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is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies.

Persons: Trump Organizations: The Times

☆ Surrounded by Fighters and Haunted by Famine, Sudan City Fears Worst
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fears of renewed ethnic slaughter in the Sudanese region of Darfur, where genocidal violence killed as many as 300,000 people two decades ago, have soared in recent days, with a looming assault on an embattled city that is already threatened by famine. The contest for control of El Fasher, the last city held by Sudan’s military in Darfur, has prompted alarmed warnings from American and United Nations officials who fear that mass bloodshed may be imminent. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, told reporters on Monday that the city was “on the precipice of a large-scale massacre.”El Fasher is the latest flashpoint in a year-old civil war between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group that the military once nurtured and is now its bitter rival for power. The conflict has devastated one of Africa’s largest countries and created a vast humanitarian crisis that U.N. officials say is one of the biggest in decades. The crisis also brings a sharp focus on the role of foreign powers accused of fueling the fight, especially the United Arab Emirates.

Persons: El Fasher, Linda Thomas, Greenfield, ” El Fasher Organizations: United Nations, Rapid Support Forces, United Locations: Sudanese, Darfur, U.S, “, United Arab Emirates

☆ From the Horror to the Envy of Africa: Rwanda’s Ruler Holds Tight Grip
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-06 | by ( Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Blood coursed through the streets of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, in April 1994 as machete-wielding militiamen began a campaign of genocide that killed as many as 800,000 people, one of the great horrors of the late 20th century. Thirty years later, Kigali is the envy of Africa. Smooth streets curl past gleaming towers that hold banks, luxury hotels and tech startups. A 10,000-seat arena hosts Africa’s biggest basketball league and concerts by stars like Kendrick Lamar, the American rapper, who performed there in December. Tourists fly in to visit Rwanda’s famed gorillas.

Persons: Kendrick Lamar Organizations: Volkswagen, Tourists Locations: Rwanda’s, Kigali, Africa, American

☆ Atrocities Mount in Sudan as War Spirals, U.N. Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Nick Cumming-Bruce | Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bombs that struck houses, markets, and bus stations across Sudan, often killing dozens of civilians at once. Ethnic rampages, accompanied by rape and looting, that killed thousands in the western region of Darfur. And a video clip, verified by United Nations officials, that shows Sudanese soldiers parading through the streets of a major city, triumphantly brandishing the decapitated heads of students who were killed on the basis of their ethnicity. The horrors of Sudan’s spiraling civil war are laid out in graphic detail in a new United Nations report that draws on photos, videos and interviews with over 300 victims and witnesses, to present the stark human toll from 10 months of fighting. Many probable war crimes have occurred as part of the grinding battle for control of Sudan, one of the largest countries in Africa, which started with clashes between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, the report by the U.N.’s human rights body found.

Organizations: United Nations, Rapid Support Forces Locations: Sudan, Darfur, Africa

☆ Portraits of Gazans
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Declan Walsh | Samar Abu Elouf | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Portraits of GazansDeclan Walsh andFeb. 4, 2024A toddler, a teenager, a mother, a photojournalist. Their lives were ripped apart in one of the deadliest and most destructive wars of the 21st century. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, now in its fourth month, is often conveyed in stark numbers and historical comparisons: Some 27,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. Nearly two million are displaced and more than 60 percent of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed in a territory smaller than Manhattan. Yet the lives behind those statistics are often hidden from view.

Persons: Gazans Declan Walsh, Samar Abu Elouf Organizations: Hamas, New York Times Locations: Gaza, Manhattan, Israel, Samar

A Kenyan court on Friday prohibited the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti, jeopardizing a multinational security force charged with stabilizing the chaos-hit Caribbean island nation before it even got off the ground. The force, which is backed by the United Nations and financed by the United States, had been stalled since October, when Kenyan opponents of the mission challenged it in court, calling it unconstitutional. “An order is issued prohibiting the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti or any other country,” Justice Chacha Mwita said at the conclusion of a judgment that took 40 minutes to read. The international force was meant to help break the grip of the armed gangs that control most of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and have turned Haiti into one of the world’s most dangerous nations. Haiti’s government has pleaded for foreign military forces to be sent in to restore order, but the United States and Canada have been unwilling to commit their own troops.

