“France has decided to withdraw its ambassador. In the next hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France,” Macron said in a televised interview on Sunday.

He added that military cooperation was “over” and that 1,500 French troops stationed in the country would withdraw in “the months and weeks to come” with a full pullout “by the end of the year”.

France’s exit comes after weeks of pressure from the military and popular demonstrations. Thousands of people have protested in recent weeks in the capital Niamey, including outside a military base housing French soldiers.

Niger’s new rulers, who had been demanding France’s exit after Macron refused to recognize the July 26 coup, welcomed the French president’s announcement.

“This Sunday, we celebrate a new step towards the sovereignty of Niger,” they said in a statement read out on national television. “This is a historic moment, which speaks to the determination and will of the Nigerien people,” they added.

The development comes as France’s troops have also been asked to leave its former colonies Mali and Burkina Faso.

“This is definitely a small victory for the government in transition, and perhaps an embarrassment for the French who have seen Mali, Burkina Faso and now a third country in the Sahel where it is being asked by the government in place to leave the country,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Senegal’s capital Dakar.

“He [the French ambassador] has essentially been held hostage inside the embassy. The Niger security forces wouldn’t let anyone in or out. He has been surviving on the food rations inside the embassy.”

Sahel region

The regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed sanctions in the wake of the July coup and warned that it could intervene militarily if diplomatic efforts to return Bazoum to power fail, as a last resort. But ECOWAS dialed back its rhetoric as regional countries threw their weight behind the new military rulers.

The three Sahel countries – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, which have all witnessed coups in recent years – formed a mutual defense pact on September 16 against possible threats of armed rebellion or external aggression.

With tensions mounting, Macron said he told the ousted Bazoum on Sunday that “France has decided to bring back its ambassador, and in the coming hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France.”

Macron reaffirmed France’s position that Bazoum was being held “hostage” and remained the “sole legitimate authority” in the country.

“He was targeted by this coup d’etat because he was carrying out courageous reforms and because there was a largely ethnic settling of scores and a lot of political cowardice,” he said.

Macron noted that France’s military presence in Niger was in response to a request from Niger’s government at the time.

Niger’s military rulers ended military cooperation with France following the coup after claiming that Bazoum’s government was not doing enough to protect the country from the armed rebellion in the country’s west, which is part of the semi-arid Sahel region.

In the last decade, the Sahel region that stretches to central Mali, northern Burkina Faso and western Niger has become the epicenter of violence by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

Western countries had partnered with Bazoum to tackle the growing influence of armed groups and poured millions of dollars of military aid and assistance to shore up Niger’s forces.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the military government accused United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of “obstructing” the West African nation’s full participation at the UN’s annual meeting of world leaders in order to appease France and its allies.

The post France to withdraw ambassador, troops from Niger after coup: Macron appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Infiltration, coup, economic sanctions, hard and soft wars are the means that the hegemonic powers utilize to oppress independent countries, the Iranian foreign minister said Saturday.

The post Infiltration, coup means of hegemons to oppress nations appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Defense chiefs from the 15-member regional bloc met in Accra on Thursday as part of latest efforts to overturn the ouster of Mohammed Bazoum, Niger’s president who was deposed in a July 26 coup.

All member states except those under military rule and Cape Verde are ready to participate in the standby force, ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said on Thursday.

The bloc has long deliberated on the use of force which it described as a ‘last resort’ for weeks due to a lack of consensus within its ranks.

Burkina Faso and Mali, which have experienced multiple coups since 2020, warned that any military intervention in Niger would be declared as an act of war, revealing a fracture in the region between its coastal countries and those in the volatile Sahel.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reporting from the Ghanaian border with Burkina Faso on Thursday had also said Ghanaian authorities were nervous about provoking its neighbors with which it has cultural ties and military cooperation agreements.

The top security body of the African Union met Monday to consider whether it would support military intervention but has yet to make public its decision.

The AU’s Peace and Security Council could overrule a military intervention if it felt that wider stability on the continent was threatened by it. If it rejects the use of force, there are few grounds under which ECOWAS could claim legal justification.

