Mali and Burkina Faso obviously have a lot more in common than squaring off in a game of football like they just did in the Round of 16 knockout stage of the African Nations Cup (AFCON), in Cote d’Ivoire.

Along with Niger, these countries have been a great source of misery for the continent in the last four years, with rogue military leaders there playing a game far more deadly with the lives of their countries than anything football can ever hope to imitate.

They announced to the continent’s shock and surprise last week, that they were pulling out of the 15-member regional trading block, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

There are rules for entry and exit. But the military governments that seized power in these countries are invoking the name of citizens whose mandate they trampled upon in the first place, to break the rules. They don’t care.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are neighbours with artificial borders created for the convenience of the colonial powers. They occupy nearly half of West Africa’s landmass. They are also landlocked and among the poorest countries by many global indexes. They have other sociological similarities besides.

Burkina Faso has a GDP per capita of $1,510 (2020); Mali, $2,640 (2023); and Niger, ranked by worldatlas.com as the second poorest country in Africa, has a GDP of $1,410 (2020).

With their humongous acreage straddling the Sahara Desert and its southern fringes, these countries manage an estimated 72 million population combined. As though in agreement, the three have had a checkered history of military coups and are currently under military rule against the prevailing tide of multiparty democracy: Mali since 2021; Burkina Faso in 2022; and Niger, 2023.

Alliance of delinquents

The trio are members of a new “Alliance of Sahel States”, a mutual defence pact they entered into in September 2023. Like delinquents plotting to evade the consequence of mischief, they formed this alliance to ward off possible military invasion by the regional intervention force following the coup in Niger.

Their latest bluff to quit ECOWAS has elevated their plight to Siamese status. Trapped as they are in the Sahel, they may now need lifesaving surgery should ECOWAS decide to squeeze in a bit more than sanctions.

Who will bell the cat? The region is a different place today than it was in the mid-1990s when the Commonwealth punished Nigeria for the bad behaviour of the military government of General Sani Abacha that executed Ken Saro-Wiwa in defiance of global appeals. Or even under the more recent example of The Gambia’s Yahaya Jammeh who was forced to back down in 2017, after Nigeria rallied regional leaders to chase him out of office.

Root of the matter

At least three events have shaped the intransigence of the so-called “Alliance of Sahel States.” The first is the significant infiltration of the region by ISIS and ISWAP elements after the US-led military action in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and the killing of Muammar Ghaddafi in Libya.

Arms from Syria, Iraq and Libya have flooded the Sahel, destablising the region and emboldening insurgency. Mali and Niger in particular have never quite overcome the impact of that destabilisation. Even countries farther South, like Nigeria, are still grappling with the fallout of the proliferation of light weapons, mostly through the Sahel.

The complicity of France is the second reason. It’s not just complicity in the sense of meddling, which most states do routinely. It’s the more egregious kind – pregnant complicity that straps a child on its back.

A number of Francophone countries in West and Central Africa, at least 14 of them, that are part of the rigged CFA franc zone still maintain 50 per cent of their reserves in the French treasury in Paris. Also, the profit of French state-owned atomic energy group and uranium monopoly, Areva, based in Niger, is twice the GDP of that country.

The story of ruthless exploitation, often in connivance with the elite, is pretty much the same in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and other Francophone countries. Citizens have, of course, borne the brunt and the political elite who are complicit and have used the exploitation as excuse for coups and counter-coups.

The third reason for the stubbornness of the military regimes in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger is the expansionist ambitions of China, but more importantly, Russia, under its current President Vladimir Putin. In other to spite the West, especially since the war in Ukraine, Putin sets up a play station wherever the enemies of the West can be found, with the deadly private army, Wagner Group, as his avatar.

The Russian president has made no pretence of his support for the rogue military governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Apart from military and strategic support, he has also offered free grains to six African countries, including Mali and Burkina Faso, to hedge supply shortfalls caused by the war with Ukraine. The new military leaders in these countries believe that trading off membership of ECOWAS for the Trojan horses of Beijing and Moscow is a better bargain.

