Tag: africa

The US Is Heavily Involved In Sudan’s Renewed Turmoil, Western Media Omits This

The armed clashes in Sudan, that began last week, are being presented by Western corporate media as a shock from a country that was heading towards democracy. These attempts to absolve the West of any accountability for the militarized confrontation that could spark civil war, and to even blame Russia, are leaving out the key context to understanding this conflict.

Days of chaos have again left the Sudanese population without any sense of security and in fear for their lives. The Sudanese military head and de-facto leader of Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, ordered strikes against targets belonging to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, colloquially known as Hemedti, claiming that they were plotting a military coup. The RSF were set up under former Sudanese dictator Omar Bashir, in 2013, as a militia force that combined forces of the infamous Janjaweed and was used to crush his political rivals.

The RSF head, Hemedti, grew in the ranks over the years as a power militia leader and was given free rein to seize lucrative gold mines in Darfur that belonged to a rival tribal leader, eventually making him one of the wealthiest men in Sudan. After the RSF gained its horrifying reputation through mass killings, rape, and other atrocities, the militia leader, who was empowered by President Omar Bashir, turned against him in 2019. The RSF and the Sudanese army, together, decided to participate in a coup to officially oust Bashir and end his 30 year rein, taking advantage of a civilian-led uprising that demanded the fall of dictatorship in Sudan.

A Transitional Military Council (TMC) was then set up, which was created with the stated aim of catapulting Sudan towards civilian rule. The TMC was formally headed by Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with the deputy head of the TMC being Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). A Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) was later set up and was overthrown in another coup in October of 2021, before being reinstated later that year. The recent power sharing balance had been maintained between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia of Hemedti, with a deal having been struck on the implementation of civil rule last December.

What is important to understand here is that the portrayal of recent events, in Western media, is deliberately misrepresenting the extent to which the United Kingdom and US governments, as well as Israel, have been involved in Sudanese affairs. The narrative that is being pushed by The New York Times, is that “the violence is an alarming turn for a country that only four years ago was an inspiration to Africa and the Arab world”, claiming that Sudan had been on the path to democracy. A NYT piece on the issue reports that the US had lifted its sanctions on Khartoum because it was inching close to democracy, when in reality Washington removed its designation of Sudan as a state-sponsor of terrorism as a reward for signing onto a normalization deal with Israel — no changes required. US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also signed an agreement to provide a bridge loan to clear the $1.2 billion debt that Sudan owed to the World Bank. The normalization deal with Israel was signed in secret in Khartoum.

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Number of bodies exhumed from suspected Kenyan cult graves jumps to 47

Kenyan police have now exhumed the bodies of 47 people thought to be followers of a Christian cult who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death.

Police near the coastal town of Malindi started exhuming bodies on Friday from the Shakahola forest.

“In total, 47 people have died at the Shakahola forest,” detective Charles Kamau told Reuters on Sunday.

The exhumations were still ongoing, Kamau said.

Earlier this month, police rescued 15 members of the group — worshippers at the Good News International Church — who they said had been told to starve themselves to death. Four of them died before they reached hospital, police said

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DRONES AND MOTOS

THE LOOK ON Miriam’s face was abject fear. Her pink, white, and green veil had mostly slipped from her head, and her dark eyes grew wide as she stared down at her lavender smartphone. In a flash, she pulled it to her ear. “Allo!” she said, her pitch rising as her other hand nervously cradled her chin.

In the courtyard of her family’s tree-lined compound in a well-to-do neighborhood in Niger’s capital, members of Miriam’s ethnic group had been describing jihadist attacks on their historic community in a rural region to the north. Now, the six or seven men wearing tagelmusts — a combination of turban and scarf worn by Tuareg men to provide protection from sun and dust — were also glued to their phones as chimes announced incoming texts and calls. Voices on the phones sounded panicked. There were gunshots, and a familiar roar rumbled through the desert scrubland 100 miles away. At any moment, relatives warned, they expected an attack by the “motorcycle guys.”