The post Most of West Africa ready to join standby force in Niger: ECOWAS appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

The outpouring of protest, the ninth major demonstration since the coup and one of the largest, marked the 2018 burning of a ruling party building which touched off a popular uprising that led to the overthrow of long-ruling Islamist autocrat Omar Al-Bashir.

Protests against the coup have continued even after the reinstatement of the prime minister last month, with demonstrators demanding no more military involvement at all in government in a transition towards free elections.

Demonstrators marched down the main road leading to the palace, chanting “the people are stronger and retreat is impossible”, with some darting into side streets to dodge volleys of tear gas. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.

Despite security forces blocking bridges over the Nile river into the capital early on Sunday, protesters were able to cross a bridge connecting the city of Omdurman to central Khartoum but were met with heavy tear gas, Reuters witnesses said.

Reuters witnesses also watched protesters crossing a bridge from Bahri, north of Khartoum, to the capital.

Images shared on social media showed protests taking place in several other cities including Port Sudan, El-Deain, Madani and Kassala.

Early on Sunday joint army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces sealed off major roads leading to the airport and the army headquarters and they were heavily deployed around the presidential palace.

Protesters also blocked roads leading to the main route of the march. Some were carrying Sudanese flags and photos of protesters who were killed in demonstrations in the past few months. Others were handing out COVID-19 masks and carrying stretchers in anticipation of people being wounded.

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors says 45 people have been killed in crackdowns on protesters since the Oct. 25 coup.

It was the ninth in a series of demonstrations against the coup, which have continued even after the military signed a deal on Nov. 21 with Hamdok, who had been under house arrest, and released him and other high-profile political detainees.

On Saturday night, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok warned in a statement that Sudan’s revolution faced a major setback and that political intransigence from all sides threatened the country’s unity and stability.

The military and civilian political parties had shared power since Bashir’s removal. But the agreement reinstating Hamdok angered protesters, who previously had seen him as a symbol of resistance to military rule and denounced his deal with the military as a betrayal.
Civilian parties, and neighborhood resistance committees that have organized several mass protests, demand full civilian rule under the slogan “no negotiation, no partnership, no legitimacy.”

On Saturday night and early Sunday morning, people arrived in bus convoys from other states, including North Kordofan and Gezira, to join the protests in Khartoum, witnesses said.

The post Hundreds of thousands march to Sudan presidential palace in protest against coup appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

The African Union Political Affairs Peace and Security on Wednesday tweeted the news of the suspension, an expected move typically taken in the wake of military coups.

In a communique, the pan-African body said the suspension would be in place until “the effective restoration” of the transitional authority steering the country towards elections.

It came as the World Bank also on Wednesday followed the United States in suspending aid to Sudan following the widely condemned military takeover.

Meanwhile, state oil company workers and doctors said they would join a growing campaign of civil disobedience called by a coalition of unions against the power grab.

Soldiers on Monday seized Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and briefly detained him in the coup that came just more than two years into a fragile power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilians after the former removed longtime President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 in the wake of mass protests against his rule.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan imposed a nationwide state of emergency across the country and dissolved Hamdok’s transitional government and the top ruling body, the Sovereign Council, a joint military-civilian power-sharing authority.

The news prompted tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators to pour into the streets of the capital, Khartoum, and its twin city Omdurman. The demonstrations met gunfire by the security forces, with at least seven people killed and dozens more wounded, according to health sources.

Protesters returned to the streets on Tuesday despite the security forces’ violent response, blocking roads with burning tires and setting up barricades.

A group of neighborhood committees in Khartoum announced on Wednesday plans for further protests, leading to what it said would be a “march of millions” on Saturday. In one Khartoum neighborhood, a Reuters journalist saw soldiers and armed people in civilian clothes removing barricades erected by protesters.

A few hundred meters away, youths came out to build barricades again minutes later. One of them said, “We want civilian rule. We won’t get tired.”