Persons: Chacha Mwita Organizations: Kenyan, United Nations Locations: Haiti, jeopardizing, United States, Port, Canada

☆ Fresh From Battles Won With U.A.E. Arms, Sudanese General Takes Victory Lap
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of a notorious paramilitary force fighting for supremacy in Sudan’s civil war, is not the president of his country. Yet on a recent whirlwind tour of six African nations, he was treated just like one. Some of the continent’s most powerful leaders rolled out the red carpet for General Hamdan after he arrived on a luxury jet for meetings in late December and early January, having swapped his military fatigues for business suits. And in Rwanda, General Hamdan posed solemnly at a memorial to victims of the 1994 genocide — even though his own troops have faced accusations of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. The surprise tour was a remarkable comeback for a commander often rumored dead or wounded since Sudan plunged into war in April.

Persons: Mohamed Hamdan, Hamdan, Cyril Ramaphosa, General Hamdan, General Hamdan’s Organizations: General, General Hamdan’s Rapid Support Forces, United Arab, United Nations Locations: Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Sudan’s Darfur, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Persian, Horn of Africa

The twin specters of a widening regional war and intensified suffering of civilians loomed over the Middle East on Saturday as the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen threatened to respond to American airstrikes, and a senior U.N. official warned of a “horrific” humanitarian crisis in Gaza that he said was hurtling toward famine. An American missile strike, launched from a warship in the Red Sea, hit a radar station outside the Yemeni capital, Sana, early on Saturday. The solitary strike came about 24 hours after U.S.-led strikes against nearly 30 sites in northern and western Yemen that were intended to deter Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Houthi officials tried to brush off the latest assault, saying it would have little impact on their ability to attack vessels in the Red Sea. The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, say their goal is to punish Israel for blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza — though Yemeni analysts say the crisis also presents the Houthis with a welcome distraction from rising criticism at home.

Persons: Israel Locations: Iran, Yemen, Gaza, American, Red, Sana

Bodies littered the road out of El Geneina, a town in western Sudan, as Dr. Rodwan Mustafa and his family sped down a bumpy road that led to the border with Chad and, they hoped, safety. A day earlier, rampaging Arab militiamen had grabbed Dr. Mustafa by the neck, accusing him of giving medical care to enemy fighters. Racing toward the border with his family in a car, he saw chickens clucking over the bloodied corpses of those who hadn’t fled in time. A camp for displaced people stood empty, burned to the ground. “The smell of death was everywhere,” said Dr. Mustafa, who made it to a refugee camp in Chad and spoke by phone from there.

Persons: Rodwan Mustafa, Mustafa, hadn’t, ” Locations: El, Sudan, Chad

☆ Opinion | Two Ways of Looking at the West’s Population Dilemma
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

That means the dilemma of the 21st century isn’t how Earth will feed an ever-growing population, but how the world will deal with a potential mass rebalancing of population via migration, an altered wealth-and-people equilibrium, in a world where technology is making the movement of peoples easier than ever. Clearly, the richest countries will be able to replenish their populations with immigration across the 21st century — if they choose. (A 25 percent ratio means there are four workers for every retiree; a 50 percent ratio, just two.) I don’t think you need to be especially pessimistic to regard that kind of transformation as incompatible with stable democratic governance. It’s among the reasons you already have the rightward shift in European politics and why immigration restriction will be a winning issue for the foreseeable future in many European countries.