How far is too far?

But how far can they go? As far as they believe they can continue to exploit the obvious indecision of regional leaders, the most distracted of which is Nigeria. The last time a member country – Mauritania – left (although for different reasons), the regional group ECOWAS was in a much stronger, more united place.

It’s now a shambles of its old self. Members already weakened by internal crisis and political wranglings are not sure whether to use force or not even though they can see clearly that negotiations are heading nowhere.

Unfortunately, Nigeria, the regional powerhouse which should have provided leadership as it did in the past in Sao Tome, Benin, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire, is facing its own Gulliver moment. It has been pinned to the ground by a string of Lilliputian problems ranging from internal insecurity to the relatively new and fragile mandate of its president and ECOWAS leader Bola Tinubu, who faces the unpleasant task of being the leader on whose watch the community could fall apart.

Other ECOWAS countries beset by serious economic and political problems, including flawed elections which have also significantly limited the legitimacy of many current civilian leaders, are not faring better. Yet, even in the best of times, Nigeria picks about 70 percent of the community’s bills.

The rogue military leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger know that the community is in a difficult place, compounded by the decline in the influence of France, elections this year in the US and the UK, and the wars in Europe and the Middle East. They will milk these distractions.

They are betting big on Russian support and also stirring up nationalistic fervour among the local populations. It remains to be seen, however, if rhetoric will prevail over geography. Being landlocked is problematic and is a major reason 16 out of 31 landlocked developing countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, are among the world’s poorest.

Catch-22

For ECOWAS it is a catch-22 situation. While it is hoping that existing sanctions on the rogue governments, which range from the freezing of assets to the suspension of trade and the cut off of electricity supply would force the leaders to negotiate more sensibly and prevent a further contagion of coups, the community is also mindful that informal cross-border trade, largely in food, make up about 30 percent of regional trade.

To kill the precariously perched tsetse fly without hurting its own scrotum, ECOWAS needs to strengthen citizens’ voices in these countries. It needs to cut through the posturing and partisan noise and engage citizens through more trusted, independent channels. The community could also use the experience of eminent persons, led by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki, and possibly joined by George Uppong Weah, to reset negotiations.

The longer the process takes the greater the risk of normalisation – and even worse, the danger of contagion.

** Ishiekwene is Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Lenny Rachitsky has started some successful ventures in his life.

The 42-year-old founded his newsletter, Lenny’s Newsletter, about product management in 2019. It now boasts more than 570,000 subscribers and brings in more than $500,000 per year. He writes one post a week and works on each for 10 to 20 hours.

In 2022, Rachitsky started Lenny’s Podcast. He releases two episodes per week and interviews leaders in the product management space to get concrete, actionable advice about their work. He’s hired a producer to help with components like audio engineering and puts in just four to five hours per week on it altogether.

Lenny’s Podcast now brings in more than $500,000 per year as well.  

For anyone keen to find success with their own personal ventures, especially if they’re based on helping people grow and develop in a given field, Rachitsky has one piece of advice: Gain some experience in that field first.

“A lot of people start tweeting all this advice before they’ve actually done anything and have any advice to share,” he says. Without that experience and deep know-how on the subject, your advice could end up superficial at best and wrong and even harmful at worst.

“Nobody needs that,” he says.

Rachitsky worked in product management and software engineering for more than a decade before he started writing about it. He accrued years of knowledge and started his newsletter with dozens of ideas about how to help people. It tackles problems like planning projects, meetings, organizational design and so on.

You have to “do the work for a long time first” before you can start giving advice about it, he says, “at least five years of doing the job, ideally 10 years, ideally longer to actually build real experience and have something new to contribute.”

“My advice is just stop tweeting and do the work.”

CNBC

The naira, on Wednesday, crossed the N1,500 mark at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market.

The value of the naira fell to N1,530 against the dollar — an all-time low in the parallel market.

