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☆ The Bleak Life of a Deposed President and His Wife, Held Captive
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Held captive by his former security guards in an isolated wing of his house, the deposed president of Niger paces a bedroom with no direct daylight, cut off from the world and unable to talk to his lawyers, according to people with direct knowledge of the conditions of his detention. Nine months since he was toppled in one of the coups that have recently wracked West Africa, Mohamed Bazoum is lingering in detention with no end in sight. The military junta that deposed him is seeking to strip him of presidential immunity, paving the way for him to be prosecuted on charges such as treason, for which the penalty could be life imprisonment, his lawyers said. His only visitor is a doctor, who brings him food once a week. Many of Mr. Bazoum’s closest allies — his cabinet members and advisers — have been thrown into jail or forced to flee Niger.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Hadiza, Bazoum’s, — Locations: Niger, West Africa

It is the middle of Sunday afternoon, and he has not yet finished his shift at the barbershop. “I took a break for the love of the game,” Mr. Adeshina said. Mr. Adeshina became an Arsenal fan in the late 1990s, when Nigerian cable channels first began broadcasting the Premier League. If anything, though, Mr. Adeshina says his connection to the team is even deeper now. “He’s Yoruba, I’m Yoruba,” Mr. Adeshina said, in a tone rather softer than that with which he celebrated his idol’s first-half goal against Spurs.

Persons: Mayowa, “, Mr, Adeshina, Germain, Nwankwo Kanu Organizations: Arsenal, Real, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, Spurs Locations: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Nigeria, London

☆ Senegal’s Leader Breaks Up Cabinet and Sets Date for Presidential Election
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Macky Sall of Senegal on Wednesday dissolved his cabinet, replaced the prime minister and rescheduled the country’s presidential election to March 24, according to a government statement. He cited an inquiry into allegations of corruption at the Constitutional Court, but political opponents and some analysts called the maneuver a constitutional coup. His decision Wednesday to set a date may allay some of the fears that he was trying to remain in office. The Constitutional Court, Senegal’s highest tribunal, promptly overturned Mr. Sall’s attempt to delay the election last month. Shortly after the court’s decision, the president said he would leave power on April 2, when his term will expire.

Persons: Macky Sall, Sall, Sall’s Organizations: Wednesday, Constitutional Locations: Senegal, Africa, United States, West, Senegal’s

Ghana’s Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that imposes jail terms on people who identify as L.G.B.T.Q. or organize gay advocacy groups, measures that Amnesty International called among the harshest on the African continent. issues could get five years, and those who engage in gay sex would receive five years instead of the three years under previous legislation. The bill is the latest in a wave of anti-gay legislation passed in Africa: Tanzania, Niger and Namibia have tightened such laws in recent years, while Uganda has adopted an anti-gay law that includes the death penalty. Many have experienced a surge in homophobic attitudes, behaviors and rhetoric in recent years, the rights group said in a report last year.

Persons: Nana Akufo Organizations: Amnesty Locations: Africa, Tanzania, Niger, Namibia, Uganda

For years, Chinese companies and their contractors have been slaughtering millions of donkeys across Africa, coveting gelatin from the animals’ hides that is processed into traditional medicines, popular sweets and beauty products in China. But a growing demand for the gelatin has decimated donkey populations at such alarming rates in African countries that governments are now moving to put a brake on the mostly unregulated trade. The African Union, a body that encompasses the continent’s 55 states, adopted a continentwide ban on donkey skin exports this month in the hope that stocks will recover. Rural households across Africa rely on donkeys for transportation and agriculture. Yet donkeys only breed a foal every couple of years.

Organizations: African Locations: Africa, China, African Union

☆ China Keeps Building Stadiums in Africa. But at What Cost?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Elian Peltier | Joao Silva | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Alassane Ouattara stadium rises like a piece of sculpture from the dusty brown earth north of Ivory Coast’s largest city, its undulating roof and white columns towering over the empty landscape like a spaceship that has dropped onto a uninhabited planet. On Sunday, the three-and-a-half-year-old stadium will host its signature moment, when the national soccer teams of Ivory Coast and Nigeria compete in the final of Africa’s biggest sporting event, in front of tens of thousands of fans chanting and cheering in a stadium financed and built by China. While that is nothing new for the tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations, the arena is just the latest example of the contradictions that emerge from Chinese projects built on Chinese terms, and on African soil. Stadiums have been a cornerstone of China’s diplomatic reach into Africa since the 1970s, but their number has increased since the early 2000s, part of a larger Chinese strategy to build infrastructure — from highways to railroads, ports to presidential palaces and even the headquarters of the African Union — in exchange for diplomatic clout or access to natural resources.

