European force battling extremists withdraws from Mali

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 02 July 2022

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By ANGELA CHARLTON

PARIS — A European military task force that helped Mali’s government fight Islamic extremists has formally withdrawn from the West African country amid tensions with its ruling military junta.

The French military, which spearheaded the Takuba task force, announced Friday that it officially ended its work Thursday. The move was tied to France’s decision earlier this year to withdraw troops from Mali after nine years helping Malian forces fight violent extremists who had threatened to seize power.

The European departure comes after at least 132 people were killed in several villages in central Mali in recent weeks in attacks blamed on jihadi rebels linked to al-Qaida, and after a contractor for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali was killed Thursday.

It also comes as Mali’s junta has grown closer to Russia, as Moscow has looked to build alliances and gain sway in Africa.

The European Takuba force was composed of several hundred special forces troops from 10 countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. It aimed at training and protecting Malian combat forces.

Despite the withdrawal, the French military called the force a “strategic and tactical success” and an example of “what Europeans are able to achieve together in complex security environments,” saying that lessons learned from Takuba could be used in future joint operations.

In announcing its pullout, France accused Mali’s authorities of neglecting the fight against Islamic extremists. France is maintaining a military presence in neighboring West African nations facing similar threats.

Insurgents remain active in Mali, and extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali, stoking animosity and violence between ethnic groups in the region.

The recent attacks on villages in central Mali were the deadliest since mutinous soldiers toppled the president in 2020.

Then on Thursday, a Malian contractor for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali was killed by armed militants on a motorcycle in the city of Menaka. The U.N. force MINUSMA said he was in route to see his hospitalized wife when he was killed, denouncing the killing as a “cowardly and barbaric act.”

The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to maintain the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, while condemning its military rulers for using mercenaries who are accused of committing human rights and humanitarian violations.

The junta has hired mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group, which has been accused by the European Union and human rights groups of violating human rights and international humanitarian law. While the Kremlin denies links to the company, Western analysts call it a tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia and China abstained from the French-drafted U.N. resolution, which extends the mandate of the mission until June 30, 2023, with its current ceiling of 13,289 military personnel and 1,920 international police.

Officials say more than 270 peacekeepers have died in Mali, making it the U.N.’s deadliest peacekeeping mission.

Israel at the African Union: Not in, but not out

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 11 February 2022

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By Suraya Dadoo, writer based in Johannesburg

ADDIS ABABA - Frantic lobbying, leaders more concerned about watching the AFCON final, and head-spinning back-tracking characterised discussions on Israel’s accreditation to the African Union (AU) when leaders gathered at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa on 5-6 February during the continental body’s Heads of State summit.

A 22 July decision by AU Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, to unilaterally accredit Israel has split the AU. South Africa and Algeria are leading opposition to Israel’s accreditation, while most west and east African nations have defended Mahamat’s Israel accreditation.

Those fault lines are now cracking open, and the issue of Israel’s accreditation risks tearing the AU apart and permanently damaging its integrity.

Israel's accreditation suspended

In October, the AU’s executive committee postponed a decision about Israel’s accreditation until the heads of state meeting. On Sunday morning, debate and voting about the divisive issue were suspended out of fear that it could collapse the entire summit – the first in-person meeting of African leaders since the Covid-19 pandemic began two years ago.

Instead, delegates unanimously agreed to appoint a committee to investigate Mahamat’s decision to grant Israel accreditation.

The committee would consist of South Africa, Algeria, and Nigeria – all opposed to Israel’s accreditation – and Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Cameroon, all pro-Israel. The new AU chairperson and Senegalese president, Macky Sall, who is also pro-Israel, will co-ordinate the committee.

The meeting also agreed that until the committee makes its final recommendations, Mahamat’s decision to accredit Israel would be suspended. It was a principled, sensible conclusion, reached through consensus - the AU’s preferred method of decision-making.

Crucially, it also helped avoid a split in the AU. The issue was, by all accounts, resolved. The decision would be drafted and a resolution presented in the afternoon.