This is a 4.08 percent decline compared to the N1,470/$ reported the previous trading day. 

Currency traders, also known as Bureau De Change operators, quoted the buying price of the currency at N1,510 and the selling price at N1,530.

“One thing affecting the price of dollar is that there is a lot of demand,” an FX trader at the black market, known as Aliyu, said.

This expanded the gap between the black market and the official window, also known as the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), to N74.41 from N12.7.

On Tuesday, the official window rate had surpassed the parallel market price, however, on Wednesday, it was reversed as the naira gained at the close of trading in NAFEM.

The local currency appreciated by 1.82 percent in the official window to N1,455.59 — from N1,482.7 traded on Tuesday.

According to details on FMDQ Exchange — a platform where FX is officially traded — forex worth $72.33 million was transacted among market dealers.

The development comes after the senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions summoned Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), over the “free fall of the naira”.

Speaking with journalists after a committee meeting on Wednesday, Adetokunbo Abiru, chairman of the panel, said the nation’s inflation rate has reached concerning levels and that Cardoso is scheduled to testify before the committee next Tuesday at 3 pm. 

The apex bank also released new measures for banks to manage foreign exchange (FX) risks and prevent losses.

The Cable

The Central Bank of Nigeria ordered banks to limit their foreign exchange exposure to curb risks to the financial system, in the latest move to improve liquidity in the country’s volatile currency market.

The net open position limit of foreign currency assets and liabilities “should not exceed 20% short or 0% long of shareholders’ funds unimpeded by losses,” the regulator said in statement on Wednesday, asking lenders to meet the limits by Feb. 1. The move could push banks to cut speculative bets against the naira, according to Ronak Gadhia, director of sub-Saharan banks research at EFG Hermes.

The central bank’s directive comes amid a steep drop this week in the official rate of the naira against the dollar, which has moved it closer to where the Nigerian currency trades on the street. The 31% slide in value was triggered by a change in the method for setting its rate, and is part of larger push by the government since June to stop managing the exchange rate and unify the two markets.

“A dramatic decline in the value of the FX position held by a bank due to a sudden movement in the exchange rate could have an impact on the capital adequacy and solvency of the bank,” said Gadhia. “Reducing the net open position limit also reduces banks’ ability to speculate against the naira and thus makes the currency more stable, which must also be a secondary aim of the regulation.”

Large depreciations in the past created incentives for Nigerian banks to lift dollar holdings to guard against the risk of further naira losses.

The central bank said that it had “noted with concern the growth in foreign currency exposures,” which it said made banks potentially vulnerable to foreign exchange rate and other risks. It said lenders with excess dollars will have to sell them before the deadline or face sanction.

The central bank also directed lenders with an early redemption clause on their eurobonds to seek approval before exercising the option.

In addition, banks are to have an “adequate stock” of liquid assets to cover maturing foreign currency obligations and also put in place a “contingency funding arrangement” with other financial institutions, it said.

Bloomberg

International Air Transport Association (IATA), a top global trade association of airlines, has said approximately $700 million still remains blocked with Nigeria’s commercial banks.

IATA spoke in reaction to a statement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it had cleared all verified backlogs to foreign airlines operating in the country.

In a statement published on its website on Monday, IATA acknowledged the CBN’s release of an additional $64.44 million in blocked airline funds.

However, it noted that it is consulting with airline members to verify the release of outstanding revenues.

“While this development is encouraging, it’s crucial to recognise that approximately $700 million remains blocked with Nigeria’s commercial banks. As such there’s a considerable journey ahead in fully addressing the issue,” the statement said.

This, IATA said, is exacerbated by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira, which has dropped significantly against the United States dollar.

“Airlines should not be unfairly penalised by the lower exchange rate,” IATA said.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with the government to ensure that the environment remains conducive to ensuring Nigeria’s connectivity to international markets.”

Background

Last November, IATA criticised Nigeria and other African countries for not allowing international airlines to repatriate their profits.

