The Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Mr Sidie Tunis, says the sanctions on Niger Republic will be lifted if the junta releases President Mohamed Bazoum. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Speaker gave the assurance when a 19-man delegation from Africans Without Borders paid him a courtesy...
Military coup
Niger Republic, Mali, and Burkina Faso are eyeing a political and monetary alliance, Niger’s military leader said on national television of a move that could mark a further break with the West African regional bloc. Niger’s General Abdourahamane Tiani did not give a timeline or details about the...
ECOWAS leaders have resolved to urgently review efforts to activate a standby force for counterterrorism operations in areas infested by terrorist groups in the region. This is contained in a communiqué read by President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Touray, at the end of the 64th ordinary session...
By DAVID IORJA, Abuja – Chairman of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Bola Tinubu, on Sunday, implored West African leaders to prioritize good governance and collective prosperity as an essential tool to prevent authoritarian takeovers of power and unconstitutional changes of government in...
Junta-led Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have ditched the G5 anti-jihadist force. Experts say their intended confederation to tackle Islamist insurgents in the Sahel is bound to fail unless they mend ties with ECOWAS. All three countries, led by the military that seized power from civilian leaders, officially...
Gun shots were fired overnight in Guinea-Bissau’s capital Bissau and continued into Friday morning, Reuters reporters said. The circumstances of the shooting remain unclear. One reporter said gunshots were first heard after midnight in the neighbourhood of Antula, on the outskirts of the capital, where an army general...
A military armoury in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown came under attack on Sunday, the government announced, as it imposed an immediate national curfew. The government said those attempting to break into the armoury at a major army barracks had been repelled, but the public were asked...
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the current spate where civil governments are being overthrown across the African continent shows that democracy needs to be ”rejigged” and put in a proper direction. Jonathan made this known during a Democracy Dialogue 2023 organised by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation...
Burkina Faso’s military junta said on Wednesday that a coup attempt had been thwarted the previous day by security and intelligence services, without providing specifics on what had happened. In a statement, it said, “a proven coup attempt was foiled on Sept. 26, 2023 by Burkina Faso’s intelligence...
France does not intend to cut cultural ties with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, the culture minister, Rima Abdul-Malak said. Abdul-Malak said this after entertainment businesses slammed a decision this week to ban all partnerships with artists from these African countries. “France has always been an open and...
In the past three years, at least eight African countries have witnessed military coup d’états. This is coming when it was thought that Africa’s democracy had come of age when we were beginning to think that coups had gone for good, consigned to an era in the past when...
Without France’s military operations in the Sahel “there would probably no longer be a Mali … Burkina Faso, and I’m not sure there would still be Niger”, French President Emmanuel Macron told French publication Le Point. Macron is referring to the former colonial power’s interventions in the mid-2000s, Operations...
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said coups only make crises worse, emphasising the need for durable governance and the rule of law. Guterres said this on Thursday while highlighting the succession of military coups unfolding across Africa at a press encounter at UN Headquarters, in New York. ...
The African Union (AU) has suspended Gabon’s membership in the wake of the coup in the Central African country. AU’s Peace and Security Council said on Thursday evening that it strongly condemned the take-over of power by the military in Gabon, which deposed President Ali Bongo. It...
African leaders are working out on Thursday how to respond to officers in Gabon who ousted President Ali Bongo and installed their own head of state. The latest in a wave of coups in West and Central Africa that regional powers have failed to reverse. The takeover...
UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has firmly condemned the ongoing coup attempt as a means to resolve the post-electoral crisis in Gabon. UN Spokesperson Stephanie Dujarric disclosed this at a news conference on Wednesday at UN headquarters in New York. Gabonese military officers have canceled elections results...
By DAVID IORJA, Abuja – President Bola Tinubu has reacted to the unfolding political standoff in Gabon, a country in Central Africa. Army officers had earlier seized power in Gabon because elections held over the weekend were not credible. The elections returned disputed after the electoral body...
Hours after military leaders seized power in Gabon, President Ali Bongo issued a plea to the public from where he is being held under house arrest. Bongo called on the people of Gabon to “make noise,” saying in a brief video he had been illegally detained at his...
Military officers have appeared on national television in Gabon to say they have taken power. They said they were annulling the results of Saturday’s election, in which President Ali Bongo was declared the winner. The electoral commission said Mr Bongo had won just under two-thirds of the...
The junta in Niger, which seized power in a military coup on July 26, has formed a military alliance with the neighbouring countries of Burkina Faso and Mali. The rulers of Burkina Faso and Mali also seized power in coups. The three countries’ foreign ministers made a joint announcement...