Persons: Ouattara Organizations: Africa, of Nations, African Locations: Ivory Coast’s, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, China, Africa

☆ A Graphic Novel Finds a Relatable Hero in a Modern African Woman
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

One of the most successful African comics has no super heroes, and certainly no supernatural powers. Instead, “Aya,” a graphic novel series, is full of everyday heroes, and topping the list is Aya herself, a young woman navigating the delights and obstacles of early adulthood in the West African nation of Ivory Coast. Inspired by the childhood years that its author, Marguerite Abouet, spent in Ivory Coast and focused on daily life in a working-class suburb of Abidjan, the country’s largest city, the series mixes humor and biting takes on society, with a feminist twist — all vividly captured by Clément Oubrerie, the illustrator. In the books, Aya and her friends go on awkward first dates, hook up and share countless shenanigans that celebrate Ivory Coast’s favorite sport after soccer — “palabrer,” or talking endlessly.

Persons: “ Aya, ”, Aya, Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie, Ivory Locations: West African, Ivory Coast, Abidjan

☆ Playing Soccer in Abidjan? Get Yourself a Pair of Lêkê.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Elian Peltier | Joao Silva | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The wealthy pros of Ivory Coast’s national soccer team were resting in their luxury hotel last week, preparing for a match in Africa’s biggest tournament, when Yaya Camara sprinted onto a dusty lot and began fizzing one pass after another to his friends. Shiny soccer cleats like his idols’? No thanks, said Mr. Camara, a lean 18-year-old midfielder, as he wiped sweat from his brow. “How did the pros started playing when they were kids like us? With lêkê,” he added, referring to the sandals that are ubiquitous not only in his pickup game but almost any place an Ivorian puts their feet.

Persons: Ivory, Yaya Camara, ’, Camara Organizations: soccer team, Africa’s Locations: Ivory Coast’s

☆ Dozens Feared Dead in Collapse of Informal Gold Mine in Mali
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Scores of people have died in the West African nation of Mali after an informal gold mine collapsed last week, the country’s Ministry of Mines said on Wednesday, highlighting the risks that countless artisanal miners face in one of Africa’s largest gold-producing countries. Several West African countries have experienced a new boom in informal mining, also known as artisanal mining, over the past two decades. It has provided a livelihood to thousands of people, fed trafficking routes and attracted armed groups. In northern Mali, for instance, Tuareg rebels and insurgents affiliated with Al Qaeda control mining sites. About six tons came from artisanal mining.

Persons: Seydou Traoré Organizations: country’s Ministry of Mines, Associated Press, Al Locations: West African, Mali, Bamako, Al Qaeda

The bus station in Agadez, a remote city of low mud-brick buildings in the West African nation of Niger, is buzzing again. For years, this portal was closed, at least officially. The country’s government, friendly to Europe, outlawed migration out of Agadez, and in exchange the European Union poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Niger’s coffers and the local economy. But last summer, after generals in Niger seized power in a military coup, the European Union suspended financial support to the government — and in response, the generals severed the migration arrangement with the European Union in November. The gate is once again open, and a fresh flock of hopeful migrants is once again passing through, to the relief of many locals.

Organizations: European Union Locations: Agadez, West African, Niger, West, Central Africa, North Africa, Europe

In palmier times, the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, appeared at a Russian cultural center in the capital of the Central African Republic, sitting with schoolchildren and promising them free laptops. But Mr. Prigozhin’s death in August has rattled the mercenary group’s once-cozy relations with the Central African Republic, which is now weighing offers from Russia and Western countries, including the United States, to replace Wagner as its primary security guarantor. The outcome of this struggle could be a bellwether for the group’s future on the continent, where the Central African Republic is perhaps the most deeply enmeshed among the handful of African nations partnering with Wagner. The Russian Defense Ministry has sought to absorb some of Wagner’s activities, while preserving its influence and maintaining its wealth of knowledge about the continent. But a senior Western diplomat said that the uncertainty around Wagner in the Central African Republic provided a “window of opportunity” for the United States and France to counter Russian influence.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin’s, group’s, ” Organizations: Central African, Russian Defense Ministry Locations: Russian, Central African Republic, Russia, Western, United States, France

☆ Need Therapy? In West Africa, Hairdressers Can Help.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Joseline de Lima was wandering the dusty alleys of her working-class neighborhood in the capital of Togo one day last year, when a disturbing thought crossed her mind: Who would take care of her two boys if her depression worsened and she were no longer around to look after them? Ms. de Lima, a single mother who was grieving the recent death of her brother and had lost her job at a bakery, knew she needed help. But therapy was out of the question. “Too formal and expensive,” she recalled thinking. Help came instead from an unexpected counselor: Ms. de Lima’s hairdresser, who had noticed her erratic walks in the neighborhood and provided a safe space to share her struggles amid the curly wigs hanging from colorful shelves and the bright neon lights of her small salon in Lomé, Togo’s capital.

