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.
As Western sanctions increased against Russia, the feasibility of the Black Sea Grain Initiative began to diminish, writes Vijay Prashad.
Vladimir Putin displayed copies of the collapsed draft treaty from last year at a recent meeting with a peace delegation of leaders of several African nations led by South African President Ramaposha.
From Bolivia to Sri Lanka, countries fed up with the IMF-driven debt-austerity cycle and bullying by the U.S.-led bloc are beginning to assert their own agendas, writes Vijay Prashad.