Over the last decade, Niger and its neighbors in the West African Sahel have been plagued by terrorist groups that have taken the notion of the outlaw motorcycle gang to its most lethal apogee. Under the black banners of jihadist militancy, men on “motos” — two to a bike, their faces obscured by sunglasses and turbans, armed with Kalashnikovs — have terrorized villages across the borderlands where Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger meet. These militants, some affiliated with Al Qaeda or the Islamic State group, impose zakat, an Islamic tax; steal animals; and terrorize, assault, and kill civilians.

Jihadist motorcyclists, Miriam reminded me, had thundered into the village of Bakorat on March 21, 2021. As described afterward by one of the survivors, the motos “swept into the village like a sandstorm, killing every man they saw. They shot one of my uncles in front of me. His 20-year-old son ran to save him, but he perished as well. We found them, slumped over each other.” Attacking in overwhelming numbers and with military precision, the jihadists executed men and boys while looting and burning homes. “They attacked the well like it was a military objective, opening fire on the dozens of men there. As they killed, I heard the attackers saying, ‘This is your time … for working with the state,’” another survivor told Human Rights Watch. “I collapsed, seeing the carnage … my father, my brothers, my cousins, my friends lying there, dead and dying.” Human Rights Watch said more than 170 people were massacred near Bakorat and Intazayene villages and nearby nomad camps that day. Miriam and her relatives put the number at 245.

As we sat in the courtyard, it all seemed to be happening again.

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AFRICOM Says African Coup Leaders Share ‘Core Values’ With US Military

Gen. Michael Langley, the head of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), was grilled by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday about African soldiers who received US military training and went on to carry out coups.

Langley insisted only a “very small number” of Africans who receive US training later go on to be involved in coups against civilian governments and said the programs focus on “core values.”

When asked by Gaetz if the US shares “core values” with Guinea coup leader Col. Mamady Doumbouy, Langley replied, “Absolutely … In our curriculum, we do.” Doumboy and his forces carried out a coup in 2021 while US Green Berets were in the country training them, and he still leads Guinea to this day.

Gaetz also referenced a January 2022 coup in Burkina Faso, which was led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damib, who had a long history of participating in US training exercises. Later that year, in September 2022, Damib was ousted in another coup led by Capt. Ibrahim Traore. When asked by journalist Nick Turse if Traore also received US training, the Pentagon said it didn’t know.

Writing for Responsible Statecraft, Turse said since 2008, US-trained soldiers in Africa have “attempted at least nine coups (and succeeded in at least eight) across five West African countries, including Burkina Faso (three times), Guinea, Mali (three times), Mauritania, and the Gambia.”

Langley insisted that the “core values” AFRICOM’s training focuses on include “respect for civilian governance” and said the command will “continue with our persistence in assuring that they harbor democratic norms, democratic values, apolitical.” Gaetz said those values aren’t sticking.

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Why Is Election Denier Stacey Abrams Overseeing Elections In Nigeria?

It’s an odd case of juxtaposition.  A politician well known for refusing to accept election outcomes based on dubious claims is now helping to oversee the “integrity” of elections in an unstable foreign nation like Nigeria.  

Democrat and failed Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams is famous for her hypocrisy when it comes to accusations of election rigging while attacking conservative candidates for also questioning elections.  Abrams refused to concede to Republican Brian Kemp after the Georgia election results of 2018, claiming that the election was stolen due to voter oppression tied to discrimination.  She specifically targeted rules restricting some mail in ballots and absentee ballots.  Federal courts ruled that there were no grounds for her accusations.

Abrams has long been an avid defender of absentee ballot harvesting tactics and claims rules against the practice are “race related.”  The methodology of ballot harvesting has long been a boon for Democrats in the US as a means to secure election wins through absentee votes, which are collected by political operatives from people’s homes and then delivered to polling places.  Suspicions over ballot harvesting and the potential for vote rigging within the chain of custody have been the cause of numerous election conflicts, including conflicts over the 2020 presidential election.