Persons: Joseline, de Locations: Lima, Togo, de Lima, Lomé

☆ As Junta Tightens Grip, Niger Is Being Strangled by Sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since a military coup in Niger this summer, work days for Ahmed Alhousseïni have been consumed with calls from increasingly worried clients and colleagues asking the same questions. An executive for a leading food importer in Niger, Mr. Alhousseïni said one recent morning that he had spent his weekend hunting for cooking oil in Niamey, the capital city, with no luck. After mutinous soldiers seized power in Niger, West African countries froze financial transactions, closed their borders with Niger and cut off most of its electricity supply in an effort to pressure the generals into restoring constitutional order. Sanctions and other penalties are now strangling Niger’s economy, with food prices and shortages growing and many medicines becoming increasingly scarce. “Closing Niger’s borders is like depriving us of air,” said Mr. Alhousseïni, the managing director of Oriba Rice.

Persons: Ahmed Alhousseïni, Alhousseïni, Gen, Abdourahmane, haven’t, ”, Oriba Rice Locations: Niger, Niamey, Ghana, Senegal, West

On July 26, as a military coup was underway in the West African nation of Niger, the airwaves of Télé Sahel, the state television station, filled with upbeat music videos praising the military. Some of these videos had been circulating for years, but since a group of generals toppled the democratically elected president in July, Niger has witnessed a revival of both old and new military propaganda, now remixed for the TikTok era. Fear and respect toward the military are also deeply entrenched within the society, analysts said. It is not clear how many Nigeriens support the military takeover. Among throngs of men assembled in front of the country’s national assembly, the green and orange Nigerien flags, raised fists and defiant messages against Western countries provided an ideal backdrop for their new song, “Niger Guida,” or “Niger My Home” in the Hausa language.

Persons: —, insurgencies, Zabeirou Barké, Niger, Nigeriens, ” Organizations: Nigerien Locations: West African, Niger, Sahel, West, Nigeriens, Niamey

Mr. Putin himself is under an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children, as is his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. The two entities placed under sanctions are a Russian-owned camp and an organization that has overseen Ukrainian children who were sent to a camp in the Chechen Republic. “Children are literally being ripped from their homes in the year 2023 by a country sitting in this very chamber,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said. Some are pressured into accepting Russian citizenship, and others have been adopted by Russian families, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said. “You will hear Russian officials say that their transfers of children are part of humanitarian evacuations,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday.

Persons: Ramzan Kadyrov, Aymani Nesievna, Kadyrova, reeducation, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, Maria Lvova, Biden, ”, “ It’s, Linda Thomas, Greenfield, Ms, Thomas, ARTEK, AKF, Galina Anatolevna Pyatykh, Irina Anatolyevna Ageeva, Irina Aleksandrovna Cherkasova, Mansur Mussaevich Soltaev, Magomedovich Khuchiev, Konstantin Albertovich Fedorenko, Alievich, Olena Oleksandrivna Shapurova, Vladimir Vladislavovich Kovalenko, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nechaev, “ Organizations: State Department, Kremlin, International, Court, Ukraine, Security, U.S ., Federal, Educational Institute International Children Center, Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation, The State Department, Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Youth Army Locations: Russia, Russian, United States, Ukraine, Chechen, Chechen Republic ., U.S, Crimea, Chechen Republic of Russia, Belgorod, Russia’s Kaluga, Russia’s Rostov, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Sevastopol, Crimean

☆ What’s in Our Queue? Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and MoreI’m The Times’s West Africa correspondent. I love diving into the cultural scenes of the countries I write about — and taking occasional breaks on my Nintendo Switch. Here are five things I’ve been reading, playing and listening to lately →

Persons: Ambolley, → Organizations: Nintendo Locations: Africa

☆ Junta Official in Niger Claims Captive President Will Not Be Harmed
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The top civilian official of the junta that seized power in the West African nation of Niger said in an interview on Friday that coup leaders had no intention of harming the deposed president or collaborating with the Kremlin-backed Wagner paramilitary group. The junta has been holding Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, captive in his home since July 26, denying him water and electricity, and threatening to kill him if a group of West African countries were to follow through on a proposal to reverse the coup militarily. In an interview with The New York Times, Ali Lamine Zeine, who was named prime minister by the junta earlier this month, said of Mr. Bazoum, “Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger.” The pledge was at odds with the country’s history — a president was assassinated by soldiers in 1999.