The group said trapped funds in African countries is currently estimated at $1.68 billion, noting that the perennial challenge is impeding the growth and development of air transportation on the continent.

As of August 2022, reports indicated that foreign airlines’ funds trapped in Nigeria stood at $793 million amidst lingering forex scarcity.

Of this figure, $300 million is said to be legacy debt, which the CBN has taken, but yet to be remitted to IATA on behalf of the airlines.

However, on Tuesday, Nigeria’s apex bank said it had completed the payment of all verified claims owed to foreign airlines by injecting an additional $64.44 million into the sector after the initial disbursement of about $61.64 million to the airlines through various banks on 8 January.

The bank said the latest payment brought the total amount disbursed to the aviation sector to $136.7 million.

PT

First Bank of Nigeria Holdings has appointed Nigerian billionaire and businessman, Femi Otedola, as the new chairman of its board of directors.

Otedola, who recently expressed his excitement about his return to the Forbes African Billionaires list after a seven-year hiatus, takes over from the outgoing Chairman of the board, Ahmad Abdullahi.

Sharing a picture of the announcement on his Instagram page, he wrote, “Interesting”, and added smiley and dollar emojis.”

The 61-year-old entrepreneur currently sits at number 20 on the list with a net worth of $1.1bn.

According to Forbes, the wealth of the 2024 list of 20 billionaires rose to $82.4bn from last year’s $81.5bn, partly as a result of Otedola’s return. Before then, the last time the business mogul appeared on the Forbes Africa list was in 2017. This year, he took the 20th spot on the list.

The decision of the financial institution followed a recent meeting of the board held on Wednesday.

The bank disclosed this in a corporate filing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), notifying investors of the new development.

This appointment, according to the bank, took effect yesterday, January 31, 2024.

Punch

Gunmen numbering six, last Sunday, broke into a home at Guita community, Chikakore, Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

During the attack, they took two sisters, said to be 16 and 14 years old.

The gunmen, it was gathered, escaped through the bush track, which links the community to another village.

Confirming the incident to our reporter, a resident who doesn’t want his name in print due to fear of victimization, said the attackers initially took three siblings; two girls and one boy, but they went away with two girls and sent back the boy from the bush.

The source said: “When the gunmen came; they didn’t shoot like before, but forced themselves inside. While they were forcing themselves inside, the owner of the house (a Calabar man) ran to the vigilante’s office, then, he ran to the commander’s house before the commander could call another person, and rushed to his house, the gunmen were already gone.”

Attempts to reach the spokesperson of the FCT police command, Adeh Josephine, were not successful as multiple calls to her telephone line rang out unanswered.

Daily Trust

Fighting kills more in north Gaza as South Africa alleges Israel ignores court ruling

Gaza’s Health Ministry says people are still being killed in fighting in the northern part of the territory, the initial target of Israel’s ground offensive into the Gaza Strip that has seen entire neighborhoods flattened.

The Health Ministry said more than 150 people were killed and an additional 313 wounded as Israeli forces continued to battle militants Wednesday. Israel’s military said its forces killed more than 15 Hamas militants in northern Gaza in the past day and targeted militant infrastructure in a school.

South Africa’s foreign minister alleged Israel is already ignoring the ruling by the U.N.’s top court last week, which ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, by killing hundreds more civilians in a matter of days in Gaza.

The latest deaths bring the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s offensive to 26,900, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths but says most of those killed were women and children.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for a cease-fire in Gaza, while the United States and more than a dozen other countries have said they are planning to suspend contributions to UNRWA — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — after Israel alleged that 12 workers participated in the attacks that sparked the war. The heads of the World Health Organization, World Food Program, UNICEF and other agencies and partners said the “horrifying” allegations must not prevent the entire agency from helping people in need.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Currently:

— Top US diplomat set to return to the Mideast for 5th time since Gaza conflict began

— Iran threatens to ‘decisively respond’ to any US strikes as Biden weighs response to Jordan attack.

