US military completes withdrawal from final base in Niger

US military completes withdrawal from final base in Niger
US Air Force plane takes off from their base In Agadez, Niger, Monday, Aug 5, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 06 August 2024
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US military completes withdrawal from final base in Niger

US military completes withdrawal from final base in Niger

NIAMEY, Niger: The US military withdrew from a final base in jihadist-hit Niger on Monday, more than a year after coup leaders in the African country demanded its troops leave.

After nearly 800 soldiers pulled out of a base in the capital Niamey in early July, around 200 had remained at the large Agadez base in northern Niger.

The “withdrawal of US forces and assets from Air Base 201 in Agadez is complete,” the Pentagon said in a joint statement with Niger’s defense ministry.

“This effort... will continue between US and Nigerien armed forces over the coming weeks to ensure the full withdrawal is complete as planned,” it added.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that around “less than two dozen folks” were still on the ground in Niger.

The remaining personnel are at the US embassy and are performing “administrative work in preparing for the completion of the withdrawal,” she said.

Niger’s Air-Info news site confirmed the departure of the last American forces from Agadez.

It said officers from both countries attended a handover ceremony, which ended with the taking-off of the last US army plane.

US Major General Kenneth Ekman, who is coordinating the withdrawal from Niger, had previously announced the US troop exit would be completed in early August, ahead of the mid-September deadline.

Niger in recent years has been a lynchpin in US and French strategy to combat jihadists in West Africa, especially since the military seized power in Mali and Burkina Faso, becoming hostile to Western armed forces.

The July 26, 2023 coup in Niger — which overthrew the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum — has seen the new regime move closer to its two neighbors and force out the French and US military from the country.

The three military-led nations have since formed the Confederation of Sahel States (AES).

The US withdrawal from Niger kicked off in May, two months after the government said it was ending a military cooperation agreement with Washington, claiming the presence of US soldiers was now “illegal.”

Ekman has said the United States will continue to work with other nations, such as Ivory Coast who face a violent extremist threat.

Niger’s regime under General Abdourahamane Tiani is reviewing its foreign policy while declaring it is on a march to “sovereignty.”

It has tilted notably toward Russia — as has Burkina and Mali — which has sent instructors and military equipment this year.

Niger has also tightened relations with Turkiye and Iran.

For around a decade, Niger has been grappling with bloody violence by armed groups linked to Daesh and Al-Qaeda.

It also has to contend with violence in its southeast from Boko Haram and Daesh West African offshoot.

According to Acled, which tracks conflict, jihadists have killed some 1,500 civilians and soldiers in the past year in Niger, compared with 650 in the year to July 2023.


Armenian prime minister says peace with Azerbaijan ‘within reach’

Armenian prime minister says peace with Azerbaijan ‘within reach’
Updated 39 sec ago
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Armenian prime minister says peace with Azerbaijan ‘within reach’

Armenian prime minister says peace with Azerbaijan ‘within reach’
  • Azeri troops seized last year the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, forcing its entire population of nearly 120,000 people to flee to Armenia
  • Facing a weaker hand and the lack of intervention by Armenia’s historic ally Russia, Pashinyan sued for peace but faced protests from nationalists at home

UNITED NATIONS: Armenia’s prime minister said Thursday that peace with Azerbaijan was “within reach,” appealing to his neighbor to sign a treaty to turn the page on decades of conflict.
Exactly a year after Azerbaijan triumphed in a lightning military offensive, Armenia promised to meet a key demand of its historic rival: to ensure travel links.
“Today I want to say that peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan not only is possible, but is within reach,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly.
“All we need to do is reach out and take it,” he said.
“The pain is very deep and intense, but we must now focus on peace, because peace is the only truth understandable to the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.
The two former Soviet republics had seen decades of war and tension over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan.
After a series of slow-moving negotiations, Azerbaijan rushed in troops last year and swiftly seized back Nagorno-Karabakh, whose entire population of nearly 120,000 people fled to Armenia.
Facing a weaker hand and the lack of intervention by Armenia’s historic ally Russia, Pashinyan has insisted on the need for peace but faced protests from nationalists opposed to compromise.
In his UN address, Pashinyan said he was ready to meet the Baku government’s key demand of allowing transportation access across Armenian soil to the exclave of Nakhchivan, letting Azerbaijan connect its main territory with its traditional ally Turkiye.
“The Republic of Armenia is ready to fully ensure the safety of the passage of cargo vehicles and people on its territory. It is our wish, our commitment, and we can do it,” Pashinyan said, saying it could become a “crossroads of peace.”

