Moving closer to russia, which happened after coups in neighbouring burkina faso and mali. Later, leaders from the 15 countries that make up the Economic Community of west african states, and the eight leaders from the west African Economic and monetary union, will meet to discuss their response. Brandon kendhammer is politics professor at Ohio University and expert on politics in west africa. Hejoins us now. Thank you and welcome to the programme. What is your take on what we are witnessing in niger right now . Right now . Good morning. I think what right now . Good morning. I think what we right now . Good morning. I think what we are right now . Good morning. I l think what we are witnessing right now . Good morning. I. Think what we are witnessing is likely the consolidation of any Military Regime. Enough time has passed now that we have a general sense of who was in charge or who would like to be in charge and while we have seen a fair bit of International Response at this point,
by police as they were growing in number and constituted some security situation with representation but ivps, as they are called, internally displaced people, from gang violence, are numerous around town. many neighbourhoods have to be vacated by civilians running away from gang violence. harold isaacs, a journalist in haiti. harold, great to have your insight. thank you for being on. ukraine says a russian missile attack on the city of sumy in northeast ukraine has killed at least one civilian and wounded five. national police and the interior ministry say the missile struck an educational centre. meanwhile, russia s defence ministry says three ukrainian drones were downed in an overnight attack on moscow. it s happened after president zelensky visited ukrainian special forces near the city of bakhmut and as kyiv continues its counter offensive. the city has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
of non emergency personnel, we are hearing that some non haitian residents have been gathering at the embassy grounds, seemingly looking for respite from gang violence. is that what you have been hearing as well? yes, as we ve seen on the ground this week, dozens of folks had gathered in front of the us embassy seeking shelter seemingly from gang violence, which has been prevailing in the vicinity of the us representation. that being said, these people eventually got evacuated by police as they were growing in number and constituted some security situation for us with representation but ivps, as they are called, internally displaced people, from gang violence, are numerous around town. many neighbourhoods have to be vacated by civilians running
the ivps, people who have fled their homes in the east who actually want to stay in the west of country to wait it out. they believe they may be able to go home. other than that people spend a few days, maybe a few hours then they try to get on foot, buses, trains and try to get out of the country. we know 2 million people, jonathan, 2 million people have fled the country but we really don t have a realistic number for how many people have to leave their homes and are internally displaced within the country. jonathan. nbc s molly hunter, we appreciate the updates. stay safe there. the biden administration has taken a major step towards economically isolating moscow following the invasion of ukraine. the president announced yesterday that the united states will no longer import russian oil and blame spiking gas prices squarely on vladimir putin. today, i m announcing the united states is targeting the main artery of russia s economy. we re banning all imports of russian oil and ga