Gabon Coup Leader Will Not Rush to Elections Despite Mounting Pressure

The leader of a coup that this week overthrew Gabon’s President Ali Bongo said Friday that he wanted to avoid rushing into elections that “repeat past mistakes,” as pressure mounted on the junta to hand back power to a civilian government.

Military officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power Wednesday, minutes after an announcement that Bongo had secured a third term in an election.

The officers placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family’s 56-year hold on power.

The coup — West and Central Africa’s eighth in three years — drew cheering crowds onto the streets of the capital Libreville but condemnation from abroad and at home.

Nguema said in a televised address on Friday evening that the junta would proceed “quickly but surely” but that it would avoid elections that “repeat the same mistakes” by keeping the same people in power.

“Going as quickly as possible does not mean organizing ad hoc elections, where we will end up with the same errors,” he said.

Central African regional bloc ECCAS has urged partners led by the United Nations and the African Union to support a rapid return to constitutional order, it said in a statement after an extraordinary meeting Thursday. It said it would reconvene Monday.

Gabon’s main opposition group, Alternance 2023, which says it is the rightful winner of Saturday’s election, urged the international community on Friday to encourage the junta to hand power back to civilians.

“We were happy that Ali Bongo was overthrown but … we hope that the international community will stand up in favor of the Republic and the democratic order in Gabon by asking the military to give back the power to the civilians,” Alexandra Pangha, spokesperson for Alternance 2023 leader Albert Ondo Ossa, told the BBC.

She said that the junta’s plan to inaugurate Nguema as head of state on Monday was “absurd.”

Crackdown on Bongo entourage

Bongo was elected in 2009, taking over from his late father who came to power in 1967. Opponents say the family did little to share Gabon’s oil and mining wealth.

For years the Bongo family occupied a luxurious palace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. They own expensive cars and properties in France and the United States, often paid for in cash, according to a 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global network of investigative journalists.

Meanwhile, almost a third of the country’s 2.3 million people live in poverty.

Military leaders ordered the arrest of one of Bongo’s sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and several members of Bongo’s Cabinet early on Wednesday on accusations ranging from alleged embezzlement to narcotics trafficking.

State broadcaster Gabon 24 said Thursday that duffel bags stuffed with cash wrapped in plastic had been confiscated from the homes of various officials. Its footage included a raid on the house of former Cabinet director Ian Ghislain Ngoulou.

Standing next to Bongo Valentin, he told the channel that the money was part of Bongo’s election fund. It was unclear when the images were shot.

Lawyers for Bongo’s wife said on Friday that Bongo Valentin was incarcerated in an undisclosed location, and the family were concerned about his safety.

The streets of Libreville were calm on Friday under a heavy security force presence. Talk focused on the junta’s response.

“You need politicians to manage a transition, and above all a state,” said retired Libreville resident Timothe Moutsinga.

“We expect a lot from this government and this transition, a transfer of power to civilians.”

The takeover in Gabon follows coups in Guinea, Chad and Niger, plus two each in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020. The takeovers have erased democratic gains in a region where insecurity and widespread poverty have weakened elected governments, worrying international powers with strategic interests at stake.

The White House said on Friday that it was pursuing “viable diplomatic solutions” to the situations in both Gabon and Niger, where a coup ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.

Alternance 2023 has said it wants a full vote count from Saturday’s election, which it said would show Ondo Ossa had won. Gabon’s election commission said after the election that Bongo had been re-elected with 64% of the vote, while Ondo Ossa secured almost 31%. Ballot counting was done without independent observers amid an internet blackout.

Pangha said the opposition hoped to get an invitation from the junta to discuss the Central African country’s transition plan but said it had not received anything yet.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council on Thursday called for fair and transparent elections. It said it will impose sanctions on the coup leaders if they do not restore constitutional order.

France, Gabon’s former colonial ruler, and other Western powers have condemned the takeover.

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Pre-Africa Climate Summit, Leaders Strategize on Climate Change Solutions

Representatives from top African political and financial institutions are in Kenya preparing for the Africa Climate Summit. They’ve started meeting ahead of Monday’s summit to discuss possible responses to the climate change wreaking havoc in parts of Africa through increased droughts and food insecurity, triggering conflict and humanitarian crises.

In the past few years, countries in Eastern Africa have been ravaged by drought, putting more than 20 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Last year, Nigeria was hit with floods that uprooted more than 1 million people and heightened food insecurity.

Migration from affected areas, growing competition over natural resources and water scarcity due to changed rainfall patterns have also increased the risk of violence and conflict in Africa.

These examples underline the urgency driving this weekend’s Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA) and the Africa Climate Summit that takes place Monday in Kenya.

Attendees from the African Union, the African Development Bank and other institutions will discuss ways to combat the effects of climate change that are causing major problems in many parts of the continent.

Hanan Morsy is the deputy executive secretary and chief economist at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, which explores strategies to advocate for Africa’s specific needs and solutions in addressing the climate change crisis.

“It will be important to establish a strong African position and to advance the call for action globally on what is required to fix the situation,” Morsy said. “Some of the things mentioned in terms of the need for ensuring sufficient financing to meet the demands for green transition and to pay attention to the particular nature of green transition for Africa.”

In 2019, the World Meteorological Organization released a report drawing attention to the risks that climate change brought to Africa’s well-being and food and water resources.

Forecasts, which turned out to be correct, showed increased temperatures and reduced rainfall in Africa’s northern and southern regions.

Next week, as Kenya hosts the Africa Climate Summit, leaders are expected to address the continent’s harsh weather conditions— which have contributed to poor health, food shortages, and governments spending at least 5% of their GDP to manage the situation.

The conference is an opportunity for Africans to face the impact of climate change and improve people’s lives, said Wanjira Mathai, an environmental expert with the World Resources Institute, based in Nairobi.

“This has to be an opportunity to transform people’s lives and livelihood across the continent and what’s special is talking about African leadership in the process and how does Africa show up as a hub for climate solutions to address our problems, our needs— but in so, doing also [to] address global climate needs and we have a lot of things going on for us,” Mathai said.

Africa is the continent most affected by climate change, but it produces the fewest greenhouse emissions.

The summit on Monday will bring together government officials, organizations and experts to support sustainable green growth and climate financing solutions for Africa.

“We expect that many of these minerals the continent is abundant in, the demand for them will increase massively,” Morsy said. “The demand for lithium is expected to increase 40-fold. Demand for cobalt is expected to increase 25-fold. This really presents solid opportunities for the continent to build on these natural resources.”

The conference reports will shape a statement for African heads of state at the upcoming global COP28 meeting in the United Arab Emirates. 

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Things to Know About the Latest Court and Policy Action on Transgender Issues in US

On Friday, Texas became the most populous state with a ban in effect against gender-affirming care for minors.

The law was allowed to kick in after a court ruling Thursday, part of a flurry of action across the country on policies aimed at transgender people and their rights. A separate Texas ruling blocked a law that drag show performers feared would shut them down.