The former governor’s candidate is also known for her aggressive opposition to voter ID laws designed to prevent non-citizens from casting in US elections.

Abrams is, strangely, now in Nigeria, joining the National Democratic Institute (along with the National Republican Institute) on a mission to observe elections and encourage voter participation.  The diplomatic initiative includes a contingent of globalist think-tank representatives from institutions like the Atlantic Council and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which is heavily involved in diversity and equity programs similar to ESG efforts.

The NDI/NRI are focused on convincing younger voters to appear at polling stations, which seems to be a fair mission.  However, with widespread delays and attacks on some polling stations, there are questions of corruption and foreign interference.  The groups involved in the effort are predominantly concerned with the spread of globalist policies.  

Why Stacey Abrams and why Nigeria? It’s hard to say, but one of the major candidates for President of Nigeria is Bola Tinubu, a member of the socialist All Progressives Congress party, and Tinubu has some ties to Barack Obama, just as Abrams is a close associate of Barack Obama.  While Joe Biden’s interest in Tinubu is less certain, his former boss and the Democrat Party asked the Nigerian socialist to attend the Democratic National Convention in 2012, allegedly offering him a “gold card invitation”.  The circumstances surrounding the level of favor garnered by Tinubu’s DNC invitation are debated.    

The leftist oriented Woodrow Wilson Center, which as noted is part of the NDI election oversight operation in Nigeria, has also taken a special interest in Tinubu, inviting him to speak in 2014 on the value of the Opposition Parties in “progressing” Nigeria. 

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Biden Wants $8 Billion In Taxpayer Funds To Shut Down Coal Power In South Africa

With the UN and other interests already interfering in Africa’s energy development, Joe Biden announced at the US-Africa Business Forum a plan for American taxpayers to shell out at least $8 billion to shut down effective coal fired energy plants in South Africa so they can be replaced with far less effective and far less efficient green-energy alternatives.

In other words, the goal of climate change cultists is to use $8 billion of America’s money to diminish South African infrastructure. 

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Africa Doesn’t Want to Be a New-Cold-War Breeding Ground

On Oct. 17, the head of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), U.S. Marine Corps General Michael Langley visited Morocco. Langley met with senior Moroccan military leaders, including Inspector General of the Moroccan Armed Forces Belkhir El Farouk.

Since 2004, AFRICOM has held its “largest and premier annual exercise,” African Lion, partly on Moroccan soil. This past June, 10 countries participated in the African Lion 2022, with observers from Israel (for the first time) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Langley’s visit is part of a broader U.S. push onto the African continent, which we documented in our dossier No. 42 (July 2021), “Defending Our Sovereignty: U.S.  Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Unity,” a joint publication with The Socialist Movement of Ghana’s Research Group.

In that text, we wrote that the two important principles of Pan-Africanism are political unity and territorial sovereignty and argued that the “enduring presence of foreign military bases not only symbolises the lack of unity and sovereignty; it also equally enforces the fragmentation and subordination of the continent’s peoples and governments.”

In August, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield travelled to Ghana, Uganda and Cape Verde. “We’re not asking Africans to make any choices between the United States and Russia,” she said ahead of her visit, but, she added, “for me, that choice would be simple.”

That choice is nonetheless being impelled by the U.S. Congress as it deliberates the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, a bill that would sanction African states if they do business with Russia (and could possibly extend to China in the future).

To understand this unfolding situation, our friends at No Cold War have prepared their briefing No. 5, “NATO Claims Africa as Its ‘Southern Neighbourhood,’” which looks at how NATO has begun to develop a proprietary view of Africa and how the U.S.  government considers Africa to be a frontline in its Global Monroe Doctrine. That briefing can be downloaded here.

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Jetsetter John Kerry Asks World’s Poorest To Cut Back On Oil

President Joe Biden’s special climate envoy John Kerry is asking the world’s poorest to cut back on oil and other fossil fuels for the sake of the planet.