In a televised speech on Tuesday, al-Burhan defended the military’s move, saying it was meant to avoid a civil war. He also pledged to hold elections, as planned, in July 2023, and to appoint a technocratic government in the meantime.

But critics doubt the military is serious about eventually ceding control, noting that the coup came just weeks before Burhan was supposed to hand over the leadership of the Sovereign Council, to a civilian.

Following widespread international condemnation, the military allowed Hamdok and his wife to return home under guard on Tuesday night.

The post African Union suspends Sudan over coup appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Police and military have increasingly used lethal violence in an attempt to crush demonstrations, killing at least 40 people since the coup on 1 February.

Crowds have continued to take to the streets daily in defiance of the military junta, with just goggles, hard hats and homemade shields for protection. Protesters are demanding that the military restore democracy and for their elected leaders to be released.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a human rights activist based in Yangon, described the military’s use of force against protesters as a “daily slaughter”.

Among those who died on Wednesday was a 19-year-old woman shot in Mandalay. Images shared on social media showed her wearing a T-shirt that read “Everything will be OK”. A teenage boy was also killed. Local media reported that he was 14.

Security forces used deadly force in several cities including Monywa, where six people were killed and at least 30 injured, a witness told the Guardian. Hundreds of people had turned out to protest when police opened fire around 11am.

At least eight people were killed in a neighbourhood in Yangon after security forces opened sustained fire with automatic weapons in the early evening, according to Reuters.

A protester who witnessed the crackdown in North Okkalapa township told the Guardian that the firing was continuous. “I’m still going to go to the frontlines. If I get shot and die then so be it. I can’t stand it anymore,” he said.

Protesters run away from security forces in Yangon. 
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Demonstrators in the area had been blocking off roads so that prison transport vehicles carrying young female detainees could not pass, the protester said. The demonstrators had heard reports of women were being sexually assaulted in prisons and feared for the safety of those on board.

Police used slingshots and fired teargas to clear the way, he said. At around 5 pm, officers fired with rubber bullets on the roughly 100 protesters who remained, and then soldiers fired with live bullets. The protester said a man next to him was shot and survived, but they were only able to take him to hospital after the police had left.

“I have no words to describe what I feel. There were so many people dying on the road. They fired at any person on the road,” another protester, who also asked to remain anonymous, said. “We are not terrorists, we are civilians, we are trying to get our democracy back. We protest peacefully but they terrorise us.”

Whether the coup succeeds, he said, is 50-50. He does not believe south-east Asian countries, or China would help support the people, but added: “I hope for the UN and US to help. I hope a UN peacekeeping force will come to my country, arrest the general and take him to the ICJ and ICC as soon as possible.”

KoBo Kyi, a joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners rights group, said at least 18 people were killed by security forces on Wednesday. Fatalities were reported in the northern town of Hpakant and the central town of Myingyan.

The Associated Press later reported that 33 people had been killed.

Hundreds of people were detained in Yangon alone, Myanmar Now, an independent outlet, reported. Video posted on social media showed lines of young men, hands-on heads, filing into army trucks.

Separately, CCTV footage published by Radio Free Asia showed police stopping an ambulance and detaining three medics. The police assaulted them, kicking and beating them with gun butts.

Almost 1,300 people have been detained since the military seized power, including the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who faces four charges, and the president, Win Myint. Two new charges were announced against Win Myint on Wednesday, including one for an alleged breach of the constitution, punishable by up to three years in prison.

The UN security council is expected to hold a closed session on the situation on Friday after the UK requested a meeting. However, it is unlikely that any coordinated measures will be agreed, as China and Russia have previously blocked attempts to pressure Myanmar’s military.

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, met on Tuesday, but the group did not come up with any significant action. A statement released on Tuesday called for an end to violence. However, only four members – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore – called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other detainees.

Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, called for dialogue, writing on Twitter that he urged “the international community to ensure that the aspirations of the people of Myanmar are not stifled”.

The post Dozens killed in Myanmar’s worst day of violence since coup appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.