Here’s a look at the latest developments and what’s next.

Texas gender-affirming care ban takes effect

In its ruling Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court allowed a law banning gender-affirming care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors.

The ruling is not final, but allows enforcement of the law while courts determine whether it’s constitutional. The decision is also a reversal of a lower court from the week before, when a state judge had said the law should be put on hold while it’s sorted out.

Since 2021, 22 Republican-controlled states have passed laws restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors. At least 13 states, meanwhile, have adopted measures intended to protect access.

Several of the bans are so new that they haven’t taken effect yet. Missouri’s kicked in earlier this week. Enforcement of the laws in Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana are currently on hold.

There are legal challenges to the policies across the country, and there isn’t a clear pattern for how courts handle them. None have reached a final court decision.

Courts in three states hold hearings on care restrictions

Two court hearings on the matter Friday did not immediately change the status quo in three states but showed how thorny the legal issues can be.

In Florida, a judge declined to take steps to immediately ease access to gender-affirming treatment for children or adults. Both age groups were affected by a ban which, unlike other states, also has a provision that restricts access to care for adults. The ban on treatment was signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

District Judge Robert Hinkle said that he would consider changes for adult plaintiffs if he sees medical evidence on how going without treatments could be harmful.

He has a trial scheduled for February on the constitutionality of the Florida law.

But he noted that with similar cases moving through courts across the country, whatever he decides won’t be the final word.

Also Friday, a three-judge panel from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court heard arguments on whether states can ban puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors in both Kentucky and Tennessee, as lawsuits challenging the statutes makes their way through the courts. The appellate judges did not make a ruling but noted that a key factor would be determining which side was being more compassionate.

Alaska moves to restrict sports participation for transgender girls

The Alaska state board of education on Thursday voted in favor of a policy that would keep transgender girls out of girls sports competitions.

The board’s action is a major step, but not the final one for the policy.

It’s up to Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor to decide whether to implement it. The attorney general, like the school board, was appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has called for such a ban.

At least 24 states have adopted laws restricting sports participation, including four where courts have put enforcement on hold.

Kansas no longer has to change birth certificates

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas officials no longer have to change transgender people’s birth certificates to match their gender identities.

The ruling undoes a 2019 federal consent agreement that required the state to make the changes when asked. The reason for the change is a new state law that defines male and female as the sex assigned at birth.

The ruling puts Kansas among a small group of states, including Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee, that bar such birth certificate changes. Under a separate legal filing from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in July, the state is among a few that do not allow people to change the sex on their driver’s licenses.

Texas law that drag performers feared is put on hold

Not all the latest developments are losses for transgender people.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new Texas law that drag show artists feared would be used to shut them down or put them in jail.

The law, which expands the definition of what’s considered an illegal public performance of sexual conduct in front of children, was scheduled to take effect on Friday.

But a group of LGBTQ+ rights advocate and drag performers sued to block it. U.S. District Judge David Hittner agreed with their contention that it likely violates the First Amendment and paused enforcement while he prepares a more permanent order in the case.

Judges have also blocked enforcement of bans on drag performances in Florida and Tennessee.

This week, advocates filed a lawsuit in Tennessee trying to stop a local prosecutor who said he intends to enforce the law there despite the federal court ruling. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that law enforcement officials cannot use the limits to interfere with a local Pride festival in Blount County this weekend.

Canada responds with a travel advisory

Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., alerting members of the LGBTQ+ community that some states have enacted laws that could affect them.

The advisory doesn’t single out states and it doesn’t go as far as telling Canadians not to travel to the neighboring nation. Instead, it tells them to check local laws.

Non-government groups have issued similar warnings. In June, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S.-based group devoted to LGBTQ+ rights, declared a state of emergency for community members in the U.S.

And in May, the NAACP issued a travel advisory about Florida citing policies and laws including bans on gender-affirming care for minors, requirements that transgender people use school bathrooms that don’t match their gender, and restrictions on drag performances — although those were later put on hold.

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Report: 840,000 Afghans Who Applied for US Resettlement Program Still in Afghanistan 

More than 840,000 Afghans who applied for a resettlement program aimed at people who helped the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan are still there waiting, according to a report that lays out the challenges with a program intended to help America’s allies in the two-decade-long conflict. 

The report released Thursday by the State Department’s inspector general outlines steps the department took to improve processing of special immigrant visas for Afghans. But two years after the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power, challenges remain. 

The visa program was started in 2009 to help Afghans who worked side by side with Americans and faced significant risks for doing so. A similar program exists for Iraqis. Both programs have been plagued by criticism that cases move much too slowly, leaving applicants in dangerous limbo. 

And since the U.S. left Afghanistan, the number of people applying for the visas has skyrocketed. According to the report, there were fewer than 30,000 applicants in October 2021, but by December 2022 that number had grown to roughly 155,000. Those figures do not include family members who are allowed to resettle with applicants who secure approval.

The State Department estimates that as of April of this year more than 840,000 applicants for the special visa program and their family members remain in Afghanistan, the report said. Not everyone who applies is accepted; the State Department noted that about 50% of applicants do not qualify when their applications are reviewed at a key stage early in the process. 

The department also said that since the start of the Biden administration in January 2021 through August 1 of this year, it has issued nearly 34,000 visas for the applicants and their family members, which it said was a substantial increase from previous years. 

The report said the department has hired more staff to process applications, coordinated with the Pentagon to verify applicants’ employment and eliminated some of the steps required of applicants. But, the report said, there was more it could do. For example, the report noted that a key position overseeing the special immigrant visa process has seen frequent turnover and vacancies. 

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US Envoy Heading to Chad to See Situation of Sudanese Refugees  

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield will head to the border of Chad and Sudan on Tuesday to meet with refugees from the war in Sudan and the humanitarians who are assisting them.

“With new horrific reports of ethnically motivated mass killings and conflict-related sexual violence in West Darfur, the Sudan conflict risks ongoing mass atrocities and requires an urgent international response,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday.

The official added that the United States continues to work on accountability measures aimed at those responsible for such horrific acts and that the ambassador would have more to say about that on her trip. Washington has repeatedly called for an end to the fighting.

Since hostilities erupted in mid-April between rival generals from the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Security Forces, more than a million people have fled to neighboring countries. Fighting has been fierce in the capital, Khartoum, and in parts of the Darfur region, particularly in West Darfur.

Darfur saw wide-scale ethnic violence and crimes against humanity in the early 2000s. The International Criminal Court opened an investigation into the situation in 2005 and charged then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with genocide. He remains beyond the court’s custody despite having been ousted from power in a military coup in April 2019.

“Sadly, this situation is reminiscent of events that led the United States to make a genocide determination in 2004,” the U.S. official said. “We want to call global attention to what is happening, as we continue to work to rally action in response.”

Thomas-Greenfield, who is a member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, will meet with Chad’s transitional president, Mahamat Idriss Deby, to discuss how the conflict is affecting his country, which already hosted some 400,000 Sudanese refugees before the latest violence. She will also meet with members of civil society.