Persons: Declan Walsh, Africa’s “, Hannah Reyes Morales, Walsh, it’s, Paul Morland, Philip Pilkington, —, hasn’t, don’t, ’, Morland, Pilkington, Biden, Trump, “, Gilbert Meilaender, Blake Smith, Yuan Yi Zhu, Valerie Stivers, Tim Miller, John Gallagher, — Sarah Neville Organizations: Financial Times Locations: Israel, Gaza, Europe, Africa, East Asia, Latin America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Sweden, Nigeria, Morocco, Americas, America, United States, Palestine, Denmark, Britain, South Korea, Japan, Asia, Poland, ”, London, North America

☆ The World Is Becoming More African
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Declan Walsh | Hannah Reyes Morales | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +37 min

Old World Young Africa As the world grays, Africa blooms with youth. The World Is Becoming More African Part one of a series on how the youth boom is changing the continent, and beyond. But while a handful of African countries are poised to ride the demographic wave, others risk being swamped by it. In the West, racists and right-wing nationalists stoke fears of African population growth to justify hatred, or even violence. The age gap between geriatric leaders and restless youth is “a major source of tension” in many African countries, said Simon Mulongo, a former African Union diplomat from Uganda.

Persons: Lauren Leatherby, ”, Jean, Patrick Niambé, Hilton, Edward Paice, “, Keziah Keya, Keya, Paul R, Ehrlich, stoke, Lauren Leatherby “, Carlos Lopes, Burna, Weeks, “ It’s, Laolu Senbanjo, Tems, Toulaye Sy, Pritzker, Abdulrazak Gurnah, “ Africa’s, ” Long, exotica, Mulendema, Hannah O’Leary, “ We’re, Sipho Dlamini, Dlamini, Moawad, Optimists, Mo Ibrahim, Aubrey Hruby, birthrates, India’s, China’s, Akinwumi Adesina, States —, William Ruto, Paul Biya of, Biya, Wole Soyinka, Paul Kagame of, Nourdine, Nigeriens, Awade, Ali Bongo Ondimba, Simon Mulongo, Nuha Abdelgadir, Abdelgadir, gesturing, “ We’ve, ” Weeks, Abdelgadir’s, Modu Ali, Young, Saidu, Habiba Mohammed, Ms, Ha, Joon Chang, Nobody, Chang, Ibrahim, Touré Organizations: Young, United Nations, Southern, Northern, Western Asia Northern, United, Ivory Coast, African Union, Group, European Union ., Suisse, Africa Research Institute, Nigeria Mozambique Kenya “, Russia Canada Germany United, Russia Canada Germany United States Japan China Iran Egypt India Mexico Nigeria Ethiopia Ethiopia Dem, Russia Germany, China Egypt India Nigeria D.R.C, Russia Canada Germany United States Japan China Iran Egypt India Mexico Nigeria Ethiopia Dem, Bank, Nations, International, Bryn Mawr College, Angola, Angola Ivory Coast, Angola Ivory Coast Cameroon Dem, Africa Middle Africa Southern, Economic Commission, New, Citi, Spotify, Cannes Film, Burkina Faso, UNESCO, Disney, Amazon Prime, Netflix, “, Apple, Cape Town, Microsoft, Google, Infrastructure, McKinsey & Company, Pew Research Center, African Development Bank, Greek Coast Guard, Saudi, Africa Climate, Young Voters, Freedom House, University of Denver, United Arab, Japan Cuba Vatican City, Netherlands South Korea Belgium U.A.E, Islamic, Global, Center for Girls Education, School of Oriental, Studies Locations: grays, Africa, India, China, United States, Southern Asia, Asia, America, Caribbean, Northern America, Western Asia, Western Asia Northern America, Europe, London, New York, West Africa, Ivory, Abidjan, Russia, Turkey, Gulf, Nairobi, Nigeria Mozambique Kenya, Italy, Japan, Russia Canada Germany United States Japan China Iran Egypt India Mexico Nigeria Ethiopia Ethiopia, Congo Indonesia Brazil Australia South Africa Argentina, Russia Germany U.S, China Egypt India Nigeria, Brazil South Africa Australia, Russia Canada Germany United States Japan China Iran Egypt India Mexico Nigeria, Nigeria, Africa’s, Young, South Africa, Somalia, Mozambique, Mali, Gabon, Niger, Mozambique Nigeria Kenya, Kenya, Pennsylvania, Angola Ivory, Angola Ivory Coast Cameroon, Congo Algeria Egypt, Ghana Kenya Madagascar Mozambique Niger Nigeria, Tanzania Uganda South Africa, Northern Africa Eastern Africa, Africa Middle Africa, Africa Middle Africa Southern Africa, Guinea, Bissau, African, Qatar, Nigerian, Brooklyn, Target, French, Senegalese, Paris, Milan, Venice, Burkina, Tanzania, Saharan Africa, Nigeria Kenya Senegal In Lagos, Dakar, Zambia, South Korea, Sotheby’s, Lagos, Zimbabwe, Watford, Cape, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Cairo, Morocco, East Africa, Nigeria Mozambique Morocco, Sudanese, North Africa, East Asia, Thailand, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, States, Namibia, Kenyan, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, United Arab Emirates, United States France Turkey, Germany, Russia India, Brazil, Japan Cuba, Japan Cuba Vatican City Spain Italy Saudi Arabia Qatar, Netherlands South Korea Belgium, Iran Canada, Niger’s, Niamey, Senegal Kenya Kenya, X’s, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Senegal, Uganda, Khartoum, Sudan, Ethiopia, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, Chad, Burkina Faso, Nigeria Nigeria Morocco, hijabs, Zaria, American, Korea, South, England

