Gunmen kill 3 Benin soldiers near Niger border
by AFP Staff Writers
Cotonou (AFP) Dec 3, 2024

Gunmen have killed three soldiers who were guarding an oil pipeline in Benin, a military source said Tuesday, in the latest attack in the West African country where jihadist violence is rising.

"Four soldiers were also wounded and are receiving emergency care" after the incident Monday in the northeastern city of Malanville, the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss it.

The troops were part of Operation Mirador, launched in 2022 to secure Benin's borders amid a surge of jihadist violence in West Africa, the officer said.

Malanville sits on Benin's border with Niger, which has been rocked by attacks in recent years, as have nearby Sahel states Mali and Burkina Faso.

The oil pipeline connects the Agadem oil fields in southeastern Niger to the Benin coast.

Another operation in June killed seven soldiers in Benin in a national park on the Burkina Faso border.

Attacks in northern Benin have increased in recent years. The authorities accuse members of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda groups based in neighbouring countries.

Benin's authorities rarely speak publicly on such offensives. In April 2023, they said there had been around 20 cross-border incursions since 2021.

Operation Mirador was launched the following year with 3,000 troops. Benin has recruited an additional 5,000 to reinforce security in the north.

The United States last month sent $6.6 million worth of armoured vehicles and defence equipment to Benin, while the European Union earlier this year announced 47 million euros ($49 million) in anti-terror funding for the country.

Neighbouring Ghana and Togo have also suffered jihadist attacks in recent years.

Angola hosts summit as Mali faces separatist conflict and Guinea Junta cracks down
Luanda (AFP) Dec 2, 2024 - Ceasefire-broker Angola will host a summit on December 15 to advance peace talks between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda about the DRC's troubled east, the presidency said on Monday.

Since 2021 the Kigali-backed and largely ethnic Tutsi M23 rebel militia has seized swathes of the eastern DRC, displacing thousands and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

Angola in early August mediated a fragile truce that stabilised the situation at the front line.

But since the end of October, the M23 has been on the march again, and continued to carry out localised offensives.

Despite violations of the ceasefire, the DRC and Rwanda are maintaining diplomatic dialogue through Angola's mediation.

Early in November, the two central African neighbours launched a committee to monitor ceasefire violations, led by Angola and including representatives from both the DRC and Rwanda.

"As part of ongoing efforts to find a lasting solution" to the conflict, Angolan President Joao Lourenco decided to organise the summit, which will take place in the capital Luanda.

Kinshasa and Kigali last week approved a concept of operations document, a "key instrument" supposed to set out the terms by which Rwandan troops will disengage from Congolese territory, according to Angola's foreign ministry.

The plan, used by the military to set the timeline of an operation and the organisation of its resources, will guide the implementation of the harmonised plan intended to bring peace between the two neighbours.

A previous draft of the plan dated in August sets out the dismantling of a militia created by former ethnic Hutu leaders involved in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 as a precondition for Rwanda withdrawing its troops.

Often portrayed by Kigali as a threat to its security, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is one of various disparate militias fighting alongside the Congolese armed forces against the M23.

For the past three decades, the DRC's mineral-rich east has been plagued by internal and cross-border violence.

Malian army kills members of new separatist alliance
Bamako (AFP) Dec 2, 2024 - The Malian army has killed a leader and several members of a newly formed separatist rebel coalition operating in the volatile north of the country, according to information from both sides.

The army said in a statement on Monday that it had "neutralised" eight men, which it described as "high-ranking terrorist operatives, during a large-scale operation carried out in Tinzaouatene" near the Algerian border a day earlier.

A new alliance of mainly Tuareg-led armed separatist rebels on Sunday reported the deaths of seven of the eight suspects named by the army, including one of the coalition's leaders Fahad Ag Almahmoud.

The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) said its members were killed in "synchronised drone strikes".

Azawad is the name of the territory claimed by the separatists in northern Mali.

The FLA had been created a day earlier in Tinzaouatene with the dissolution and merger of several separatist and pro-independence groups.

The alliance describes itself as a "politico-military entity" with "the objective of leading to the total liberation of Azawad".

The separatists resumed hostilities against the state and the army in 2023 as the United Nations stabilisation mission was pushed out by the ruling junta.

The West African country has been ravaged by jihadist violence since 2012 and has been under military rule since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

Dozens of Malian soldiers and fighters from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner were killed in Tinzaouatene at the end of July during fighting against separatist rebels and jihadists.

The junta has vowed to restore Mali's sovereignty and stability, describing both jihadists and separatists as "terrorists".

"These terrorists were involved in several targeted attacks against civilians and the FAMa (Malian Armed Forces)", the army said, referring to the eight separatists killed on Sunday.

It added that Tinzaouatene was being used by separatist fighters "as a strategic base for the planning and execution of actions harmful to the security of the region".

Sunday's operation "considerably reduced the operational potential of the terrorist group concerned", it said.

Since 2023, armed separatist groups have lost control of several towns in the north, following an offensive by the Malian army that culminated in the capture of Kidal, a bastion of independence and a major sovereignty issue for the central government.

Human Rights Watch says Guinea junta repressing opponents
Dakar (AFP) Dec 2, 2024 - Human Rights Watch said Guinea's military rulers are torturing and repressing opponents and failing in their promise to transition to civilian rule this year, in a report published Monday.

The authorities that seized control in the west African country in 2021 has "have cracked down on the opposition, media, and peaceful dissent, and have failed to keep their promises to restore civilian rule by December 2024," the global group (HRW) said in a statement.

It said it based its report on interviews with victims of abuse and nearly 60 national and international organisations, including opposition and media groups.

Junta leader Mamady Doumbouya overthrew his predecessor Alpha Conde in a coup in September 2021.

"His government has largely carried on where Conde left off, killing, intimidating, and silencing critics, and torturing and disappearing those suspected of working with the political opposition," said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at HRW.

Security forces have crushed demonstrations with excessive force in a crackdown that has led to the deaths of dozens of protesters, the report said.

Authorities have closed down independent media and "disappeared and allegedly tortured two prominent political activists", Fonike Mengue and Mamadou Billo Bah, it added.

Up to 59 people, including at least five children, have died during protests since June 2022, HRW said, citing Guinean civil and rights groups.

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