The U.S. official said Thomas-Greenfield is expected to announce new humanitarian assistance during her trip.

The ambassador will also stop in Cape Verde to meet with government officials on a range of bilateral and regional issues and meet with alumni of the Young African Leaders Initiative program.

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Hurricane Idalia Victims Assess Damage, Begin Recovery

Anabel Bodine’s internet service had been down for days. By the time she knew Hurricane Idalia was heading straight for her hometown of Perry, Florida, it was too late to evacuate.

“I was so scared. At one point my mobile home was just rocking back and forth with me in it. I thought it was going to tip over,” she told VOA. “But I’m only 130 pounds [59 kilograms] so I was afraid to go outside because I was worried I’d just blow away.

“Dark skies, wild wind and rising water. And when it finally ended and I opened the door, you saw all the damage it did. Trees slammed into homes. Power lines down everywhere. And it’s so hot here, but the electricity’s pretty much out in the whole town, so we’re just roasting.”

Idalia hit the Big Bend region of Florida as a Category 3 hurricane. Winds of more than 200 kph were the strongest recorded in that part of the state in more than a century, tearing storefronts from foundations, peeling roofs from homes and leaving hundreds of thousands of residents from Florida to North Carolina without power.

But as people survey the damage, it’s clear the hurricane created nightmares for those far outside the storm’s path as well.

“Honestly, the hurricane wasn’t anywhere near us,” said Pete Genova, a resident of the coastal town of Port Richey, Florida, nearly 260 kilometers south of Perry.

“But it didn’t matter – the storm surge got us,” he said.

That storm surge, which rose as high as 2.75 meters above sea level in some places, was the result of a catastrophic combination of a powerful hurricane and a full “supermoon” that — because of the moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth — would have caused higher tides even without the accompanying storm.

“My house flooded with water from the Gulf, same with my neighbors,” Genova said. “Who knows how long this is going to take to clean up? The streets are lined with destroyed personal stuff and waterlogged furniture, and we’re all going to have to replace our floors.”

‘Worst storm I’ve experienced’

Although initial estimates of the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia are between $9 billion and $20 billion, the death toll has been surprisingly low. Officials say that’s thanks to residents heeding evacuation orders and a hurricane path that missed major metropolitan areas.

“I think citizens responded very appropriately,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday. “As of now, [to not] have any reported fatalities is probably something that most people would not have bet on four or five days ago.” Officials later confirmed several traffic-related fatalities linked to the storm in Florida and neighboring Georgia.

Jean Homan of Cedar Key, Florida, evacuated as she was told. But now she, like thousands of others, is returning to a life in shambles.

“People are finding random boats in their backyards, some boats that slammed through homes, and of course five or six straight hours where we had two feet of water in our condo,” she told VOA. “I’ve lived in Florida since 1982 and this is the worst storm I’ve experienced.”

By the time Idalia reached Florida’s northern border with Georgia, winds had slowed to just shy of 150 kph but were still powerful enough to wreak havoc on towns in its path.

Shauna Johnson lives in the military community of Valdosta, Georgia, where she estimated 90% of the town was without electricity. That, combined with prohibitively long lines for gasoline, caused her to decide to drive to stay with family in an undamaged part of southern Florida.

“It doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” she told VOA. “Trees and power lines are down, and so are buildings and signage. I think a lot of the locals aren’t used to hurricanes, so they’re struggling with food shortages. And it’s so hot here. I’m going to leave until it gets better, but I have no idea how long that will be.”

Facing the aftermath

As of Friday morning, more than 100,000 residents in Florida and Georgia remained without power. Thousands more in the Carolinas faced the same. In some areas, temperatures rose to 35 degrees Celsius, while some victims remained without clean drinking water.

“It’s a disaster,” Homan said, “but what can I do other than keep fighting?”

As she prepares to assess the damage to her home, she’ll do so without her husband, who is suffering from cancer and needed to be hospitalized during the storm.

“Neighbors helped us get ready for the storm earlier in the week, and we’ll all help each other now again as we recover,” she said. “Helping each other is the only way we’ll get through this.”

Down in Tampa, Florida, nonprofits like Feeding Tampa Bay, a food bank for those in need, are working to provide food and water to evacuees from the storm arriving in their city, as well to those stuck along the coast.

“We’re sending food, water and even some team members throughout west-central Florida,” said Shannon Hannon Oliviero, the food bank’s public relations officer. “And we’re rallying volunteers to join us to pack meal boxes for those impacted by the storm. We’re just trying to help however we can to support our coastal neighbors who are struggling.”

Bodine, who hunkered down through the hurricane in her mobile home, said volunteers arrived in Perry within hours of the storm’s passing.

After receiving assistance from the United Cajun Navy, a large group of volunteers based in Louisiana, Bodine decided she wanted to help as well.

On Friday, she said she would be unloading a trailer full of food, water and supplies that were to go to her fellow victims.

“Someone needs to do it, you know?” she told VOA when asked why she’s volunteering so soon after going through so much herself. “If we’re going to build our community back, we’re going to build it back together. So that’s what I’m trying to do, starting right now.”

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Russia Declares Nobel-Winning Editor Dmitry Muratov a Foreign Agent

Russian authorities on Friday declared journalist Dmitry Muratov, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to be a foreign agent, continuing the country’s moves to suppress critics and independent reporting.

Russian law allows for individuals and organizations receiving funding from abroad to be declared foreign agents, a pejorative term that potentially undermines their credibility with the Russian public. The status also requires designees to mark any publications with a disclaimer stating they are foreign agents.

Muratov was chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, which was widely respected abroad for its investigative reporting and was frequently critical of the Kremlin. Muratov was a co-laureate of the 2021 Nobel prize; he later put up his Nobel medal for auction, receiving $103.5 million which he said would be used to aid refugee children from Ukraine.

After Russia enacted harsh laws to punish statements that criticized its military actions in Ukraine or were found to discredit Russian soldiers, Novaya Gazeta announced it would suspend publication until the conflict ended.

Many of its journalists started a new publication called Novaya Gazeta Europe that is based in Latvia.

In recent years, Russia has methodically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin, branding many as “foreign agents.” It has has branded some as “undesirable” under a 2015 law that makes membership in such organizations a criminal offense.

It also has imprisoned prominent opposition figures including anti-corruption campaigner AlexeyAl Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most persistent domestic foe, and dissidents Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.

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UN This Week: Gabon Coup; Hope for New Grain Deal?

Another attempted coup in Africa, and a glimmer of hope for reviving the Black Sea grain deal. VOA Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more on the top stories this week at the United Nations.

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UN Weekly Roundup: August 26-September 1, 2023

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

UN chief reaches out to Moscow on grain deal revival

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that he had reached out to Russia with “concrete proposals” to renew the collapsed grain export deal Moscow pulled out of in July and then followed with a series of attacks on Ukraine’s ports and grain infrastructure. He did not go into detail on the proposal, saying only that it addressed some of Moscow’s concerns.