Map of Armenia and Azerbaijan showing the areas controlled by each country during the Soviet era, after the 1994 conflict and after the war in 2020.

Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s objections to a section of the Armenian constitution that speaks of uniting with Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinyan said that Armenia had its own issues with Azerbaijan’s constitution but that it did not see any obstacle as a peace agreement “solves the problem.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia both say that 80 percent of a treaty is ready, including border delineation, but Azerbaijan first wants a resolution of all issues.
Some diplomats view Azerbaijani strongman Ilham Aliyev’s stance as cynical, considering the difficulty that Pashinyan would have in changing the constitution.
The diplomats say Azerbaijan believes it can afford to wait as it has the clear upper hand, with its wealth from gas, a modernized military bolstered by Turkish weapons, and a rising international profile, with Baku in November the host of the COP29 climate summit.
Pashinyan insisted that Azerbaijan and Armenia should sign the draft treaty immediately, explaining, “There is no precedent of a peace agreement or any agreement that would regulate and solve everything.”
A treaty and diplomatic relations would improve “the overall atmosphere” between the two countries, which will “significantly facilitate the solution of the remaining issues,” Pashinyan said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the two countries’ foreign ministers on Thursday in New York.
Blinken “encouraged continued progress by both countries to finalize an agreement as soon as possible,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
 


Kenya set for full Haiti deployment amid call for shift to UN mission

Kenya set for full Haiti deployment amid call for shift to UN mission
Updated 3 min 58 sec ago
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Kenya set for full Haiti deployment amid call for shift to UN mission

Kenya set for full Haiti deployment amid call for shift to UN mission

UNITED NATIONS: Kenya is aiming to complete its full deployment of a stabilization force in violence-torn Haiti by January, President William Ruto said Thursday, as Haiti’s leader suggested making it a UN peacekeeping mission.

The three-month-old security force to combat spiraling insecurity in the Caribbean nation is currently a Kenyan-led multinational policing operation, and changing it into a UN-mandated force would require a Security Council vote.

“Kenya will deploy the additional contingent toward attaining the target of all the 2,500 police officers by January next year,” Ruto said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

“Kenya and other Caribbean and African countries are ready to deploy, but are hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics and funding,” he said.

Ruto called on member states to “stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti by providing necessary support.”

Criminal gangs control more than 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as key roads around the country.

Edgard Leblanc Fils, the head of Haiti’s transitional council, told the General Assembly Thursday he “would like to see a thought being given to transforming the security support mission into a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the United Nations.”

Leblanc Fils said that such a change would allow for the challenge of funding the mission to be resolved, while helping “to strengthen the commitment of member states to security in Haiti.”

“I am convinced that this change of status, whilst recognizing that the errors of the past cannot be repeated, would guarantee the full success of the mission in Haiti,” he said.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which deployed from 2004 to 2017, was tarnished by accusations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the force’s accidental introduction of cholera, which killed some 10,000 people.

The United States has also backed consideration of putting the new force under the UN flag to ensure a predictable source of funding.

But the move faces daunting odds in the Security Council, where China and Russia hold veto power.

A draft UN Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the security mission contains a call “to consider” transforming the deployment into a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission.

It is due to be debated Monday.

Haitian interim prime minister Garry Conille warned Wednesday that “we’re nowhere near winning this” as he stressed the battle against the gangs would not be successful without outside help.