☆ As Bombs Fall in Gaza, History Hangs Over a Family Fighting to Survive
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Declan Walsh | More About Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

An Israeli airstrike had crushed an apartment block in the Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killing 45 members of his extended family. Mr. Abujayyab and his siblings argued about her next move: Stay at her grandmother’s apartment? Mr. Azmi, the Crisis Group researcher, had moved his family to a friend’s house in southern Gaza. It fractured his skull and crushed his chest, Mr. Azmi said by phone. They had no power, limited internet and more bombs were falling, his sister said in a voice message to her family.

Persons: Nathan Thrall, “, Abed Salama, ”, —, Abujayyab, Mr, welling, Azmi, Azmi Keshawi, Abujayyab’s, Nurit Cooper, Yocheved Lifshitz, Nir Oz Organizations: Crisis Group, Ministry Locations: Israel, Gaza, Gaza . Credit, Egypt

African leaders allied with Russia had grown used to dealing with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the swaggering, profane mercenary leader who traveled the continent by private jet, offering to prop up shaky regimes with guns and propaganda in return for gold and diamonds. But the Russian delegation that toured three African countries last week was led by a very different figure, the starchy deputy defense minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. Dressed in a khaki uniform and a “telnyashka” — the horizontally-striped undergarment of Russian armed forces — he signaled conformity and restraint, giving assurances wrapped in polite language. “We will do our best to help you,” he said at a news conference in Burkina Faso. The contrast with the flamboyant Mr. Prigozhin could not have been sharper, and it aligned with the message the Kremlin was delivering: After Mr. Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash last month, Russia’s operations in Africa were coming under new management.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Yunus, bek Yevkurov, —, ”, Prigozhin, Prigozhin’s Locations: Russia, Burkina Faso, Africa

As the all-powerful ruler of oil-rich Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba had two passions, music and forests, that forged powerful ties across the world. An accomplished musician, Mr. Bongo recorded a disco-funk album and lured James Brown and Michael Jackson to Gabon. As president, he built a music studio at his seaside palace and played improv jazz to foreign diplomats at state dinners. More recently, Mr. Bongo allied with Western scientists and conservationists, entranced by both the paradisiacal beauty of Gabon, an Arizona-sized country covered in lush rainforest and teeming with wildlife, and by his commitment to protecting it. But to his own people, Mr. Bongo, 64, embodied a family dynasty, founded by his father, which had dominated Gabon for 56 years — until this week, when it came crashing down.