 

Mali peacekeeping drawdown enters new phase

The United Nations entered the second phase of drawing down one of its largest peacekeeping missions, after military authorities in Mali announced in June that they wanted the mission out by the end of this year. The mission, known as MINUSMA, has until December 31 to carry out the Herculean task of repatriating more than 12,000 international peacekeepers and separating from 4,300 civilian staff, against the backdrop of continued instability and threats from armed groups. On Wednesday, Russia vetoed a one-year renewal of the sanctions regime and panel of experts on Mali.

Secretary-general calls for peaceful resolution over Zimbabwe election results

Guterres called for peaceful and transparent resolutions to any challenges to the legitimacy of Zimbabwe’s presidential election that returned Emmerson Mnangagwa to office. In a statement, he expressed concern about the arrest of observers, reports of voter intimidation, threats of violence, harassment and coercion.

War depriving Ukrainian children of education

The U.N. Children’s Fund said millions of children across Ukraine and in seven neighboring asylum countries were being deprived of an education and the skills needed to help Ukraine recover from the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion. An assessment by UNICEF and the Ukrainian Ministry of Education found that Russian attacks had destroyed more than 1,300 schools, and that others were damaged and not ready to open for the academic year, which began this week.

In brief

— U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths released an additional $20 million on Tuesday from the Central Emergency Response Fund to assist people in Sudan. Humanitarian needs continue to rise as more than 4.5 million people have been displaced by the violence sparked by rival generals in mid-April.

— UNICEF and the World Food Program said Friday that nearly a quarter of Mali’s population was suffering from moderate or acute food insecurity and that almost a million children under 5 years old were at risk of falling into acute malnutrition by December. And for the first time in Mali, the agencies warned that more than 2,500 people were at risk of famine in the Menaka region, many of them children.

— The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees said Sunday that nearly 300,000 Palestinian refugee children were back in school in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA opened three new schools this year to accommodate a growing student population. But the agency, which faces chronic funding shortages, said it would not be able to continue operations in its schools beyond September without a cash injection of nearly $200 million.

— Tuesday was the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. August 29 marks the day in 1991 when Kazakhstan closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The former Soviet Union used the facility between 1949 and 1989 to carry out more than 450 underground and atmospheric nuclear tests, which caused lasting environmental and health impacts. U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu urged countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to do so. Since it was agreed upon in 1996, the treaty has 186 signatories and 178 states have ratified it. North Korea is the only country to have carried out nuclear tests in the 21st century.

Quote of note

“Many countries face deep-seated governance challenges. But military governments are not the solution. They aggravate problems. They cannot resolve a crisis; they can only make it worse.”

— Guterres to reporters Thursday on the coup in Gabon. The African continent has seen nine coups since 2020.

Did you know?

September starts a marathon month of diplomacy. There will be meetings of major groups, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the G20 and the G7 plus China. Guterres will be attending all of these gatherings. The month will be capped off by a high-level week at the U.N. General Assembly, which gets underway in the third week in September and is expected to draw a large number of world leaders.

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Niger Coup Puts Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants at Risk

The United Nation’s International Organization for Migration — the IOM — said Friday that border closures and airspace restrictions caused by the July 26 coup in Niger have disrupted migration patterns in the nation, putting hundreds of thousands of migrants and displaced persons at risk.

The coup by Niger’s military leaders overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and put him under house arrest.

At a news conference in Geneva on Friday, IOM West and Central Africa Regional Director Chris Gascon said there are 710,000 displaced persons in Niger, including refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons.

He said the agency is hosting 4,800 migrants at seven transit centers in Niger, with an additional 1,400 awaiting help outside the centers. Gascon said the agency is 40% over capacity.

Gascon appealed to the international community for resources to allow the agency to continue providing essential services to the stranded migrants. He said the IOM is also calling for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor so migrants can safely return to their countries of origin.

Meanwhile, officials with the Economic Community of West African States — ECOWAS — attended an informal meeting of European Union foreign ministers Thursday in Toledo, Spain, asking for their support.

The regional bloc has been dealing directly with Niger coup leaders and has leveled economic sanctions against them. The bloc has indicated it would use military force if coup leaders did not restore constitutional order.

Following the meeting, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said the EU foreign ministers agreed to “initiate a process for the establishment of a legal framework for individual sanctions” against coup leaders, but reserved judgment on the use of military force.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and AFP.

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Britain Closes More Than 150 Schools Due to Faulty Concrete

Britain’s Education Department has ordered more than 150 schools to shut down buildings constructed with RAAC, a type of concrete that is prone to collapse. The decision came just days before the fall term is set to start, drawing ire from parents, teachers and politicians.

A roof beam gave way over the summer, prompting the British government to examine the risks of RAAC, Schools Minister Nick Gibb told the BBC recently. The past few months have seen a number of instances where buildings containing RAAC suddenly failed, both at schools and elsewhere.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC, is lightweight and was used in construction until the mid-1990s. RAAC has a lifespan of about 30 years.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan described the government’s decision as a “cautious approach.” She reassured the public that most affected schools would remain open because the faulty concrete was found in limited areas.

But some campuses face total closure, sending teachers and parents scrambling for alternatives from relocating students to neighboring schools to reviving coronavirus-era distance learning.

Part of the shock of the government’s announcement is that it has long known about the risks of RAAC. More than 50 school buildings with RAAC have been closed in the past over safety concerns.

In June, the watchdog group National Audit Office reported about the dangers that school buildings constructed with RAAC pose to students and teachers. It cited a strong likelihood of injury or death from a building imploding.

These developments follow six months of teachers’ strikes across the United Kingdom spurred by charges of underfunding and poor government outreach.

Critics from all sides describe the mass closures as a debacle. Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said in a statement that the situation reflected “gross government incompetence … ”

In the run-up to the general election expected in 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will have to consider how to win the public’s confidence and counter ridicule over his efforts in infrastructure and education.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Analysts: Gabon Coup Different Than Other Recent African Takeovers

The new leader of Gabon’s junta is due to be sworn in as president of the central African republic on Monday, but the opposition is asking for power to be handed over to civilians.

Gabon is the latest country to fall into the hands of a military junta, adding to a record-setting eight coups in three years in sub–Saharan Africa.  

While the coups bear some similarities, this latest one has notable differences, according to Sean McFate, professor at the National Defense University. 

“The major difference is that Gabon is close to Paris unlike, say, Mali or Burkina Faso where there is a lot of anti-French sentiment in the population and in the government,” McFate said. “Another thing that is different is that the president really isn’t … it’s questionable about the validity of his elections. You’ve had one ruling family there since 1967.” 

The military junta, under the leadership of Brice Oligui Nguema, annulled last week’s election results that would have handed a third term to President Ali Bongo, who’s under house arrest.  