Kerry, whose family’s private jet has reportedly emitted more than 300 metric tons of carbon since Biden took office, recently encouraged the Democratic Republic of Congo to withdraw from auctioning off certain blocks of oil and gas to protect rainforests.

“We know it’s urgent. I spoke yesterday with the Deputy Prime Minister and I will speak this afternoon with the President, but it is his decision,” Kerry said on Tuesday.

According to Reuters, the U.S. claims that opening up the land in question could unleash environmental ruin by releasing large amounts of heat-trapping gas into the air.

“We have clearly described our interest in protecting the forests,” Kerry added. “We have asked for some blocks to be removed from the auction.”

The Congo is one of the poorest nations in the world. It is riddled with poverty and corruption. Its government says that it needs to tap into the country’s abundant natural resources for its people and economy. Congolese environmental minister Eve Bazaiba was emphatic that children would starve if the Congo wasn’t allowed to auction off the oil blocks.

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Anti-Historical ‘The Woman King’ Lies About Africa’s Slave Trade

“The Woman King,” a new “historical action epic” starring Viola Davis, has been treated to laudatory reviews by the corporate press. It has been called “indelible and truly inspiring” in an ABC News review which features the subhead “Black women only — no white saviors need apply.” The Daily Beast labeled it “an absolute blast of a cinematic experience,” praising its “thick layers of history.”

Set in 1823 in the West African kingdom of Dahomey (modern Benin), the movie pits the innocent Dahomans, protected by the elite all-female Agojie army, against the evil Oyo Empire, which operates as a brutal arm of the European slave trade and wishes to force Dahomey into providing slaves. Dahomey is portrayed as a kingdom that only wishes for peace and autonomy, whose king, Ghezo (John Boyega), is looking for alternatives to the awful trade in which his tribe has been reluctantly forced to participate. Besides manfully defending the citizens and king of Dahomey, the Agojie, under their leader Nanisca (Davis), are also proponents of ending the slave trade and replacing it with the cultivation of palm oil.

Throughout the film, Dahomey is presented as a small, put-upon kingdom that only seeks harmony and desires the destruction of the evil trade in human bodies — led by greedy Europeans — which plagued the region. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, “The Woman King” is an “incredible true story” about “this amazing group of female soldiers who caused such an act of resistance that slavery paused for a time.”

The problem? Almost none of this is true.

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U.S. PLAYED SECRET ROLE IN NIGERIA ATTACK THAT KILLED MORE THAN 160 CIVILIANS

THE UNITED STATES played an unacknowledged role in the 2017 bombing of an internally displaced persons’ camp in Nigeria that killed more than 160 civilians, many of them children.

A surveillance plane circled above the Rann IDP camp, which housed 43,000 people and was controlled by the Nigerian military, before a jet arrived and bombed the area where people draw water from a borehole, survivors of the attack said. The jet then circled and dropped another bomb on the tents of displaced civilians sheltering there.

The Nigerian air force expressed regret for carrying out the airstrike, which also killed nine aid workers and seriously wounded more than 120 people. But the attack was referred to as an instance of “U.S.-Nigerian operations” in a formerly secret U.S. military document obtained exclusively by The Intercept.

Evidence suggests that the U.S. launched a near unprecedented internal investigation of the attack because it secretly provided intelligence or other support to the Nigerian armed forces, a contribution hinted at by Nigerian military officials at the time. The U.S. inquiry, the existence of which has not been previously reported, was ordered by the top American general overseeing troops in Africa and was specifically designed to avoid questions of wrongdoing or recommendations for disciplinary action, according to the document.

Conducted as part of a long-running counterinsurgency campaign against the terrorist group Boko Haram, the January 17, 2017, attack on the camp, located in Rann, Nigeria, near the Cameroonian and Chadian borders, also destroyed at least 35 structures, including shelters for war victims who had been forced from their homes.

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