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The Nigérien junta has reportedly ordered utility supply to the French embassy to be cut, according to reports by a regional security expert. The president of the National Support Committee for the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country (CNSP), Elh Issa Hassoumi Boureima, has asked all partners of French bases in Niger to suspend all water and electricity supplies and food products, said the reports. In addition, any partners who continue to help the French in the process of supplying the goods and services will be considered “enemies of the sovereign people,” the reports added.

The "cost of living crisis" along with increased consumption of craft beer cited as reasons for the decline in use of French wine... Higher electricity costs like the 46 percent higher cost for electricity supplied here in York County, Pennsylvania by Metropolitan Edison this year cited by discount retailer Dollar Tree in reporting a rough quarter... Drug store chain Rite Aid hearing for bankruptcy... Tonight a Ukrainian drone destroyed when it attempted to attack Moscow... 12 killed and 80 injured in a stampede at a stadium in Madagascar... The new military government in Niger expelling ambassadors from three countries... A...

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday mocked the United States after a senior U.S. diplomat met with members of the military junta in Niger. "The U.S. is trying to keep the Wagner group out of Niger," Prigozhin said in a message posted on Telegram, according to translations in Russian media. "'Heavy artillery' is being brought in for this. Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland is in a country that defeated colonialism under Russian flags." Prigozhin directly referenced Nuland's quote about the "risks to their sovereignty" in relation to Wagner and praised his fighters. "I am proud of the...

Despite continued uncertainty about the future of the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recent satellite imagery indicates that the private military company (PMC) is not only staying in Mali but is actively expanding its base capacity in Bamako and may intend to transfer additional valuable military equipment there in the near future. With Prigozhin’s and Putin’s goals aligned toward maintaining Wagner’s operations in Africa, policymakers seeking to disrupt Wagner’s presence should monitor and publicly highlight more subtle signs of security service disruption or incompetence, rather than waiting for Russia to gut Wagner or for the PMC to implode....

Not another one. As I have repeatedly warned my readers, leaders all over the globe seem to have come down with a really bad case of war fever. Instead of sitting down and attempting to find solutions through diplomacy, many of our leaders seem quite eager to use military force to settle matters these days. There is no peaceful end to the war in Ukraine on the horizon, China is making preparations to invade Taiwan, and the “shadow war” in the Middle East could easily erupt into a full-blown regional conflict. But in this article I am going to focus...

Mali and Burkina Faso dispatched warplanes Friday to Niger in a show of solidarity against possible military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). A report aired on Niger's state television highlighted joint efforts by Mali and Burkina Faso in support of Niger and the deployment of warplanes within Niger's borders, Anadolu Agency reported. "Mali and Burkina Faso turned their commitments into concrete action by deploying warplanes to respond to any attack on Niger," it said, noting the planes were Super Tucano fighter jets. During a meeting Friday of the ECOWAS chief of staff in Ghana, the...

I was sent this video regarding banks freezing the accounts of ECOWAS to force them to take military action against Niger. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union. ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping...

Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting the military headquarters for operations... Explosions reported in cities in western Ukraine tonight... Stiff sentences of prison and probation given to misdemeanor defendants in January 6th cases have been put into doubt... There are more firearms dealers than ever being shut down by the Biden Administration... In Saudi Arabia visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman... The Economic Community of West African Nations (ECOWAS) says it will "restore constitutional order" in Niger "as soon as possible"...Also there is word that ECOWAS countries Burkina Faso and Mali have made military preparations...

A 55-year-old woman with dual Canadian-French citizenship sentenced to 22 years in prison for sending a letter laced with ricin to President Trump... In Niger troops deploying to country's borders with Benin and Nigeria... A senior naval reservist (Rear Admiral) suspended after he pledge to boycott reserve duty over the judicial reform agenda of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu... "We won't be a banana republic" The message in Israel tonight from demonstrators waving bananas outside the home of Supreme Court President Esther Hayut... The terrorism theat level in Sweden raised to four from three following recent Quran burning protests in the...

Russia has warned that military intervention in Niger would lead to a "protracted confrontation" after regional bloc Ecowas said it would assemble a standby force.Such an intervention would destabilise the Sahel region as a whole, the Russian foreign ministry said.Russia does not formally back the coup.But the US, which backs efforts to restore deposed leader Mohamed Bazoum, says its Wagner mercenary group is taking advantage of the instability.On Friday coup supporters, some waving Russian flags, protested at a French military base near the capital NIamey, some chanting "down with France, down with Ecowas".Both France and the US operate military bases...