— UN agencies rally around agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza as some top donors cut funding

— EU aims to launch a Red Sea naval mission within 3 weeks to protect ships from rebel attacks.

— South Africa says Israel is already ignoring UN court ruling ordering it to prevent deaths in Gaza

— Chicago becomes latest US city to approve cease-fire resolution in Israel-Hamas war

Here’s the latest:

US SAYS ISLAMIC RESISTANCE IN IRAQ IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DRONE ATTACK

The United States has attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the group.

The Sunday drone attack on a military base in Jordan killed the three troops and injured at least 40 others. Kirby says President Joe Biden will continue to weigh response options to the attack but “the first thing you see won’t be the last thing.”

NETANYAHU MEETS WITH A GROUP OF UN AMBASSADORS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a group of ambassadors to the United Nations from primarily European countries that Hamas has “infiltrated” the main aid provider to Palestinians in Gaza and that it must be shut down.

Netanyahu’s remarks on Wednesday follow Israel’s allegations that 12 employees with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Those allegations prompted several countries to freeze funding to the agency, which fired nine of the workers. UNRWA said the agency, which employs 13,000 workers in Gaza, should not be punished for the alleged actions of a dozen employees.

Netanyahu told the group of eight visiting ambassadors that an alternative and impartial aid provider should be found.

Israel has long railed against UNRWA, accusing it of tolerating or even collaborating with Hamas and of perpetuating the 76-year-old Palestinian refugee crisis. The Israeli government has accused Hamas and other militant groups of siphoning off aid and using U.N. facilities for military purposes.

RELATIVE OF HOSTAGE SAYS ISRAEL’S LEADERS SHOULDN’T PUT POLITICS ABOVE CAPTIVES’ FATE

A relative of a hostage being held in Gaza says he is concerned Israeli leaders are putting their political fortunes above the fate of the captives.

The families of hostages have been following with hope and anguish reports about a potential agreement emerging between Israel and Hamas that could set roughly 100 hostages free and bring about a halt in the war. They have also watched with trepidation as political considerations have seeped into the deliberations, with far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition vowing to topple the government if the deal makes too many concessions to Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday confirmed that talks were underway.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was abducted on Oct. 7 from southern Israel, said he feels “insecure” about the chances for a deal. At the same time, he said the current talks appeared serious and were the first chance at progress since the one previous deal in late November.

He said he hoped Netanyahu wouldn’t prioritize his political survival over the hostages’ freedom.

“The life of the coalition should not come before the lives of the hostages,” Dickmann told The Associated Press.

ISRAELI PROTESTERS TRY TO BLOCK AID TRUCKS

JERUSALEM — Dozens of Israeli protesters have tried to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, despite an order barring them from approaching a border crossing the trucks are using.

According to video released by an activist group behind the demonstrations, police, including mounted officers, scuffled with the protesters Wednesday.

The protesters have been gathering near the Kerem Shalom crossing for several days, saying aid should not be allowed into Gaza while hostages are still being held there. They say the aid could act as leverage to force Hamas to release the hostages.

Activists said up to 40 people were detained, a figure that could not be independently confirmed. Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Israeli military this week sealed the area to prevent such protests from recurring. It was not immediately clear how close the crowd got to the crossing, and deliveries into Gaza did not appear to be disrupted.

Kerem Shalom is the main goods crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Israel imposed a siege on Gaza in the first days of the war barring the entry of aid. While it relented under U.S. pressure, the amount of aid has been a fraction of what went into the territory before the war.

UN HUMANITARIAN AID CHIEF SAYS RELIEF TO GAZA IS ‘GROSSLY INADEQUATE’

UNITED NATIONS — In a passionate address to the U.N. Security Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths called for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.

Griffiths frequently broke from his prepared remarks as he made his address Wednesday.