“This is not the Niger coup, where you have a democratically elected president who has been removed in a scenario that appears that the coup makers were advancing personal interest rather than national interest,” said Kwaku Nuamah, a senior lecturer at American University’s School of International Studies. “In the Gabonese case, you have someone whose family has dominated the country, for a long time has misruled and is not popular.”  

Bongo’s family has been in power for 56 years in the manganese, timber, and oil-rich central African country of Gabon.  

Some of the countries bordering Gabon, including Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo, have some of the longest-sitting presidents on the continent. 

“There is a likelihood we can see contagion in other places where the military has to step in to remove long-serving civilian rulers who are under performing. That’s the danger,” Nuamah said.  

The African Union suspended Gabon’s membership on Thursday. The Economic Community of Central African States condemned the coup as well, saying it will convene a special session to discuss this most recent military takeover in the region.  

But Nuamah said he hopes the meeting won’t be one of issuing unenforceable ultimatums — which was the case recently with Niger versus the West African economic bloc.  

The coup in Gabon was unexpected, he said, but given the past three years, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.  

“It appears as if the regional and continental measures for resolving these coups or preventing them are not working. Everybody is watching how ECOWAS handles Niger,” Nuamah said. “Mali has resisted pressures to return to constitutional rule, Burkina Faso, so they look around and see the international community is unable to punish coup makers, so they plan their coups.” 

ECOWAS slapped heavy sanctions and gave the Niger junta one week to hand over power or face possible military intervention. But for now, the organization says it’s giving diplomacy a chance.  

For McFate, military coups are a dangerous trend for the continent, and he questions the response or lack thereof from some international organizations. 

“In the world of international diplomacy, credibility is your only currency and ECOWAS blew it badly,” he said. “Also, where is the United Nations in all of this, where is the African Union? Beyond strongly worded condemnations, they are absent, they are AWOL.”  

McFate and Nuamah also say democracy has recently taken a hit in many countries around the world. And while some countries like Niger and Gabon might be temporarily embracing their military juntas, the analysts say it’s no indicator the future will be better.  

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Artist Pays Tribute to Iranian Women Killed Fighting Injustice

An art exhibition in Rockville, Maryland, pays tribute to women in Iran who have been killed for speaking out against injustice. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.

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New Police Horse Stables Open on National Mall in Washington

In 2023, the Trust for the National Mall and the National Park Service unveiled a state-of-the-art project: the U.S. Park Police Horse Stables and Wells Fargo Education Center. Reporting from the National Mall in Washington, Liliya Anisimova has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Elena Matusovsky

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Ukraine War Fuels Surge of Volunteers in Poland

Poland plans to double its armed forces to 300,000 by 2035 with a combination of professional soldiers and volunteers. As Lesia Bakalets reports, Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine has triggered a huge number of Poles from all walks of life to sign up as volunteers. Camera: Daniil Batushchak

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Is the West Changing Its Policy on Serbia?

In July, a group of 56 European and American lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, demanding a tougher Western policy toward Serbia, primarily regarding its relations with Kosovo.

“We are asking for balance and proportionality to return in dealing with Kosovo and Serbia,” the Western officials wrote, adding that the current approach is not working.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, which it declared in 2008, and tensions have been a constant between the two countries since then. This year, there have been several flare-ups in northern Kosovo, where the ethnic Serbs are a majority of the population.

The letter was followed by articles in U.S. and German media outlets, such as CNN and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, criticizing the West for perceived appeasement of Serbia, a Western Balkan country that the United States and its allies hope to persuade to join in sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

For Richard Kraemer, a fellow at the U.S. Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Western media coverage is no surprise: “These modest displays of discontent with Belgrade indicate that certain Western leaders are fed up with [Serbian President Aleksandar] Vucic’s manipulative shenanigans.”

On the other hand, Bodo Weber, political analyst and senior associate at the Democratization Policy Council in Berlin, said he does see the letter as evidence that the West is changing course toward Serbia or Vucic.

“That change would be welcome, but unfortunately, we don’t see such a turnaround in sight. Rather, the letter of a few Western parliamentarians attracted the attention of the Western media, which normally rarely write about the region,” Weber said in a written response to questions from VOA.

During a press conference in Belgrade at the beginning of August, Vucic claimed that he personally — and not the country — is being criticized for not recognizing the independence of Kosovo and for “defending the interests of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.”

U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill defended the U.S. approach to relations with Vucic’s government in an exclusive interview with VOA’s Serbian Service.

“You have policies not just for success but because they are the right policies to have,” Hill said. “We weigh our interest in formulating a policy, and we proceed with it on the idea that this is the right thing for our government to do.”

Belgrade’s ties with Russia

Serbia is formally seeking EU membership and has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations, yet it has maintained its historically friendly relations with Moscow.

“Everyone should join sanctions, certainly countries aspiring to join Europe,” Hill said. “We think that is the right thing to do and would like to see Serbia do the same and march toward Euro-Atlantic systems.”

Johanna Deimel, a German expert on the Balkans, pointed to published reports, based on a leaked U.S. intelligence document, that Serbia has quietly agreed to provide arms to Ukraine for its defense against the Russian invasion.

“On one hand, Belgrade has been criticized for refusing to join the EU sanctions against Russia, and on the other hand, it seems that, for example, arms deliveries to Ukraine are helping to turn a blind eye elsewhere,” she said.

She also said efforts to align Serbia more closely with the West are complicated by Russian influence in the region’s media and its investments in the energy sector in the Balkans.

Kraemer noted that Serbia is almost entirely dependent on natural gas supplies from Russia and maintains trade and military ties with Moscow, while pro-Russian sentiments are high in the country.

The West “has bent over backwards to try and lure Belgrade into the transatlantic fold with carrots while looking from the sidelines at Serbia’s proxy status vis-a-vis the Kremlin’s Balkan agenda,” he said.

“Why they thought this would work, considering Vucic’s overt refusal to get on board concerning Ukraine, remains a mystery to me.”

In the July letter, the U.S. and EU lawmakers criticized Vucic for close ties and support to Milorad Dodik, the nationalist president of the Republic of Srpska in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik has been sanctioned by the United States for “undermining the Dayton peace accords,” a U.S.-sponsored agreement that ended the Balkan war in the 1990s.

Another obstacle to better relations between Belgrade and the West is the pro-Russian stance of Serbian spy chief Aleksandar Vulin, who has been sanctioned by the United States for alleged involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.

“The Treasury Department’s sanctioning of Vulin — unprecedented as he is a sitting Serbian government official — can be rightly interpreted as a warning,” Kraemer said. “It remains to be seen whether Washington and its partners have the gumption to sanction others of similar ilk to Vulin.”

In his interview with VOA, Hill said the dispute over Vulin, whom Vucic has refused to sack, has not derailed the Western outreach to Belgrade.

“Our sanctions are not against the institutions but on the individual. We continue to work with Serbia in areas where we can find agreement,” he said.

The issue of Kosovo

U.S.-Serbian relations are also troubled by Belgrade’s refusal to recognize the sovereignty of Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after U.S.-led NATO forces intervened to stop the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians by the Serbian government.

