Not all messages are displayed:
show all messages (58 of them)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/15/france-mali-troops/?fbclid=IwAR3EOPLTLYne8aCG6415c_k_ADmS8QSdeVwi54SOvlSV26qEez8GFWHpDcc
France is weighing a total military withdrawal from Mali, blaming soured relations with the West African nation’s military rulers and the arrival of Russian mercenaries, according to the European power’s top diplomat and two Western officials with knowledge of the plan.
“If the conditions are no longer in place so that we can act in Mali — which is clearly the case — then we will continue to fight terrorism next door,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 5 late Monday.
French President Emmanuel Macron plans to announce the departure from Mali this week during a European Union-African Union summit in Brussels, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly....
Mali’s biggest defense ally — has about 4,000 troops in West Africa, which is grappling with the world’s fastest-growing Islamist insurgencies. That number is set to shrink to 2,500 this year, and the remaining troops are expected to be redeployed elsewhere in the region, the officials said, including Niger and Ivory Coast....
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 05:21 (two years ago) link
eleven months pass...
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — At least 2,100 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria, where a powerful earthquake on Monday collapsed thousands of buildings and raised the specter of a new humanitarian disaster in a region already wracked by war, a refugee crisis and deep economic troubles.
From NY Times
― curmudgeon, Monday, 6 February 2023 17:20 (one year ago) link
one year passes...
https://wapo.st/3UQ292T
gift link should hopefully work- article title--With Europe’s support, North African nations push migrants to the desert
A year-long joint investigation by The Washington Post, Lighthouse Reports and a consortium of international media outlets shows how the European Union and individual European nations are supporting and financing aggressive operations by governments in North Africa to detain tens of thousands of migrants each year and dump them in remote areas, often barren deserts.
European funds have been used to train personnel and buy equipment for units implicated in desert dumps and human rights abuses, records and interviews show. Migrants have been pushed back into the most inhospitable parts of North Africa, exposing them to abandonment with no food or water, kidnapping, extortion, sale as human chattel, torture, sexual violence and, in the worst instances, death.
Spanish security forces in Mauritania photographed and reviewed lists of migrants before they were driven to Mali against their will and left to wander for days in an area where violent Islamist groups operate, according to testimony and documents.
In Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, vehicles of the same make and model as those provided by European countries to local security forces rounded up Black migrants from streets or transported them from detention centers to remote regions, according to filmed footage, verified images, migrant testimony and interviews with officials.
European officials held internal discussions on some of the abusive practices since at least 2019, and were flagged to allegations in reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Frontex, the E.U. border agency.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 21 May 2024 15:51 (two days ago) link
The E.U. provided more than 400 million euros to Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania between 2015 and 2021 under its largest migration fund, the E.U. Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, an initiative to foster local economic growth and stem migration.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 21 May 2024 15:54 (two days ago) link