“The relief remains grossly inadequate. And to say it’s grossly inadequate, as it says here, is grossly inadequate. It’s much, much more difficult,” Griffiths said. “It’s the congestion, it’s the rain, it’s the lack of certainty about what tomorrow will bring.”

NETANYAHU SAYS EFFORTS UNDERWAY TO TRY TO SECURE RELEASE OF HOSTAGES

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip that efforts were underway to bring about the captives’ release.

Netanyahu told the representatives of 18 families that efforts were being made “at these moments” to return the hostages. In a statement about the meeting from his office Wednesday, he did not disclose details on talks on a new hostage release agreement.

Netanyahu met the families as Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. were mediating talks meant to strike a deal between Israel and Hamas that could free the roughly 100 remaining hostages and usher in a temporary cease-fire in Gaza.

Hamas-led militants captured about 250 people, including children, women and older people, in their Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, an assault that triggered the war.

More than 100 captives, mostly women and children, were released during the first and only deal between the sides in late November.

WHO SAYS GAZA HEALTH SYSTEM IS USING DONKEY CARTS TO TRANSPORT PATIENTS

The head of the World Health Organization said the destroyed health system in Gaza has resorted to using donkey carts to transport injured patients, and that one major hospital has only one functional ambulance.

At a press briefing Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 100,000 Gaza residents are either dead, injured, missing or presumed dead in the war with Israel.

Tedros added that the risk of famine is high, with many medical staff and patients receiving only one meal per day.

He warned that decisions by donor countries to pause funds for UNWRA, the biggest supplier of humanitarian aid in the crisis, will have “catastrophic consequences” for the people of Gaza.

The United States and more than a dozen other countries have announced plans to suspend contributions to UNRWA after Israel alleged that 12 of its workers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. U.N. officials fired most of the workers and vowed an investigation.

US SANCTIONS COMPANIES AND PERSON IN LEBANON AND TURKEY

The U.S. slapped sanctions Wednesday on three companies and one person in Lebanon and Turkey, accusing them of funneling funds to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on Turkish company Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol (Mira), which it said “purchases, transports, and sells Iranian commodities on the global market;” on its chief executive, Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr; and on Lebanon-based Yara Offshore SAL and Hydro Company for Drilling Equipment Rental, both of which it said have sold large quantities of Iranian goods to Syria.

The sanctioned companies “generated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of revenue from selling Iranian commodities, including to the Syrian government,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement.

The move comes as the region is waiting for Washington’s response to a strike, likely launched by one of the region’s Iranian-back militias, that killed three U.S. troops Sunday at a base in Jordan near the Syrian border.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL AGAIN CALLS FOR A CEASE-FIRE

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called again for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Speaking to the U.N.’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Guterres said he condemned “the horrifying attacks by Hamas and other groups” but “at the same time, nothing can justify the collective punishment of the people in Gaza.”

“The ongoing conflict and relentless bombardment by Israeli forces across Gaza have resulted in killings of civilians and destruction at a pace and scale unlike anything we have witnessed in recent years,” Guterres said. “I am horrified by incessant military strikes that have killed and maimed civilians and protected personnel, and that have damaged or destroyed civilian infrastructure.”

EU AIMS TO LAUNCH A RED SEA NAVAL MISSION WITHIN 3 WEEKS

The European Union plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen that are hampering trade and driving up prices, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he wants the mission to be up and running by Feb. 17. Officials say that seven EU countries are ready to provide ships or planes. Belgium has already committed to send a frigate. Germany is expected to do the same.

Last week, U.S. and British forces bombed multiple targets in eight locations used by the Iranian-backed Houthis. It was the second time the two allies have conducted coordinated retaliatory strikes on the rebels’ missile-launching capabilities.