Persons: Ali Bongo Ondimba, Bongo, James Brown, Michael Jackson, . Bongo Locations: Gabon, an Arizona

☆ Gabon Military Officers Say They Are Seizing Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Declan Walsh | More About Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A group of senior military officers appeared on television in the oil-rich Central African nation of Gabon early Wednesday and announced they were seizing power, hours after the incumbent president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, was declared to have won a third term in office. There was no immediate reaction from Mr. Bongo or the government. Bursts of gunfire could be heard in the capital, Libreville, shortly after the broadcast ended, Reuters reported. “We have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” one of the officers said on the Gabon 24 station. If it succeeds, the coup would be the latest in an extraordinary run of military takeovers in Western and Central Africa — at least nine in the past three years, including one in Niger last month.

Persons: Ali Bongo Ondimba, Bongo Organizations: Reuters, Central Africa — Locations: Gabon, Libreville, Western, Central, Niger

When mutinous soldiers seized power in the West African nation of Burkina Faso early last year, the president of neighboring Niger struck a dismissive note. “This is nonsense,” President Mohamed Bazoum told two Western diplomats who sat in his office as news of the coup came through. How cynical was it, Mr. Bazoum remarked, that the soldiers responsible for securing Burkina Faso had overthrown the government in the name of restoring security. Now Mr. Bazoum faces the same fate. Mr. Bazoum’s Western and African allies are trying to negotiate his release, and West African army chiefs on Friday were set to finalize a possible military intervention in Niger.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Bazoum, Burkina Faso, Bazoum’s Organizations: Burkina, West Locations: West African, Burkina Faso, Niger

In a region of Africa where authoritarianism has been rising, Niger seemed to be on a different path of democracy and partnership with the United States. Declan Walsh, chief Africa correspondent for The Times, explains how a military coup has now put all of that in jeopardy and why Niger’s allies still think it’s possible to reverse that coup.

Persons: Declan Walsh Organizations: The Times Locations: Africa, Niger, United States

The military takeover in Niger has upended years of Western counterterrorism efforts in West Africa and now poses wrenching new challenges for the Biden administration’s fight against Islamist militants on the continent. American-led efforts to degrade terrorist networks around the world have largely succeeded in longtime jihadist hot spots like Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Not so in Africa, especially in the Sahel, the vast, semiarid region south of the Sahara where groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are gaining ground at an alarming pace. Niger, an impoverished nation of 25 million people that is nearly twice the size of Texas, has recently been the exception to that trend. Niger has slowed, but not stopped, a wave of extremists pushing south to coastal states.

Persons: Biden, Mohamed Bazoum Organizations: Islamic, Nigerien Locations: Niger, West Africa, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Africa, Sahel, Al Qaeda, Texas

Two western African states said that they would join forces to defend Niger, where soldiers claimed to have seized power in a coup last week, if a major regional bloc carried through on a threat to intervene militarily unless the ousted president is returned to office. The joint statement late Monday by the two states, Mali and Burkina Faso, was a stinging rebuke to the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. On Sunday, the bloc vowed to take “all measures necessary,” including possible military action, to force the reinstatement of Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum. Mali and Burkina Faso, themselves ruled by military governments that took power in coups, said that any move against Niger would be considered a “declaration of war” against their own countries. It also raised the prospect that the crisis in Niger, where about 2,600 American and French troops are stationed, could spread into a wider regional conflict.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum Organizations: Economic, West Locations: Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, West African States

☆ West African Nations Threaten Military Action Unless Niger Coup Is Undone
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Declan Walsh | More About Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

West African leaders on Sunday threatened military action against Niger, where soldiers seized power in a coup on Wednesday, unless the country’s democratically elected president is restored to office within a week. The demand was issued by the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, a 15-member regional bloc, after a crisis summit meeting in Nigeria. It echoed earlier calls by the United States and France, major security allies of Niger, threatening to cut aid and military ties unless the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, is restored. After coup supporters massed on Sunday outside the French Embassy in the capital, Niamey, calling for the withdrawal of French troops, President Emmanuel Macron issued a stiffly worded warning. Any attack on France’s citizens or interests in Niger will be met with an “immediate and uncompromising” reaction, Mr. Macron said in a statement.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Emmanuel Macron, Macron, Bazoum Organizations: Sunday, Economic, West, Embassy Locations: Niger, West African States, Nigeria, United States, France, Niamey

☆ Coast to Coast, a Corridor of Coups Brings Turmoil in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Declan Walsh | More About Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Africa’s coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles, from coast to coast, that has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth. This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup — all but one in the past two years. The last leader to fall was Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum, a democratically elected American ally who disappeared on Wednesday when his own guards detained him at the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey. His security chief now claims to be running the country.