A U.S. State Department study concluded that at least 6,000 Kosovar Albanians had been the victims of mass murder by Serbian forces in 1999.

The latest tensions flared in April when ethnic Serbs boycotted local elections held in northern Kosovo, where they are a majority. That led to the election of ethnic Albanian mayors, who moved into their offices with the help of Kosovo’s riot police.

Serbs tried to prevent the new mayors from taking over the premises, but the police fired tear gas to disperse them. Serbs engaged in fierce clashes with NATO peacekeepers, leaving more than 50 rioters and 30 international troops injured.

The election boycott followed a collective resignation by Serb officials from the area, including administrative staff, judges and police officers, in November 2022.

During EU-mediated talks between Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the two were reported to have reached an agreement in Ohrid, a lake town in neighboring North Macedonia, to normalize their relations.

However, this agreement has not been implemented, and each side accuses the other of stalling the process.

According to Deimel, the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina “needs a complete reset.”

“It is incomprehensible to me why Josep Borell, the head of European diplomacy, and others praised the ‘Ohrid Agreement’ so much,” Deimel said. “It was a serious attempt, a concrete German-French proposal on the table, and then Vucic walks out the door and says that he did not sign the agreement.”

Hill said that the Kosovo issue is of some urgency and that progress toward its resolution is necessary.

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Russia Reports More Drone Attacks

Russian officials said Friday that air defenses intercepted drones heading toward three of the country’s western regions, while satellite images indicated that a major drone barrage earlier in the week destroyed at least two Ilyushin Il-76 military transport planes at a Russian air base.

Regional governors said defense systems stopped three drones in the Kursk, Belgorod and Moscow regions.

Moscow airports briefly halted flights but no major damage or injuries were reported, according to Russian authorities.

Drones aimed at targets inside Russia — and blamed by Moscow on Ukraine — have become almost a daily occurrence as the war has entered its 19th month and Kyiv’s forces pursue a counteroffensive. Recently, the drones have reached deeper into Russia.

Kyiv officials normally neither claim nor deny responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.

The apparent Ukrainian strategy is to unnerve Russia and pile pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Associated Press was unable to determine whether the drones are launched from Ukraine or inside Russia.

Meanwhile, satellite images analyzed by AP show that suspected Ukrainian drone attacks late Tuesday destroyed at least two Ilyushin Il-76 military transport planes at a Russian air base.

The images taken Thursday show Princess Olga Pskov International Airport, which is a dual military-civilian airport about 700 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border and near Estonia and Latvia.

The four-engine Il-76 is the workhorse of the Russian military’s airlift capacity, able to land and take off in rugged conditions. The Russian military is believed to have over 100 of them in its fleet.

The AP analysis, conducted Friday, showed what appeared to the blackened hulks of two Il-76s on separate parking pads on the air base’s apron. One included the plane’s tail, the other appeared to show pieces of another aircraft. Fire damage could be seen around the pad.

Eleven other Il-76s had been moved off their parking pads into different positions on the airport’s taxiways, possibly in an attempt to make it more difficult for them to be struck again. One was on the runway itself. Another Il-76 remained on the pad, though it wasn’t clear why.

Local reports said Ukrainian drone attacks on the air base had damaged four Il-76s.

The satellite image was taken at 1303 GMT Thursday. Videos on social media Thursday night showed anti-aircraft fire going around the air base again, though it remained unclear whether it was another attack.

The air base at Pskov was initially targeted Tuesday night, but cloud cover prevented satellites from getting an unobstructed picture.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers away, apparently referencing the air base attack. He described the weapon as being produced by Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details.

The Kremlin’s forces have targeted Ukraine with numerous salvos of Iranian-made exploding drones in the war over the past year.

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US, SKorea, Japan Imposing New Sanctions on NKorea’s Nuclear, Missile Programs

The United States, South Korea, and Japan are imposing new sanctions on individuals and companies that facilitate North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, following Pyongyang’s failed launch of a spy satellite last week – the second attempt this year.

The move also came after North Korea’s military exercise that rehearsed occupying all South Korea territory and a tactical nuclear strike drill earlier this week.

South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Friday it has sanctioned North Korea’s Ryu Kyong Program Development Company and five individuals associated with that firm, including its chief, Ryu Kyong-chol, and four others from branch offices in China.

South Korea was the first country to sanction the named individuals and the company, according to the ministry, for activities that include helping North Korea to develop satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Japan’s foreign ministry said Friday it has imposed sanctions on three groups and four individuals involved in North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.

Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Matsuno Hirokazu, told reporters after a Cabinet meeting his government would continue to seek North Korea’s denuclearization and closely coordinate with the United States and South Korea.

In Washington, the U.S. Treasury Department Thursday targeted two individuals and one entity, Russia-based Jon Jin Yong, Sergey Mikhaylovich Kozlov, and Intellekt LLC in a separate sanctions announcement.

They were cited for involvement in “generating revenue for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) unlawful development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missiles.” DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The three countries pledged to continue working with allies to counter North Korea’s destabilizing activities, citing its use of ballistic missile technology as a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

North Korea watchers alarmed

Some analysts warned North Korea’s missile launches in recent months indicated significant technological advancement.

In July, North Korea successfully tested its newest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18.  It marked North Korea’s second solid-propellant ICBM launch following its first test-firing on April 13.

“A solid propellant rocket can be moved around as an individual missile, it doesn’t need any support vehicles.  It could be launched in less than a minute probably.  So even if you have found it and might be tracking it, you may not be able to destroy it [in time],” said Theodore Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology, and national security policy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This is a very reliable means for attacking the United States or Europe,” Postol told VOA.

But how did North Korea make such a significant breakthrough?

Go Myong-Hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a Seoul-based think tank, said many experts suspect North Korea received the solid-fueled propellant technology from a third party.

“North Korea is a resource poor country. And there are other things North Korea would need to use the time, resources, or the manpower to reinvent.  Regarding the solid-fueled rocket engine, there’s no need for North Korea to reinvent the wheel,” he told VOA on Friday.

“The examination and analysis about open-source data show that there’s a lot of commonalities between North Korean missiles and the Russian systems, especially Hwasong-18,” Go said.

US, South Korea, Japan in solidarity

On Aug. 18, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan issued “Camp David Principles” after their leaders’ first trilateral summit, where the three allies said they “stand united” in commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea under the U.N. Security Council resolutions, but ”remain committed to dialogue with the DPRK with no preconditions.”

Cooperation among the three countries can be very effective in preventing illegal money flowing into North Korea, according to regional experts.

Seoul-based Park Won-gon who is the director of Institute of Unification Studies at Ewha Womans University told VOA that South Korea and the United States have made significant progress over the past years in “preventing DPRK from cashing in through its IT personnel, cryptocurrency and illegal hacking.”

