harouna Albassi, a resident. Bazoum was not abiding by the will of the people, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country appreciated “the determination of ECOWAS to explore all options for the peaceful resolution of the crisis” and would hold the junta accountable for the safety and security of Bazoum. He did not, however, specify whether the U.S. supported the deployment of troops.

Western powers fear Russian influence increasing if Niger follows neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, both of which expelled troops of former colonial power France after coups in those countries.

Mali has since teamed up with mercenaries from the Russian-led Wagner Group and kicked out a United Nations peacekeeping force there, something security analysts say could lead to further conflict.

In Niamey, thousands demonstrated Friday outside a French military base.

“Long live Russia,” one protester’s sign read. “Down with France … Down with ECOWAS.” Another said: “Wagner will protect our children from terrorism.”

Bazoum family detained 

Bazoum and his family are being held in the basement of their home. The president said he hasn’t had electricity for nearly 10 days and isn’t allowed to see family, friends or bring food supplies into the house. Bazoum was seen by a doctor Saturday.

Bazoum “had a visit by his doctor today,” a member of the physician’s team told AFP Saturday, adding the physician had also brought food for Bazoum, his wife, and son.

“He’s fine, given the situation,” the source added.

Representatives of the junta told U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland during her visit to the country recently that they would kill Bazoum if ECOWAS intervened militarily, a Western military official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“The threat to kill Bazoum is grim,” said Alexander Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati. There have been unwritten rules until now about how overthrown presidents will be treated and violence against Bazoum would evoke some of the worst coups of the past, he said.

Blinken said he was “dismayed” by the military’s refusal to release Bazoum’s family as a “demonstration of goodwill.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse.
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Six Malian soldiers have been killed in an attack by “armed terrorist groups” in the north of the country, according to an army report.

An earlier army statement on the incident had said one soldier was killed and four wounded in the attack in Ber on Friday.

The death toll has risen to six, it said on Saturday, while “in their rout armed terrorist groups abandoned 24 bodies.”

They also left behind AK-47 assault rifles and motorbikes, the army said.

It said the clashes in the Timbuktu region took place after an “attempted incursion and harassing fire by terrorist groups against FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) units.”

The Malian troops were due to be stationed in Ber as part of a handover while the U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, prepares to leave the country, the army said.

Mali’s junta, in power since 2020, pushed the U.N. Security Council in June to withdraw MINUSMA by the end of the year.

Tuaregs report army attack 

Also in Ber on Friday, former Tuareg rebels said their forces were attacked by the army and the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

The Coordination of Azawad Movements, which controls vast areas of the north, said in a statement to AFP on Saturday that there were “maneuvers against its positions by the Malian armed forces accompanied by the Wagner militia.”

The CMA is an alliance of Tuareg-dominated groups seeking autonomy or independence from the Malian state.

“The FAMa is determined to occupy MINUSMA’s holdings at all costs, including those in areas under CMA control, in violation of all the security arrangements guaranteed to date by the U.N. mission and the international community”, it added, referring to a 2015 peace agreement.

On Thursday, the former Tuareg rebels announced the departure of all their representatives from Bamako for “security” reasons, further widening the gap with the country’s military rulers.

The CMA also criticizes the military for having approved a new constitution in June, which it believes compromises the agreement.

Mali’s military government has fallen out with former colonial power France and turned to Russia for political and military support.

Since 2012, Mali has been in the grip of a deep security crisis that began with an Islamist insurgency in the north, which has spread to the center of the country as well as to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
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Violence flared Sunday in the western Sudanese city of Nyala and elsewhere in the state of South Darfur, witnesses said, threatening to engulf the region in Sudan’s protracted war.

The conflict has brought daily battles to the streets of the capital of Khartoum, a revival of ethnically targeted attacks in West Darfur, and the displacement of more than 4 million people within Sudan and across its borders into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and other countries.

Clashes between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have flared periodically in Nyala, the country’s second biggest city and a strategic hub for the fragile Darfur region.

The latest flare-up has lasted three days, with both the army and RSF firing artillery into residential neighborhoods, witnesses told Reuters. Fighting has damaged electricity, water, and telecoms networks.

At least eight people were killed Saturday alone, according to the Darfur Bar Association, a national human rights monitor.

In recent days, fighting has extended 100 km (60 miles) to the west of Nyala, in the Kubum area, killing dozens, according to witnesses.

The bar association said Arab tribesmen equipped with RSF vehicles attacked the area, burning the market and raiding the police station in an attack on a rival Arab tribe. The fighting killed 24 people, it said.

Several Arab tribes have pledged their allegiance to the RSF.

“We call on all elements not to get dragged into the conflict whose aim is power in the center of the country,” the bar association said.

On Friday, Meta removed official Facebook pages belonging to the RSF for violating its “dangerous organizations and individuals policy.”

Extensive fighting in the area risks returning Darfur to the bloody attacks of the early 2000s when “Janjaweed” militias — from which the RSF formed — helped the army crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups.

Some 300,000 people were killed, the U.N. estimates, and Sudanese leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The U.N.’s special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, warned in July that the conflict showed no signs of a quick resolution and “risked morphing into an ethicized civil war.”

Diplomatic mediation efforts have so far failed, and cease-fires have been used by both sides to regroup.
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