Persons: Wagner, Mohamed Bazoum, Ali Lamine Zeine, Bazoum, — Organizations: Kremlin, The New York Times Locations: West African, Niger, West

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

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

☆ Niger’s Junta Vows to Prosecute Deposed President for Treason
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The military junta that seized power in Niger last month said over the weekend that it would prosecute the deposed president for treason, even as an intermediary said coup leaders were open to talks with West African counties that had threatened to intervene militarily, the first sign of a thaw after nearly three weeks of rising tensions. Since mutinous soldiers detained President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger on July 26, they have kept him isolated in his private residence in Niamey, the capital, with his wife and one of their sons; dissolved his government; and, according to U.S. officials, vowed to kill him if West African countries intervened militarily. On Sunday, the junta member acting as a spokesman, Col. Amadou Abdramane, said that Mr. Bazoum would face charges of “high treason” and “undermining the internal and external security of Niger” after the democratically elected president spoke with foreign leaders and international organizations while in detention. The coup in Niger last month set off one of the most severe political crises in recent years in West Africa, following a series of military takeovers in a region already troubled by Islamist insurgencies, some of the world’s most extreme effects of climate change and widespread poverty.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Amadou Abdramane, Bazoum, ”, insurgencies Organizations: West Locations: Niger, West African, Niamey, West Africa

☆ As West African Leaders Meet on Niger Crisis, Few Options Are on the Table
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

West African leaders gathered on Thursday for a critical summit to address the crisis in Niger, where the mutinous soldiers who seized power more than two weeks ago have shunned mediation efforts and ignored an ultimatum to relinquish power. Hopes for an end to the stalemate were already dim before the junta on Thursday replaced the cabinet of the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, with a new government made up of 21 officials led by Ali Lamine Zeine, an economist and former finance minister. The two highest-ranking officials after Mr. Zeine are both generals and coup leaders. As the military junta strengthened its grip on power, envoys from the Economic Community of West African States, the 15-nation regional bloc known as ECOWAS that had threatened military intervention if Mr. Bazoum was not reinstated, convened in Nigeria, but their options appeared to be limited. The deadline to return Mr. Bazoum to power passed on Sunday, with few consequences so far, and the prospect of a military intervention to remove the new government appeared unlikely, according to most observers.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Ali Lamine Zeine, Zeine, Bazoum Organizations: Economic, West Locations: Niger, West African States, Nigeria

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria took the helm of the West African regional bloc of countries last month, he thundered before a roomful of his presidential peers that he would show no tolerance for military coups in an area that had faced five in less than three years. “We will not allow coup after coup,” he said, drawing a round of applause. Now, the deadline has passed, Niger’s president — Mohamed Bazoum — is still held hostage in his residence and Mr. Tinubu is facing a backlash in his own country. Senators, religious leaders and civil society organizations in northern Nigeria oppose a war with a neighbor that they say would further destabilize both countries, whose militaries were already spread thin fighting off Islamist militants. Nigerian security forces are also combating kidnappers, extortion rings and oil thieves.

Persons: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, “, ”, Mr, Tinubu, — Mohamed Bazoum — Organizations: West African, Economic Locations: Nigeria, Niger, West African States, Nigerian

Stocking up on rice, fleeing the capital by bus or vowing to defend their new military leaders, many in Niger braced this weekend for a deadline imposed by a 15-member bloc of West African nations for the country’s junta to relinquish power. But that deadline to restore democracy or face military action expired on Sunday. But the ultimatum also rallied many Nigeriens behind their new military leaders. West African officials said that they would employ force only as a last resort, and most analysts said that a conflict appeared unlikely, at least in the near term. But ECOWAS military officials said that they did have a plan for an intervention, if needed.

Persons: Niger’s, insurgencies, Abdourahmane Tchiani Organizations: West, Economic Locations: Niger, West African States, Africa, Niamey

☆ A Shrinking Footprint in Africa for France, the Former Colonizer That Stayed
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Elian Peltier | More About Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The country’s president, a trusted ally of France, was taken hostage in the presidential palace by his own guards in late July. A colonel in uniform appeared late Thursday on state television and announced that the military was ending its cooperation with France. The coups have fanned the flames of popular anger against France, a former colonial power that critics say never really let go of its former possessions. Now, France has become a scapegoat of sorts in a region buckling under the forces of poverty, climate change and surging Islamist militancy. “France did not see this coup coming, so they have not learned from Mali or Burkina Faso,” said Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a consultancy.

Persons: “, ”, Mujtaba Rahman Organizations: Protesters, French Embassy, Eurasia Group Locations: France, French, West African, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, “ France, Europe

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

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