While on a tour of West Africa and set to include unspecified bilateral deals, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been defending his country’s controversial nuclear program. Ahmadinejad said Tehran has no use for an atomic bomb. He was speaking during a visit to Benin on Monday, the first stop on a three-nation West Africa tour. [...]
Obama Deploys Drones, Troops to New Base in West Africa
February 25, 2013 | Posted by
A letter sent Friday from President Barack Obama to Speaker of the House John Boehner and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy marked the official expansion of the United States military drone program into West Africa. A drone base will be established in Niamey, Niger, from which unarmed predator drones can begin surveillance [...]
Kofi Annan Launches West African Panel on Illegal Drug Trafficking
January 31, 2013 | Posted by
Kofi Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, today launched a major new initiative to help tackle the growing threat from illegal drug trafficking in West Africa. The West Africa Commission on the Impact of Drugs on Governance, Security and Development (WACD) was launched at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Center in Accra, Ghana. According to officials, WACD [...]
Mali Musicians Fight Censors in West Africa With Lyrical Weapons
January 9, 2013 | Posted by
Amkoullel, a 33-year-old Malian rapper, sings about self-image, immigration and respect. He’s among a new generation of young rappers in Mali, West Africa, mixing traditional instruments with new themes. He has played in many countries around the world, performing with Malian legends Salif Keita, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate. Even before Mali’s political upheavals [...]
Islamists Destroy Ancient Timbuktu Shrines In Mali, West Africa
June 30, 2012 | Posted by
Islamist fighters in Mali have damaged the shrines of Muslim saints in the city of Timbuktu, witnesses say. The fighters, from the Ansar Dine group, which controls much of northern Mali, attacked the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud, one of 16 shrines in the city. Last week, the UN cultural organization Unesco put Timbuktu on its [...]
United States Expanding Military Bases in Africa
June 22, 2012 | Posted by
The United States military is expanding a secret network of air bases across Africa in order to spy on al-Qaeda and other such groups, a US newspaper said. The surveillance is carried out by small, unmarked turboprop planes with hidden state-of-the-art sensors that fly thousands of kilometres between air bases and bush landing strips across the vast [...]
Selling Africa Cheap: Australia-based Company To Sell African Resources to Chinese Investors
May 24, 2012 | Posted by
African Petroleum is in talks with two Chinese suitors interested in acquiring an up to 10% stake in the West Africa-focused oil and gas explorer, a person familiar with the matter told Deal Journal Australia. If successful, the transaction could be worth “several hundreds of millions of dollars” that would boost funding for the development [...]
Islamists Attack Ancient African City of Timbuktu in Mali, West Africa
May 7, 2012 | Posted by
In the northern Malian city, Timbuktu, Ansar Dine Islamist fighters burned the shrine of a local saint on Friday. The mausoleum is classified as part of a World Heritage site by the United Nation’s cultural body, Unesco. Islamists tore off the wooden doors, gates and window frames of the mausoleum and burned them. The tomb [...]
West African Nations Financial Enslavement To France (Analysis)
May 4, 2012 | Posted by
An analysis of the continuing financial enslavement of West African nations to the French government. The West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) is an organization of eight West African states. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the Communauté Financière d’Afrique (CFA) franc as a common currency. The currency is [...]