The United States announced on Wednesday $160 million of new aid for Haiti, bringing the amount of US aid to the troubled Caribbean country to $1.3 billion since 2021.

Leblanc Fils said his country still needed “much more in terms of personnel and also equipment to be able to solve the security problems and allow elections to take place.”

Washington on Wednesday also announced sanctions against two Haitians linked to the country’s powerful gangs.


Florida bracing for ‘unsurvivable’ Hurricane Helene

Florida bracing for ‘unsurvivable’ Hurricane Helene
Updated 11 min 15 sec ago
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Florida bracing for ‘unsurvivable’ Hurricane Helene

Florida bracing for ‘unsurvivable’ Hurricane Helene

A powerful hurricane was barreling toward Florida on Thursday, with officials warning of “unsurvivable” conditions and a potentially catastrophic storm surge high enough to swamp a two-story house.

Tens of thousands of people were without power and roads were already flooded ahead of what is expected to be one of the largest Gulf of Mexico storms in decades.

Fast-moving Helene strengthened to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane Thursday evening, ahead of landfall expected around 11pm (0300 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

It was packing winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour as it churned over the Gulf’s warm waters toward the Big Bend area south of Florida’s capital city Tallahassee.

“EVERYONE along the Florida Big Bend coast is at risk of potentially catastrophic storm surge,” the NHC said on social media.

Tampa and Tallahassee airports have closed, with parts of St. Petersburg, downtown Tampa, Sarasota, Treasure Island and other cities on Florida’s west coast already flooded.

About 125,000 homes and businesses were without power.

“We’re expecting to see a storm surge inundation of 15 to 20 feet above ground level,” NHC director Mike Brennan said. “That’s up to the top of a second story building. Again, a really unsurvivable scenario is going to play out here in this portion of the Florida coastline.”

The accompanying waves “can destroy houses, move cars, and that water level is going to rise very quickly,” Brennan added.

In Alligator Point, a coastal town on a picturesque peninsula in the storm’s path, David Wesolowski was taking no chances.

“I just came to button up a few things before it gets too windy,” the 37-year-old real estate agent told AFP as he boarded up his house on stilts.

“If it stays on course, this is going to look different afterwards, that’s for sure,” he said, before taking his family to higher ground in Tallahassee.

Meanwhile, Patrick Riickert refused to budge from his small wooden house in Crawfordville, a town of 5,000 people a few miles inland.

As in Alligator Point, most residents have bolted and it looked like a ghost town, but Riickert, his wife and five grandchildren were “not going anywhere,” the 58-year-old insisted.

“I am going to hunker down” and ride out the hurricane, as he did in 2018 when deadly Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 megastorm, blew through the Florida panhandle.

The NHC warned of up to 20 inches (51 cm) of rain in some spots, and potentially life-threatening flooding as well as numerous landslides across the southern Appalachians.

The National Weather Service said the region could be hit extremely hard, with floods not seen in more than a century.

“This will be one of the most significant weather events to happen in the western portions of the area in the modern era,” it warned.

Tornado warnings went out across northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Georgia’s sprawling capital Atlanta was forecast to experience tropical storm-force winds and flash flooding from up to 12 inches of rain.

And Tennessee — more than 300 miles from the Gulf Coast — braced for tropical storm conditions statewide.

More than 55 million Americans were under some form of weather alert or warning from Hurricane Helene.

“This is going to be a multi-state event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida all the way to Tennessee,” Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters.

Vice President Kamala Harris said the White House was watching.

“The President and I, of course, are monitoring the case and the situation closely, and we urge everyone who is watching at this very moment to take this storm very seriously,” she told reporters.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis mobilized the National Guard and ordered thousands of personnel to ready for search-and-rescue operations.

He warned that the powerful storm would be dangerous, and urged everyone to take precautions.

“We can’t control how strong this hurricane is going to get. We can’t control the track of the hurricane, but what you can control is what you can do to put yourself in the best chance to be able to ride this out in a way that’s going to be safe.”

