Tag: coup

US envoy meets Niger coup leaders but sees no headway

NIAMEY, Niger, Aug 8, 2023 (AFP) – The second-ranking US diplomat met Niger’s military leaders on Monday to press to reverse a coup but reported no headway a day after an ultimatum from the West African bloc was ignored. Victoria Nuland, a veteran envoy and acting deputy secretary of state, said she met for more than two hours with military chiefs who ousted democratically elected Western ally Mohamed Bazoum on July 26. Nuland’s trip, conducted […]

Niger closes airspace over ‘threat of intervention’ as junta defies deadline

NIAMEY, Aug 7, 2023 (AFP) – Niger closed its airspace due to the “threat of intervention” as the junta defied a deadline from the West African bloc ECOWAS to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible military action. ECOWAS issued its ultimatum a week ago, demanding the generals relinquish power by midnight Sunday (2300 GMT). Bazoum was overthrown on July 26 when members of his own guard detained him at the presidency. “Faced […]

US orders partial evacuation of embassy in Niger

WASHINGTON, Aug 2, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday ordered a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niger, the State Department said, a week after the fragile nation was rocked by a coup. “On August 2, 2023, the Department ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey,” an updated US travel advisory for Niger said. The advisory warned US citizens “not to travel to Niger,” but […]

First evacuation flight from coup-hit Niger lands in France

By Boureima HAMA Agence France-Presse NIAMEY, Niger (AFP) — The first of three planes carrying mostly French and European people evacuated from Niger landed in Paris early Wednesday, a week after a coup toppled one of the last pro-Western leaders in the jihadist-plagued Sahel. “There are 262 people on board the plane, an Airbus A330, including a dozen babies,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told AFP before the flight landed at Paris Roissy Charles de […]

Africa leaders give Niger junta week to cede power

ABUJA, July 30, 2023 (AFP) – African leaders on Sunday gave the junta in Niger one week to cede power or face the possible use of force, and slapped financial sanctions on the putschists, after the latest coup in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region raised alarm on the continent and in the West. In the third coup in as many years to fell a leader in the Sahel, Niger’s elected president and Western ally, Mohamed Bazoum, […]

Army general declares himself Niger leader

NIAMEY, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – Niger’s putschists named an army general as the new leader of the unstable jihadist-hit nation on Friday, the third day since elected President Mohamed Bazoum was detained. Former colonial master France said hours earlier that it did not consider the coup “final”, adding there was time for plotters to heed international calls to leave democratically-elected Bazoum in office. But General Abdourahamane Tchiani, head of the Presidential Guard since 2011, […]

Three Myanmar students killed in military raid

BANGKOK, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – At least three Myanmar students were killed in an early morning military raid in the country’s northwest, a student union said Friday. The Southeast Asian nation’s junta has unleashed deadly violence on its opponents since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a February 2021 coup. The junta is facing resistance from anti-coup “People’s Defence Force” militias and long-established ethnic rebel armies. The All-Burma Federation of […]

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi moved from prison: party official

YANGON, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a 2021 military coup, has been moved from prison to a government building, an official from her party said Friday. Suu Kyi has only been seen once since she was held after the February 1, 2021 putsch — in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in the military-built capital Naypyidaw. The coup plunged the Southeast Asian […]

Villagers say 14 killed as Myanmar violence flares

BANGKOK, July 24, 2023 (AFP) – Fighting between the Myanmar army and anti-junta rebels has flared in recent days, with locals in one village saying Saturday that more than a dozen people were killed in a single raid. Deadly violence has engulfed Myanmar since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in February 2021 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent that has left thousands dead. The junta has been battling anti-coup “People’s […]

Thai FM says met Myanmar’s Suu Kyi in first foreign envoy talks since coup

JAKARTA, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s foreign minister said Wednesday he met with ousted Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week and she was in good health in her first known meeting with a foreign envoy since she was detained following a 2021 coup. Suu Kyi has been seen only once since she was held after the February 1, 2021, putsch — in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in […]

Myanmar junta-backed media slams ‘rotten’ United Nations

YANGON, June 16, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar state media condemned the United Nations as “rotten” on Friday, days after the UN special envoy for the country stepped down and the world body slammed curbs on aid for cyclone survivors. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in February 2021, ending a brief democratic experiment and sparking clashes across the country with ethnic rebel groups and anti-coup fighters. The military has criticised attempts […]

6,000 Myanmar civilians killed in 20 months post coup: report

OSLO, June 13, 2023 (AFP) – More than 6,000 civilians were killed in Myanmar in the first 20 months after the February 2021 military coup, a report published Tuesday by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo said. “Our data shows that the human toll of the conflict is higher than previously reported, and while the junta is clearly the main killer, anti-junta forces also have large amounts of blood on their hands,” Stein Tonnesson, one […]