The Palestinian delegation at the AU was informed, and by lunchtime, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release welcoming the decision and declaring it a ‘victory’ for Palestinians. Other Palestinian political factions, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, also released similar statements.

South African minister of international relations, Naledi Pandor, even confirmed to South African journalists that Mahamat’s decision “is suspended and it will not be implemented.” Both Israeli and Palestinian media soon began reporting that Israel’s accreditation to the AU had been suspended.

Israel's lunchtime lobbying

Israeli delegates, however, used the lunch break to frantically lobby members to re-open discussion on the issue.

Sources who were at the AU summit confirmed to The New Arab that Israel had promised additional military, surveillance, and intelligence assistance to several African leaders in the hopes that they would demand the issue of its accreditation be revisited in the afternoon.

Israel’s back-channel diplomacy was successful, and the matter was tabled for debate again - betraying the spirit of consensus-based decision-making at the AU.

Chaotic final session

The issue of contention was not the establishment of the committee, but the suspension of Mahamat’s decision. Under the chairmanship of Macky Sall, the ensuing debate that took place was seen as shameful by many.

Sall and other leaders called, on more than one occasion, for the discussion to be curtailed so they could watch the AFCON final.

Delegates from South Africa, Algeria, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Namibia and several other nations argued strongly that the earlier decision should stand, and that Israel’s accreditation be suspended.

However, Morocco, Senegal, Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Chad and the DRC, amongst others, argued that Israel’s observer status should remain valid.

Shockingly, Sall suddenly ended the meeting with a declaration that Mahamat’s decision to accredit Israel be upheld, pending the deliberations of the committee.

Palestine: A foreign issue?

“Africa should not be divided by something even which is foreign to Africa,” Sall said in response to a question on the status of Israel’s accreditation from the South African Broadcasting Corporation during the final press briefing soon after the chaotic debate ended. It’s an assertion that African activists have strongly rejected.

“How can Israel’s occupation of Palestine and Zionism be regarded as a ‘foreign issue’ when the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) explicitly makes fighting Zionism an AU responsibility?” asked Dialo Diop of the Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN) - a coalition of African civil society groups from across the continent mobilising support for Palestine.

Dialo is correct. Allowing Israel to be accredited to the AU actually contravenes the continental body’s own guiding document, the Constitutive Act. The Constitutive Act commits the AU to “promote and protect human and peoples’ right in accordance with the ACHPR.”

The African Charter itself makes a commitment on behalf of Africans to “eliminate colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, [and] Zionism”. Far from being ‘foreign’, Israel and its occupation of Palestine is a part of the African Union’s DNA.

Perhaps a more pertinent question for African diplomats lobbying for Israel’s accreditation is this: how is it possible to give Israel observer status when the AU is supposed to be committed to opposing Zionism - the foundational political ideology of that state?

Shouldn't we be discussing the coups?

During the discussion on Israel’s accreditation, some pro-Israel delegates argued that it was a waste of time spending energy discussing Israel’s AU accreditation when Africa has - in the time since Africa’s leaders last gathered physically at the AU - experienced six coups or attempted coups. “This is something which isn’t even an internal issue,” lamented Sall.

But Israel is very much an African problem – particularly its supply of weapons and spyware to some of Africa’s most brutal regimes.

In the last decade, Israeli military exports to Africa have increased by 309%. Israel’s Ministry of Defence allows the export of invasive spyware to several authoritarian regimes in Africa – to be used against their own citizens and even against other heads of state.

Israel: Not in, but not out

The Israeli government, meanwhile, has been reluctant to celebrate Sunday’s debacle at the AU as a victory. Although Mahamat’s decision to accredit Israel still stands, the vote to confirm its observer status at the AU didn’t happen. So, for the time being, Israel isn’t out of the AU. But it’s not officially in either.

With no official confirmation of its accreditation, Israel still has not entered into a formal relationship with the AU. More importantly for Tel Aviv, though, is that as the apartheid label is increasingly used to describe Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, the political and diplomatic recognition that comes with attaining observer status at the AU still eludes it.

The fallout continues

The acrimony from the discussions around Israel’s accreditation has continued long after diplomats returned home.