Persons: Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum Locations: West African, Niger, Africa, Guinea, Sudan, American, Niamey

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia pledged on Thursday to ship free grain to at least six African countries over the next four months, scrambling to shore up Moscow’s image on the continent in the wake of the Kremlin’s refusal to extend a deal that had protected Ukrainian grain exports that help feed millions of people around the world. Mr. Putin, speaking at a summit for African countries in St. Petersburg that drew far fewer African leaders than its 2019 iteration, insisted in a keynote speech that Western hypocrisy rather than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was to blame for disruptions in the global food supply. “Nothing happened of what was discussed and promised to us,” Mr. Putin said, repeating his assertion that the West had failed to fulfill its end of the grain deal and had done nothing to clear the way for Russian food and fertilizer exports. He added that those casting Russia as an unreliable food supplier were “telling lies,” which he said had “been the practice of some Western states for decades, if not centuries.”

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ” Mr, “, ” Locations: Russia, St . Petersburg, Ukraine

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday pledged free grain for some African countries and accused the West of “telling lies” about the dormant deal that had allowed Ukrainian food exports, scrambling to shore up support among African leaders and casting his war in Ukraine as part of an increasingly global conflict. Mr. Putin hosted around 20 African leaders for the start of a two-day summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, drawing a significant contingent of officials from across the continent looking to Russia as a source of arms and food. But the gathering attracted fewer than half the number of leaders who attended the summit in 2019, a sign of how the war has tempered support for Moscow even in a region it has assiduously courted. The Russian president began the summit on the defensive, having refused last week to extend a deal that had protected Ukrainian grain exports, pushing up the price of grain around the world. But Mr. Putin has responded with a multipronged charm offensive that underscored how he is seeking to take on the West on multiple fronts, well beyond the battlefield in Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Azali Assoumani, ” Organizations: African Union Locations: Russia, Ukraine, St . Petersburg, Moscow, Russian, Comoros

☆ Detained Yet Defiant, Niger’s Ousted President Vows to Save Democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Declan Walsh | More About Declan Walsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Hours after soldiers seized power in the West African nation of Niger, the country’s ousted president sounded a defiant note on Thursday morning, vowing to protect his “hard-won” democratic gains, even as he was being held by his own guards. The president, Mohamed Bazoum, appeared to be still in detention at the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey, where his guards turned on him early Wednesday, prompting a crisis in the vast, largely desert nation twice the size of France. “The hard-won gains will be safeguarded,” Mr. Bazoum said in a message on social media. “All Nigeriens who love democracy and freedom would want this.”The country’s foreign minister adopted a similar tone, telling a French television station that Mr. Bazoum remained the sole “legitimate power” in Niger, and that the military was not united in the attempted coup.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Mr, Bazoum Locations: West African, Niger, Niamey, France

Military officers in the West African nation of Niger ousted the country’s president on Wednesday, they said in an address on national television, throwing into uncertainty the future of one of the West’s few reliable partners in a region marred by coups and widespread insecurity. Army officials representing different branches of Niger’s military, which has received support from the United States and France, among others, said they had “put an end to the regime” of President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger, following a day of stalled negotiations where members of the presidential guard held him hostage in the presidential palace. The officers removed Mr. Bazoum “due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance,” Col. Amadou Abdramane, an official of the Nigerien air force, said in a statement read on television. The statement also said the officers were closing the country’s borders.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Bazoum, Col, Amadou Abdramane Organizations: Nigerien Locations: West African, Niger, United States, France

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