Month: May 2022

DOHA, QATAR — Chad’s military government has announced it is postponing the start of landmark national talks with opposition forces and rebels, as preparatory negotiations between the two sides drag out in Qatar.

 

The landlocked African nation was thrown into turmoil after long-time leader Idriss Deby died fighting rebels last April.

 

His son Mahamat Idriss Deby seized control but promised free elections this year.

 

Ahead of these, he had wanted a national dialogue to start on May 10.

 

Before that dialogue, the government and more than 40 opposition groups have sent delegations to Doha for preliminary talks.

 

But they have spent much of the time in luxury hotels and have yet to meet face-to-face, as the Qatari mediators seek to establish enough common ground for the two sides to begin full talks.

 

On Sunday, the Chadian Foreign Ministry said it had agreed “to postpone the inclusive national dialogue to a later date to be decided, after consultations with the relevant institutions and political actors.”

 

Earlier, Doha had called for the postponement, saying its mediation was making “tangible” progress at “a good pace.”

 

The national talks had already been pushed back from February.

 

Qatar said a new delay would “give the participating parties more time to reach a peace agreement, in preparation for the convening of the comprehensive national dialogue.”

 

Doha had originally only wanted to host talks and was reluctant to become a full mediator.

 

But the Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Qatar’s “full support for Chad’s efforts in this political process, in order to achieve the aspirations of its people for peace, security and stability.”

 

Opposition groups have accused Deby’s administration of deliberately dragging out the Doha talks.

 

Deby, a 38-year-old general, came to power just over one year ago after his father was fatally wounded in battle.

 

Opposition groups are demanding that Deby rule himself out of the elections, and also want safety guarantees to allow opposition leaders, who are mostly in exile in neighboring Libya and Sudan, as well as in Europe, to return to Chad.

 

Qatar has previously helped in peace efforts for Yemen, Lebanon, Sudan and between the Afghan Taliban and U.S. government.

 

Source: Voice of America

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, the head of Guinea’s military junta, said Saturday he had opted for a 39-month transitional period before a return to civilian rule.

He made the announcement in a speech broadcast on television, saying the National Transition Council (CNT) would put the proposal to parliament.

The announcement came after the creation of what the regime has described as an “inclusive consultation framework” in April.

That culminated in a conference boycotted by several prominent political groups.

On Friday, the army-dominated government said that the forum considering the issue had considered a transition period of 18-52 months.

Doumbouya, in Saturday’s speech, described the period he had opted for as the “median proposal.”

Regional bloc ECOWAS had set last Monday as a deadline for putting forward an “acceptable” transition timetable or risk economic and financial sanctions.

Guinea’s ruling military junta let the deadline pass, however, asking the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for more time for consultations to continue.

ECOWAS has called for an “acceptable” timeline for a return to civilian rule, failing which it has threatened to extend sanctions applied to Guinea following the military coup there.

Growing discontent

In September 2021, army officers led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya ousted elected president Alpha Conde in the impoverished former French colony.

Conde, 84, had drawn fierce opposition after he pushed through a new constitution in 2020 that allowed him to run for a third presidential term.

Following the coup, ECOWAS called for a return to civilian rule within six months.

Although many Guineans initially welcomed the coup, there is growing discontent against the junta in the nation of 13 million people.

Guinea’s coup last September came on the heels of a military takeover in Mali.

ECOWAS has applied sanctions on members of the Mali junta, shut its borders with the country, frozen its assets at the Central Bank of West African States and imposed a trade embargo.

For Guinea, leading junta members have been sanctioned and are subject to a travel ban within the bloc.

A third ECOWAS member, Burkina Faso, experienced a coup in January.

It has so far escaped the sanctions handed out to Guinea and Mali but was also given until last Monday to spell out an “acceptable transition timetable.”

The Burkinabe junta has said it stands by a three-year schedule for holding elections, arguing that it first has to deal with a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Source: Voice of America

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called Sunday for the military juntas in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali to hand power back to civilians as soon as possible and reminded the world to deliver on “climate emergency” promises.

Speaking after meeting Senegalese President Macky Sall in Dakar, he said they had agreed on the need to keep talking to the de facto authorities in all three countries so as to get a swift return to “constitutional order.”

All three countries, struggling with a jihadist insurgency in the Sahel region, have recently experienced military coups: Mali in August 2020 and May 2021; Guinea in September 2021; and Burkina Faso in January 2022.

Sall is the current chair of the Economic Community of West African States, also known as ECOWAS, which has suspended all three countries from its membership.

ECOWAS imposed heavy sanctions against Mali in January after the regime there rejected a rapid return to civilian rule.

It has threatened similar sanctions against Guinea and Burkina Faso if they fail to enable a swift transition to civilian rule within a “reasonable” timeframe.

But the military regimes in both countries rejected the timetable set out by ECOWAS.

Last Monday, Ouagadougou said they had no plans to shorten the three-year transition period they had already announced.

And on Saturday evening, Guinea’s junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya said he had opted for a 39-month transition period to civilian rule.

The decision was roundly condemned Sunday by opposition leaders in Guinea, including both the party of the ousted president Alpha Conde and opposition groups that had opposed him.

The regime in Mali is also continuing to defy ECOWAS pressure.

On April 21 it announced the launch of a two-year transition “process” before elections are held.

ECOWAS had called for elections within 16 months at the most.

Turning to the issue of global warming, Guterres said “the climate emergency… increases the security risk.”

African countries, he said, were “often the first victims” of global warming for which they are “not responsible.”

Developed countries had pledged to help the countries of the south to finance their “transition towards renewable energies and green jobs,” he noted.

“It’s time to take action. It’s time to keep the promise of 100 billion dollars a year made in Paris,” he said, referring to national pledges under the 2015 Paris Agreement aimed at capping global warming below two degrees Celsius.

In Dakar, Guterres visited the site of the future headquarters of the UN’s regional operations as well as a manufacturing unit soon to produce COVID-19 vaccines and also experimental anti-malaria and tuberculosis vaccines.

Guterres also addressed the consequences of the war in Ukraine on Africa, where he said the conflict “aggravates a triple crisis: food, energy and financial.”

To enable the countries of the continent to cope, Guterres urged once again international financial institutions to put in place “urgently…debt relief measures…so that governments can avoid default and invest in social safety nets and sustainable development for their people.”

Source: Voice of America