“This is indeed [North Korea leader] Kim Jong-un’s money to govern,” said Park Won-gon.  “If the money to govern is interrupted, North Korea will have less money to spend on its nuclear and missile programs and overall economy, which could be the motivation for the North to come to the negotiating table.”

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Analysts: Gabon Election Results A ‘Smokescreen’ For Soldiers To Oust Unpopular President

The ouster of Gabon’s president by mutinous soldiers appears to have been well organized and capitalized on the population’s grievances against the government as an excuse to seize power, analysts said.

Soldiers on Wednesday ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has ruled the oil-rich country in Central Africa for more than five decades. The coup leaders accused Bongo of irresponsible governance that risked leading the country into chaos and said they put him under house arrest and detained several Cabinet members.

Meanwhile, the African Union Peace and Security Council met Thursday and announced the immediate suspension of Gabon from “all activities of the AU, its organs and institutions” until the country restores constitutional order.

The head of Gabon’s elite republican guard, Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, was announced on state TV as the nation’s new leader hours after Bongo was declared the winner of a weekend presidential election that observers said was marred with irregularities and a lack of transparency.

While there were legitimate grievances about the vote and Bongo’s rule, his ousting is just a pretext for the junta to claim power for themselves, Gabon experts say.

“The timing of the coup, following the announcement of the implausible electoral results, and the speed with which the junta is moving suggests this was planned in advance,” Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said. “While there are many legitimate grievances about the vote and Bongo’s rule, that has little to do with the coup attempt in Gabon. Raising those grievances is just a smokescreen.”

In an announcement on state TV on Thursday a spokesperson for the junta said Oligui would be sworn into office on Monday before the constitutional court. It encouraged people to go back work and said it would restore domestic flights.

Also Thursday, Gabon’s political opposition called for elections to resume “under the supervision” of the armed forces,” to allow the main opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa, to assume the presidency, said his campaign manager Mike Jocktane.

Gabon’s coup is the eighth military takeover in Central and West Africa in three years and comes roughly a month after Niger’s democratically elected president was ousted. Unlike Niger and neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, which have each had two coups apiece since 2020 and are being overrun by extremist violence, Gabon was seen as relatively stable.

However, Bongo’s family has been accused of endemic corruption and not letting the country’s oil wealth trickle down to the population of some 2 million people.

Bongo, 64, has served two terms since coming to power in 2009 after the death of his father, who ruled the country for 41 years, and there has been widespread discontent with his reign. Another group of mutinous soldiers attempted a coup in 2019 but was quickly overpowered.

The former French colony is a member of OPEC, but its oil wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few — and nearly 40% of Gabonese aged 15 to 24 were out of work in 2020, according to the World Bank. Its oil export revenue was $6 billion in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Gabon’s coup and the overturning of a dynastic leader, such as Bongo, appeared to have struck a nerve across the continent that coups in more remote, volatile West Africa previously hadn’t.

Hours after soldiers in Gabon announced the new leader, the president of neighboring Cameroon, Paul Biya, who’s been in power for 40 years, shuffled his military leadership, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame “accepted the resignation” of a dozen generals and more than 80 other senior military officers. Even Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power in the tiny former French colony in the Horn of Africa since 1999, condemned the coup in Gabon and denounced the recent trend of military takeovers.

Still, on Wednesday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was too early to call the attempted coup in Gabon a trend.

“It’s just too soon to do a table slap here and say, ‘yep, we’ve got a trend here going’ or ‘yep, we’ve got a domino effect,'” he said.

In a statement, the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States, a Central African regional bloc, said it “firmly condemns” the use of force for resolving political conflicts and gaining access to power. It called for a return to constitutional order.

Since Bongo was toppled, the streets of Gabon’s capital, Libreville, have been jubilant with people celebrating alongside the army.

“Today we can only be happy,” said John Nze, a resident. “The country’s past situation handicapped everyone. There were no jobs. If the Gabonese are happy, it’s because they were hurting under the Bongos.”

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Nigeria President Suggests 9-Month Transition for Niger Junta

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday floated the idea of a transition back to democracy in neighboring Niger similar to the nine-month period his country underwent in the late 1990s.

The Economic Community of West African States has imposed sanctions on Niger after troops ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in a coup on July 26 and the bloc threatened military intervention as a last resort if talks fail to restore civilian rule.

In a statement Thursday, the bloc insisted it wanted Bazoum back in power right away.

“The military authorities in Niger must restore constitutional order immediately by liberating and reinstating … President Mohamed Bazoum,” it said.

Niger’s new military leaders have dug in, saying they want a maximum three-year transition period to restore constitutional order and have ordered police to expel France’s envoy as tensions build with a key partner in Niger’s anti-jihadist fight.

Late Thursday, Niger’s interior ministry announced it was stopping U.N. agencies, NGOs and international organizations from working in military “operation zones.”

It did not specify which regions were affected, but said the measures were “due to the current security situation.”

“All activities and or movements in the zones of operations are temporarily suspended,” it said.

Transition period

Tinubu said Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 after a nine-month transition period instituted by former military head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who has also headed delegations to meet the Niger junta.

“The president sees no reason why such cannot be replicated in Niger, if Niger’s military authorities are sincere,” the Nigerian presidency said in a statement.

Algeria, Niger’s influential northern neighbor, has met with West Africa leaders in a bid to avoid any military intervention in Niger and has proposed a six-month transition.

But Tinubu’s statement said there would be no relief from sanctions imposed by ECOWAS, of which he serves as chair, until the regime made “positive adjustments.”

“The soldiers’ action is unacceptable. The earlier they make positive adjustments, the quicker we will dial back the sanctions to alleviate the sufferings we are seeing in Niger,” it said.

The overthrow of Niger’s government has triggered concern around West Africa where Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso have all been taken over by the military since 2020.

Fears of contagion have deepened with this week’s military rebellion in Gabon to overthrow President Ali Bongo, toppled moments after being declared winner of a highly disputed weekend election.

Diplomatic battle

Niger’s new military rulers have also been engaged in a political battle with Paris, and stripped France’s ambassador of diplomatic immunity and ordered police to expel him, according to a letter seen Thursday by AFP.

The envoy “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as member of the diplomatic personnel in the French Embassy,” according to their letter, dated Tuesday, to the foreign ministry in Paris.

Relations with France spiraled downwards after the July coup when Paris stood by Bazoum and refused to recognise Niger’s new rulers.

Last Friday, the authorities gave French envoy Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country.

France refused the demand, saying the military rulers had no legal right to make such an order.

French military spokesperson Colonel Pierre Gaudilliere on Thursday warned that “the French military forces are ready to respond to any upturn in tension that could harm French diplomatic and military premises in Niger.”

France has around 1,500 troops in Niger, many of them stationed at an airbase near the capital, to help fight a jihadist insurgency in Niger.

On Aug. 3, Niger’s new rulers denounced military agreements with France, a move that the government in Paris has also ignored on the grounds of legitimacy.

An organization set up after the coup named the Patriotic Front for Niger Sovereignty (FPS) has led public demands for the coup leaders to take a hard line.

