Niger faces a “messy” situation rather than a revolutionary situation. Perhaps, certain Bonapartist elements are discernible — for which, of course, there is plenty of blame to go around, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar.
The entire BRICS project is centred around the question of whether countries at the nether end of the neo-colonial system can break free through mutual trade and cooperation, writes Vijay Prashad.
The animosities toward the French abroad among Nigeriens have been widely reported. But history is only part of the story, and not the largest part. Those who led the coup in Niger are facing forward, not backwards.
Rather than send troops in response to the coup, France and the U.S. seem to favor a “Rwanda” type solution applied in Mozambique, writes Vijay Prashad. Only this time ECOWAS would apply force.
The Economic Community of West African States imposes strict, Western-approved economic measures that have spurred a flurry of military insurrections across the region, writes Alan MacLeod.
Lisbon, following the revolution, was the author’s classroom. As Washington made another nation one of its experiments in altered reality, the U.S. press played POLO — “the power of leaving out” — with abandon.
Call it the new American isolationism, writes William J. Astore. Only this time the country — while pumped up with pride in its “exceptional” military — is isolated from the harrowing and horrific costs of war itself.
France and the U.S. have been blindsided by popular support for Niger’s coup, as the trend towards multipolarity emboldens Africans to confront neo-colonial exploitation, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar.
Each of these coups was led by military officers angered by the presence of French and U.S. troops and by the permanent economic crises inflicted on their countries, write Vijay Prashad and Kambale Musavuli.