The Houthis have waged a persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, but Borrell insisted that the EU mission will not take part in any military strikes.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia to expand Ukraine’s ‘demilitarized zone’ – Putin

Russia needs to create a large “demilitarized zone” in Ukraine, one that is big enough to ensure no longe-range weapons can strike Russian cities, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday

Russian border regions have been subjected to frequent drone and missile attacks, as well as shelling by the Ukrainian military, since the start of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow. One of the deadliest attacks took place on December 30, when Kiev’s forces struck the Russian border city of Belgorod with multiple rocket launchers, including the RM-70 Vampire – an upgraded heavier version of the Soviet BM-21 Grad system.

A December strike claimed the lives of 25 people, including children, and left more than 100 injured. In January, another massive strike hit the city of Donetsk, killing 27 civilians. Both attacks were condemned by the UN.

“This [demilitarized] line should … lie at such a distance from our territory that it would ensure the security [of Russian cities],” the president said on Wednesday, adding that he was specifically referring to protection from “foreign-made longer-range weapons that the Ukrainian authorities use to strike peaceful cities.”

According to Putin, Russian forces fighting on the frontlines were pushing Kiev’s troops away from Russian borders to safeguard national security. “This is the main mission for our guys: to protect their homeland, to protect our people,” he said.

The “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine were cited as the major goals of Russia’s ongoing military campaign from the very beginning. Putin specifically mentioned a demilitarized or “sanitary” zone that was to be created in Ukraine in June 2023. At the time, the Russian president said that this zone could be created if Kiev’s forces continue to launch attacks at Russian cities. The goal of this move would be to make it impossible for the Ukrainian military “to reach us,” he said.

The US and its allies have been actively supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons throughout the conflict that ranged from howitzers and various artillery pieces to multiple rocket launchers and missile systems.

The list of the longer-range Western-made weapons in Kiev’s possession include the British-made Storm Shadow missiles that have a range of 250km (155 miles) and the US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which have a range of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles).

Earlier this week, Politico reported that Washington could provide Kiev with Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), which also have a range of around 160 kilometers (100 miles).

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian bomb damages hospital, prompts evacuation in northeastern Ukraine -officials

A Russian bomb struck a hospital in northeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, smashing windows and equipment and prompting the evacuation of dozens of patients, regional officials said.

Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the Kharkiv regional branch of the national police, said one bomb scored a direct hit on the hospital at about 9:45 p.m. in the town of Velykyi Burluk, northeast of Kharkiv. A second bomb landed nearby.

Writing on Facebook, he said 38 people were evacuated from the facility, all but five of them patients and two confined to hospital beds.

Regional Governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on Telegram, said emergency teams conducted cleanup operations well into the night and four people were treated for slight injuries at the site.

Synehubov said quick action by hospital staff in response to air raid alerts ensured a smooth evacuation. Patients were sent to other facilities or switched to outpatient treatment.

Photos posted by Ukrainian Emergency Services on Telegram showed virtually all the hospital's windows shattered. Smashed building materials littered the street outside.

Rooms were shown with damaged equipment and rubble strewn about.

There was no independent verification of the incident, but there have been frequent Russian attacks on targets in the Kharkiv region in recent weeks.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia denies targeting civilian facilities, though medical and educational facilities have been hit in the war, now more than 23 months old.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said on Telegram that Russian drones had hit an infrastructure target in the city. There was no immediate word on casualties.

RT/Reuters

As the war in Gaza enters its fourth month, many in the Middle East and across the Global South have been struck both by the ferocity of Israel’s military campaign and by Western governments’ unwavering support for it. To them, this is as much US President Joe Biden’s war as it is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s, and the continuing indifference to the scale of the devastation has reaffirmed how cheap Arab lives appear to be to Western leaders.

For those who lived through the Cold War and witnessed how Western powers dealt with post-colonial states and their peoples, recent events are all too familiar. As I argue in my new book, What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East, the United States and other Western countries, mainly the United Kingdom, have for nearly a century pursued an interventionist, militaristic, and anti-democratic foreign policy that largely ignores Middle Eastern peoples’ interests. If anything, Western decisions have been driven historically by the desire to roll back communism and secure the dominance of liberal capitalism.