After the recent coup in Niger, the medium-term implications are undetermined, but the outcome is clear. The coup threatens stability in West Africa, American and French interests in the continent, and advances Chinese opportunities. Africans will suffer and Muslim extremists will continue to gain ground. Niger is unlikely to return to democracy in the short term. Initial hopes expressed by France that the Niger Armed Forces would step in to defuse the coup by the Presidential Guard quickly fizzled when the army sided with the coup. The angry deadline set by leaders of the Economic Community of West African States...

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly kicked the Wagner PMC out of Belarus, after refusing to finance the Russian mercenaries. (snip) But reports have now emerged suggesting Lukashenko has refused to finance their stay in the country and the mercenaries are being 'bussed' back to Russia for a “vacation.” According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, operations to remove all Wagner Group men began earlier in the month, with a second phase to remove the rest going into effect this weekend. Wagner’s services don’t come cheap. Putin recently admitted that the Kremlin has spent around $1bn on the private military company...

Niger’s coup leaders believe they must first rid the region of the French and American military and then boot out their fifth columnists in the military, the media and the and the NGOs. Niger’s recent coup follows similar coups in nearby Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, each of which was led by military leaders opposed to the presence of French and U.S. occupation troops stationed there to ensure NATO’s continued economic rape of their respective homelands. The Sahel, the region of Africa housing these four (and other coup-prone) countries, has been assailed with a number of economic factors, which have...

At Camp Pendleton, California a US Marine charged with sexually assaulting a minor found in barracks on June 28th... In the UK the Conservative Party government moving 39 migrants off a barge over bacteria concerns... Air defenses operating in Crimea early Saturday morning...late word that 14 drones were shot down... Authorities in Hawaii now say 67 people are dead in the Maui wildfires... Argentina's unofficial "blue dollar" now at a record rate of 605 pesos to the US dollar... There is now a Special Counsel (Prosecutor) in matters related to Hunter Biden. US Attorney David Weiss appointed to that role....

Niger’s junta told Biden Color Revolution insurrection expert Victoria Nuland that they would kill deposed President Mohamed Bazoum if neighboring countries attempted any military intervention to restore his rule, two anonymous Western officials allegedly told The Associated Press.“Representatives of the junta told U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland of the threat to Bazoum during her visit to the country this week, a Western military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation”, AP reported.

BRIG. GEN. MOUSSA SALAOU BARMOU, the chief of Niger’s Special Operations Forces and one of the leaders of the unfolding coup in Niger, was trained by the U.S. military, The Intercept has confirmed. U.S.-trained military officers have taken part in 11 coups in West Africa since 2008. “We have had a very long relationship with the United States,” Barmou said in 2021. “Being able to work together in this capacity is very good for Niger.” Just last month, Barmou met with Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the head of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, at Air Base 201, a drone base...

Nigeria has cut its electricity supply to Niger after West African neighbors imposed sanctions on the junta that ousted the country’s elected leader last week, a Niger power company source said on Wednesday. “Since yesterday, Nigeria has disconnected the high-voltage line transporting electricity to Niger,” a source at Niger’s power company Nigelec told AFP. Niger depends on Nigeria for 70 percent of its power, buying it from the Nigerian company Mainstream, according to Nigelec, the country’s monopoly supplier.

I learned to swim at the U.S. Embassy swimming pool in Niamey, Niger, in 1976. Little did I know, that would lead to a career as a U.S. Navy diver. It wasn’t pool parties, picnics or watching movies at the Recreation Center, the only entertainment in a country that didn’t have television, that prompted my 25-year career as a special operations officer. It was the Marines from the Security Guard Detachment that stood watch at the embassy all day, every day. -excerpt- President Biden has abandoned his sixth U.S. embassy in less than three years. -excerpt- When there is a...

For now, the junta in Niger seems to be winning its standoff with its West African neighbors and the West. A Sunday deadline put forward by regional bloc ECOWAS for the generals to step aside and restore democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum to power elapsed, with little sign of countries like Nigeria or Senegal readying a military intervention. Instead, in a dramatic show of defiance, the coup leaders staged a massive rally at a stadium in the capital Niamey, where a top general warned against anyone threatening “Niger’s forward march,” while hundreds in the stands waved Nigerien and even some...

The United States is seeking to prevent Russia from scoring a major new win with coup-hit Niger, wagering despite initial disappointment that long-standing military ties will keep the country in the Western orbit. Niger has been the linchpin of US and French anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel, especially since the military takeover of neighboring Mali, which has shown the door to Western forces and welcomed Russia's ruthless Wagner mercenary force. Victoria Nuland, the acting deputy secretary of state, on an unannounced visit to Niamey on Monday acknowledged little progress on reversing the July 26 coup but said that the military...