In Addis Ababa, Mahamat defended his decision to grant Israel observer status. One of the reasons he provided was that 44 out of the 55 AU member states have relations with Israel.

Calling it a “double standard”, Mahamat said he found it difficult to understand the rejection of Israel’s observer status by AU members who have representation in Tel Aviv “and which hoists, in the heart of its own capital, the Israeli flag while organising in its honour a grand ceremony of presentation of credentials.”

This was a thinly-veiled reference to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent acceptance of credentials from the Israeli ambassador to South Africa – a move that angered Palestine solidarity activists in South Africa.

Mahamat’s remarks were not well-received in Pretoria.

On Tuesday, South Africa’s Parliament said that its international relations committee will be meeting with South African Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor, to address some of the statements about South Africa contained in Mahamat’s speech at the AU.

“This issue can divide us… Africa cannot be divided,” Sall told journalists on Sunday night. But many would argue that Israel’s back-channel diplomacy has already undermined Africa’s fragile unity.

Either way, African leaders squandered a valuable opportunity to show that they really are in solidarity with Palestine and are committed to fighting colonialism and apartheid. In doing so, they also missed a chance to present themselves as principled and consistent.

Insecurity a top issue as African leaders meet in Ethiopia

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 05 February 2022

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ADDIS ABABA — African leaders are meeting Saturday at a summit that is expected to discuss the continent’s most pressing challenges, including a new wave of coups in West Africa and a slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, is also expected to gather support for Africa’s push toward permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his opening remarks called for cooperation among African nations in demanding two permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.

“Today, more than seven decades after the creation of the United Nations, Africa remains a junior partner, without a meaningful input or role within the system of international governance,” Abiy said.

“We should collectively insist that Africa’s reasonable request for no less than two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats in the U.N. Security Council be adopted.”

Speaking via video link, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said cooperation between the the U.N. and the African Union “is stronger than ever.” Guterres noted that “injustice is deeply embedded in global systems,” with Africans “paying the heaviest price.”

“The unethical inequalities that suffocate Africa fuel armed conflict, political, economic, ethnic and social tensions, human rights abuses, violence against women, terrorism, military coups and a sentiment of impunity,” he said.

Most of the summit’s sessions will be held behind closed doors.

The African Union, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in July, has often been criticized for its apparent inconsistencies in responding to sporadic crises on the continent of 1.3 billion people.

Ahead of the summit, the bloc’s most recent major decision was to suspend Burkina Faso after mutinous soldiers ousted democratically elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in a coup, citing his inability to stem Islamic extremist violence. That decision came after the West African regional bloc ECOWAS had suspended Burkina Faso.

West Africa’s new wave of coups began in 2020 in Mali, followed by another in Guinea the following year, and then Burkina Faso in late January. Just a week later, gunmen tried and failed to overthrow the president of Guinea-Bissau.

Elsewhere, there are deadly conflicts in countries ranging from Mozambique to Ethiopia.

The International Crisis Group said in a statement that securing a cease-fire in Ethiopia, supporting dialogue in the Sahel and reforming the African Union Mission in Somalia should be among the African Union’s priorities this year.

“It has been a turbulent year for Africa: tens of thousands killed in wars in the Horn of Africa, countries falling back under military rule, and struggles with faltering transitions and Islamist militancy,” the group said ahead of the Summit. “The (African Union’s) institutions must be able to tackle these problems, as well as climate change-related security threats.”

Human Rights Watch urged President Macky Sall of Senegal to focus on civilian protection, justice and accountability as he takes up the presidency of the African Union.

“Despite the challenges, Sall has an opportunity to demonstrate the AU’s leadership and commitment to its founding principles by taking bold, uncompromising stances against state-sponsored abuses, responding to victims’ calls for protection and justice, and pressing for equal and fair multilateral relations with the Global North,” Carine Kaneza Nantulya, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

The African Union summit should prioritize addressing the rampant abuses occurring in the conflict in Ethiopia between fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Ethiopian federal government and its allies, including Eritrea, the rights group said.