It is calling for a “massive” march next Saturday on the French base, followed by a sit-in until the troops leave.

Dispatch of troops

A landlocked former French colony in the heart of the Sahel, Niger is battling two jihadist insurgencies — a spill over in southeastern Niger from a long-running conflict in neighboring Nigeria, and an offensive in the southwest by militants crossing from Mali and Burkina Faso.

Bazoum came to office in 2021 after democratic elections — a watershed in a country that had had no peaceful transition of power since independence from France in 1960.

He suffered two attempted coups before finally being toppled by members of his own guard.

ECOWAS responded by warning it could intervene militarily to restore civilian rule if efforts to end the crisis diplomatically fail.

Swift to support their military comrades in Niger, Mali and Burkina have said that any such operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.

Burkina Faso has approved a draft law authorizing the dispatch of troops to Niger, according to a government statement in Ouagadougou on Thursday. 

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Tesla Launches New Model 3 in China, Europe With Longer Driving Range

Tesla on Friday unveiled a restyled Model 3 with a longer driving range in China and other markets including Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Japan, putting pressure on rivals who are expected to announce new electric vehicles in the next few days.

In China, the world’s largest auto market, the refreshed version of the Model 3 came with a starting price 12% higher than the previous, base rear-wheel drive model, reversing a trend toward price cuts which had sparked a price war between Tesla and its Chinese EV rivals.

The updated version of the Model 3 was Tesla’s first new or restyled car since it launched its global best-seller, the Model Y, in 2020. Tesla plans to start production of its Cybertruck later this year.

The rollout of the Model 3 in China and markets to which Tesla exports from its manufacturing hub there suggested that its Shanghai plant would be first to make the model. Tesla also makes the Model 3 at its plant in Fremont, California.

The new Model 3 promises a longer driving range for China, according to the company’s website. The standard version has a rated range of 606 kilometers based on China’s testing standards. That’s about 9% higher than the base model it replaces in China.

Tesla said it had started taking orders and would begin deliveries in China in the fourth quarter. In Australia, deliveries were set for January.

Tesla sold 64,285 China-made electric vehicles in July, down 31% from a month earlier, the most recent data from the China Passenger Car Association showed.

In a statement issued by its China operations, Tesla said the new model featured a better acoustic system, an improved and more comfortable interior and a display screen for back-seat passengers. Images of the exterior showed small changes that gave the sedan a sleeker front and new headlights.

The Tesla announcement came days before the Munich auto show where German automakers are expected to announce a run of new EVs. Those include a new version of the Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE ID.7 and a new electric CLA model sedan from Mercedes MBGn.DE.

Reuters first reported last November that Tesla was developing a revamped version of the Model 3 in a project codenamed “Highland.” People involved in the project said it was aimed at cutting production costs and boosting the appeal of the model.

In China, the new Model 3 starts at $35,807.78, the company’s website showed Friday.

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US Official Promises ‘Resolute Reaction’ if Taiwan is Attacked

A U.S. congressional delegation visiting Taiwan said Friday the U.S. would act if the island was attacked and promised to resolve the $19 billion backlog in its defense purchases from the U.S.

“Know that any hostile unprovoked attack on Taiwan will result in a resolute reaction from the U.S.,” said Rob Wittman, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in a speech, ahead of meetings with President Tsai Ing-Wen.

U.S. law requires Washington provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern,” but remains ambiguous on whether it would commit forces in response to an attack from China.

Wittman of Virginia, along with Carlos Gimenez of Florida and Jen Kiggans of Virginia, arrived Thursday for a three-day visit to Taiwan. The three Republicans are meeting with Tsai and the head of Taiwan’s National Security Council Wellington Koo.

Taiwan is a self-ruled island claimed by China that has faced increasing military harassment in recent years as Chinese fighter jets and navy ships hold daily exercises aimed at the island, often coming near the island or encircling it. Over the years, to beef up its defense, Taiwan has bought $19 billion in military items from the U.S., but most of that remains undelivered.

“We have an obligation to make sure that we fill the backlog of foreign military sales that exist now between our countries,” Wittman said, adding that both Republicans and Democrats were working on the issue.

The U.S. has started finding new ways to support Taiwan in defense aid. In July, the United States has announced $345 million in military aid in a major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration approved the first-ever U.S. military transfer to Taiwan under a program generally reserved for assistance to sovereign, independent states. The amount was modest at $80 million, and officials did not specify what exactly the money would be used for.

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Canada Issues US Travel Advisory Over Laws Affecting LGBTQ+ Community

Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., warning members of the LGBTQ+ community that some American states have enacted laws that may affect them.

The country’s Global Affairs department did not specify which states, but it is advising travelers to check the local laws for their destination before traveling.

“Since the beginning of 2023, certain states in the U.S. have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender-affirming care and from participation in sporting events,” Global Affairs spokesperson Jérémie Bérubé said Thursday in an emailed statement.

“Outside Canada, laws and customs related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics can be very different from those in Canada,” the statement added. “As a result, Canadians could face certain barriers and risks when they travel outside Canada.”

Bérubé said no Canadians in the U.S. have complained to Global Affairs of how they were treated or kept from expressing their opinions about LGBTQ+ issues.

The Human Rights Campaign — the largest U.S.-based organization devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans — in June declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S.

The NAACP in May issued a travel advisory for Florida warning potential tourists about recent laws and policies championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, including bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, target drag shows, restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools and force people to use certain bathrooms.

In Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders this year signed a law prohibiting transgender people at public schools from using the restroom that matches their gender identity. Similar laws have been enacted in states such as Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Asked about the travel advisory change this week, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said travel advisories issued by Global Affairs Canada are based on advice from professionals in the department whose job it is to monitor for particular dangers.

“Every Canadian government needs to put at the center of everything we do the interests — and the safety — of every single Canadian and every single group of Canadians,” Freeland said.

She did not say whether her government had discussed the matter with its U.S. counterpart.

“It sounds like virtue-signaling by Global Affairs,” said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

“In no U.S. state, to my knowledge, has any government charged or discriminated against an LGBTQ+ traveler because of their sexual identity or orientation. This all strains the credibility of the department,” he added.

David Mulroney, Canada’s former ambassador to China, also criticized the advisory.

“Travel advisories are meant to highlight things that threaten the safety of Canadian travelers, not things the govt and its supporters disagree with. It’s about danger signaling, not virtue signaling,” Mulroney tweeted.

Helen Kennedy, the executive director of Egale Canada, an LGBTQ+ rights group in Toronto, commended the Canadian government for putting out the advisory.

“There are 500 anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation making their way through various state legislatures at the moment,” Kennedy said. “It’s not a good image on the U.S.”

Kennedy also said Canada needs to take a serious look at how safe LGBTQ+ communities are in Canada as similar policies have been recently enacted in the provinces of Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, which now require parental consent when children under 16 years old want to use different names or pronouns at school.

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