Helene could become the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in over a year — and almost certainly the biggest.

Hurricane specialist Michael Lowry called Helene “extreme,” noting its tropical storm winds of 39 mph or higher stretched nearly 500 miles across.

Researchers say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.


Minority wing of Moldovan Orthodox church accuses priests of lobbying against Europe vote

Minority wing of Moldovan Orthodox church accuses priests of lobbying against Europe vote
Updated 19 min 24 sec ago
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Minority wing of Moldovan Orthodox church accuses priests of lobbying against Europe vote

Minority wing of Moldovan Orthodox church accuses priests of lobbying against Europe vote
  • Religion, like politics, is deeply polarized in ex-Soviet Moldova, split between liberals advocating for closer ties with the EU Romania and conservatives seeking to retain longstanding links with Russia

CHISINAU: The minority pro-Romanian branch of Moldova’s Orthodox Church accused clergy from the rival Moscow-linked branch of the church of campaigning against a referendum asking voters whether they back the government’s drive to join the European Union.
The minority Metropolis of Bessarabia said rival priests were lobbying against pro-European President Maia Sandu’s campaign to join the 27-nation bloc in “profoundly offensive acts ... clearly directed against the spiritual and national unity” of Moldova.

Why it is important
Religion, like politics, is deeply polarized in ex-Soviet Moldova, split between liberals advocating for closer ties with the EU and neighboring Romania and conservatives seeking to retain longstanding links with Russia.
The majority Moldova Metropolis is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, though the number of priests switching to the minority branch has increased because of the Russian church’s backing for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Moldova’s eastern neighbor.
With more than 90 percent of Moldovans adhering to Orthodox Christianity, church actions could have a major effect on the Oct. 20 referendum — held alongside a presidential election in which Sandu is seeking a second term.

Key quotes
Statement by the minority Metropolis of Bessarabia:
“Priests are openly involved in election political propaganda ... The Bessarabia Metropolis firmly supports Moldova’s Europe policy which reflects Democratic values and respect for the Church and Christianity.”

President Sandu, earlier in September
“Clergy must not permit themselves to be used to destabilize the country. They must in all things work for peace in our society ... My appeal to clergy is not to get involved in politics and leave citizens to choose what they believe in. Let them teach Christian morals.”

Context
The latest opinion poll puts support for EU membership at 56 percent, with 34 percent opposed. Two of 15 parties registered in the referendum campaign are calling for a “no” vote.


Denial of Palestinian state threatens Israelis, Jews everywhere: European Council president

Denial of Palestinian state threatens Israelis, Jews everywhere: European Council president
Updated 24 min 49 sec ago
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Denial of Palestinian state threatens Israelis, Jews everywhere: European Council president

Denial of Palestinian state threatens Israelis, Jews everywhere: European Council president
  • Charles Michel calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza, two-state solution
  • Conflict in Sudan a ‘huge humanitarian catastrophe,’ he tells UN General Assembly

NEW YORK CITY: The continued denial of a state for the Palestinian people threatens the security of Israelis and Jews everywhere, the European Council president told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

Charles Michel said the EU is working hard toward achieving an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and Israel’s security cannot come at the cost of regional peace.

“We want an immediate ceasefire in accordance with the order of the International Court of Justice. The EU is working for a lasting peace within the framework of a two-state solution living freely side by side and in safety,” he added.

“Freedom and solidarity — it’s under these same principles that we condemn the abominable terrorist attacks by Hamas (on Oct. 7 last year).

“Israel has the right to defend itself in accordance with international law and within the principle of proportionality, but ensuring security while neglecting peace is an illusion. There will never be lasting security without peace.

“The Palestinian people have the right to their state. Denying them this right will indefinitely fuel threats to the security of Israelis and of Jews everywhere.”

Remaining on the topic of regional crises, Michel called the conflict in Sudan a “huge humanitarian catastrophe.”

He said the EU will continue its efforts to pressure the warring parties in the country and those who support them to respect humanitarian and international law.