In pursuit of these twin aims, the US offered Middle Eastern leaders a zero-sum choice: either join in Western-led regional defense alliances and open your economy to global capital, or be considered a foe. In the name of maintaining stability and securing an uninterrupted flow of cheap oil, Western powers struck devil’s pacts with Middle Eastern autocrats and actively contributed to the demise of incipient democratic movements.

Notably, in the early 1950s, when the liberal democrat Mohammed Mossadegh became prime minister of Iran and nationalized the country’s oil, the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup and replaced him with the Shah. That self-interested intervention arrested Iran’s democratic development and set the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ushered in the theocratic regime that rules to this day.

Similarly, in the 1950s, Gamal Abdel Nasser, a charismatic leader who was positively disposed toward the US, became president of Egypt and decided that it was not in his country’s interest to join a Western-led defense pact. Seeking to humiliate him and force his ouster, America and Britain rescinded support for the massive Aswan High Dam project on the Nile River. What resulted was the Suez Crisis of 1956, which almost caused a world war. In the end, the most popular leader of the most populous Arab state became a bitter enemy of the West.

While the US-led West has certainly taken a heavy-handed approach in other regions as well, Western officials have long rationalized their neo-imperial mission in the Middle East by claiming that the combination of Islam and Arab culture is incompatible with democracy. The implication is that brutal strongmen are essential to the stability that the West so values.

The lesson for those strongmen has been unambiguous: repression and human-rights abuses will be ignored as long as America’s orders are followed. For the people of the region, the lesson has been no less plain: their lives and rights mean little in the West’s calculus – notwithstanding all its lofty rhetoric about democracy and the rule of law. The invasion and decades-long occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq made that abundantly clear.

Barack Obama was the first US president to hint at a different approach. Speaking at the US Military Academy at West Point in 2014, he decriedAmerica’s perpetual wartime footing and tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. America’s costliest mistakes in the region had come not from restraint, he argued, but from the “willingness to rush into military adventures without thinking through the consequences – without building international support and legitimacy for … action; without leveling with the American people about the sacrifices required.”

Sadly, Obama’s sober perspective appears to be lost on Biden, who belongs to the Cold War generation of American leadership. Until last October, Biden had devoted little time or attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He readily accepted the untenable status quo of perpetual Palestinian suffering, and focused instead on trying to expand the Abraham Accords. Those agreements, brokered by the Trump administration, sought to normalize Israel’s relations with Arab autocrats in exchange for security assistance and protection, thereby ending the region’s commitment to Palestinian statehood.

Since Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7 – which exposed the folly of Biden and Netanyahu’s approach – there has been neither restraint nor an effort to think through the consequences of the current war. Instead, Biden and his European allies have wholeheartedly endorsed Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza. Even as the civilian death toll has risen at an unprecedented pace, the humanitarian crisis grows more acute by the day, and governments around the world have called for a ceasefire, Biden has shown no willingness to intervene to stop the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, skirmishes on the Israel-Lebanon border and US-led airstrikeson Houthi positions in Yemen and on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq suggest that the conflict may yet escalate further. America and Britain are gradually being sucked into the region yet again, though with eyes wide open this time. Biden claimed to represent a clean break from Trump, but there is no daylight between them when it comes to the Middle East. There and in much of the Global South, Biden will be remembered as just another American president who devalued Arab lives, preaching democracy while supporting repression and violence.

Biden may soon regret his wholehearted embrace of Netanyahu in recent months. Netanyahu, an expert at manipulating the American political process, recently rebuffed Biden’s support for establishing a Palestinian state, insisting that Israel must have security control “over all the territory west of the Jordan [River.]” That pronouncement was timed to the start of the US presidential campaign, in which Trump is his preferred candidate.

Even if Biden ultimately secures a second term, the tragic irony is that the Middle East is less stable today than at any point in its modern history. The West’s strategy has been a colossal failure, and this legacy will burden our world for a very long time.

Project Syndicate