World Court backs Equatorial Guinea in islands dispute with Gabon
AMSTERDAM, May 19 (Reuters) - Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Monday that Equatorial Guinea has a legal claim to several small islands in the potentially oil-rich waters in the Gulf of Guinea, settling a decades-long dispute with neighbouring Gabon.
In its final and binding ruling the ICJ, also known as the World Court, sided with Equatorial Guinea and said its claim on the islands based on a 1900 convention dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets in West Africa should be honoured.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Russia's Wagner mercenary group says it is leaving Mali after 'mission accomplished'
MOSCOW/DAKAR, June 6 (Reuters) - Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Friday it was leaving Mali after fighting Islamist militants for three-and-a-half years and returning home after its mission in the African country had been successfully completed. Wagner said via its channel in Telegram that it had brought all of the country's regional centres back under the control of the Malian military junta, pushing out Islamist forces and killing their commanders. Wagner did not say what its fighters would do once they were back in Russia. The announcement follows a spate of attacks in recent weeks that insurgents say killed more than 100 Malian soldiers as well as some mercenaries. Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), an insurgent group in West Africa's Sahel region, claimed responsibility for the violence in recent days, including a bombing attack on Wednesday against Malian and Russian soldiers near Bamako. Wagner has been in Mali since the army, which seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, kicked out French and U.N. troops that had been involved in fighting the Islamist insurgents for a decade and replaced them with Russian mercenaries. Wagner's withdrawal from Mali does not mean that the West African country will be without Russian fighters though. The Africa Corps is still in Mali. The Corps was created with the support of the Russian Defence Ministry after Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and commander Dmitry Utkin led a failed military mutiny against the Russian army leadership and then left Russia for Belarus with other mercenaries. Russia has been seeking to end Wagner's deployment to Mali to replace them with the Africa Corps, Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation told Reuters. "The takeover of the Africa Corps means that the Russian military engagement in Mali will continue, but the focus might change more to training and providing equipment and less actual fighting jihadists," Laessing said. The Africa Corps is "about 70-80%" made up of former Wagner mercenaries, according to several Telegram chats used by Russian mercenaries seen by Reuters. The Malian defence ministry did not immediately respond to request for a comment.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Death of a soldier has flared Thailand and Cambodia border tensions
Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have increased following the death of a Cambodian soldier in May during a gunfire exchange in a disputed border area. The two Southeast Asian neighbours have contested sovereignty over undemarcated points along their 817km land border for over a century, with the border initially mapped by France in 1907. Claims over historical sites, particularly the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, have raised nationalist tensions, with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarding the temple to Cambodia in 1962, though Thailand continues to claim the surrounding land. Nationalist sentiment has risen in Thailand, especially after conservatives questioned the government's plan to jointly explore energy resources with Cambodia and after a group of Cambodians sang their national anthem at the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple. Despite promises to ease tensions and seek dialogue, both countries' militaries have been mobilising near the border, and Cambodia plans to refer disputes in four border areas to the ICJ, a move Thailand has not recognised.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Red Cross confirms office closures in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff
The International Committee of the Red Cross announced the closure of its offices in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff, four months after the ruling junta ordered the organization to leave the country. The ICRC confirmed the closure and departure in a statement on Thursday. 'We reiterate our willingness to maintain constructive dialogue with the authorities of Niger with a view to resuming our strictly humanitarian protection and assistance activities," Patrick Youssef, the ICRC's regional director for Africa, said in the statement. In February, Niger's Foreign Affairs Ministry had ordered the ICRC to close its offices and leave the country. No official reason was given for the military junta's decision to shut down the organization's operations in the country at the time. The ICRC said it had been in dialogue with Niger's authorities since February to understand the reasons for their decision and provide any necessary clarification but that these efforts were unsuccessful. On May 31, Niger's junta leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, justified the ICRC expulsion on Nigerien state television, accusing the organization of having met with 'terrorist leaders' and funding armed groups. The ICRC refuted the accusations in its statement on Thursday, saying that dialogue with all sides in the conflict is necessary to carry out its humanitarian mandate and that it 'never provides financial, logistical, or any other form of support" to armed groups. The humanitarian organization had been active in the West African country since 1990, mainly helping people displaced by violence by Islamic extremists, food insecurity and natural disasters. According to the organization, it provided humanitarian aid to more than 2 million people in Niger. Niger's military rulers took power in a coup two years ago, the latest of several military takeovers in Africa's Sahel, the vast, arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert that has become a hotspot for extremist violence by militant groups. Since the coup, Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, such as France and the United States, turning instead to Russia for security. Last November, the country's military junta banned the French aid group Acted from working in the country amid tensions with France.
