Two West African nations ruled by mutinous soldiers said Monday that military intervention in Niger would be considered a "declaration of war" against them, as the junta attempts to consolidate power after a coup last week. The West African regional body known as ECOWAS announced travel and economic sanctions against Niger on Sunday over the coup, and said it would use force if the coup leaders don’t reinstate Bazoum within one week. Bazoum's government was one of the West’s last democratic partners against West African extremists.
In 2011, after two decades climbing the ranks of Niger's army, Abdourahamane Tiani was handed one of the military's most prized appointments: the head of an elite unit set up to protect the president. Last week, Tiani, a general, used his position and manpower to do the opposite. He imprisoned President Mohamed Bazoum in the presidential palace and appeared on state television on Friday to declare himself head of state, confirming the seventh military coup in West and Central Africa in three years.
A recent research paper released by the Jeddah-based Gulf Research Center has outlined two scenarios for the future of Egyptian-Iranian relations: the reestablishment and strengthening of diplomatic ties, or the continuation of the current state of estrangement while maintaining a policy of de-escalation.
Authorities in the Yemeni city of Taiz and surrounding areas have stepped up security measures around the offices of international organizations and have approved a ban on carrying weapons. The new measures were introduced days after a World Food Program (WFP) staff member was shot and killed by unknown gunmen in Turbah in southern Taiz. Official sources revealed that Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan and members of the security committee met in the southern Taiz countryside and approved the tightened measures and weapons ban.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the developments in the Palestinian territories, the recent Israeli raids in Jenin and the West Bank, and the intra-Palestinian dialogue. Erdogan received Abbas with an official ceremony at the presidential palace in Ankara and held a closed session on Tuesday, and the delegations later joined them. Abbas arrived in Ankara on Monday on a two-day visit, and it came at a time of rising fears of renewed Israeli violence and attacks on the Palestinian territories.