Latest news with #Tuareg
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Latest Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine Isn't Changing the Course of the War
The empire strikes back. Last week, Ukrainian spies destroyed a large chunk of Russia's fearsome nuclear bomber fleet using small, smuggled drones. On Friday, Russia retaliated with some of the largest air raids against Ukraine to date. The Russian air raids killed eight Ukrainians and wounded 46. They also sent the message that, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, the current round of peace talks is over. On the whole, however, neither the Ukrainian guerrilla operation nor the old-fashioned Russian retaliation changed the course of the war. Russia has a slight, but not decisive, advantage. Russian forces have been gaining ground in Ukraine at a slow rate and high cost. Although they have continued to suffer from manpower shortages, Ukrainian forces have managed to inflict greater losses on the Russian side. The human butchery on the front lines can continue for the time being. Of course, the attack on the Russian nuclear bomber fleet matters a lot for the global balance of power. And Ukraine has grown quite bold at attacking Russian interests outside of Ukraine. Ukrainian operatives have reportedly blown up the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea, captured Russian mercenaries in Sudan, enabled Tuareg rebels to kill dozens more Russian mercenaries in Mali, and trained Syrian rebels to use drones against the former government of Bashar Assad, a Russian ally. Rather than changing the balance of forces on the battlefield, these moves serve two psychological purposes. On one hand, they blunt Putin's confidence that he can simply wait Ukraine out. U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told European leaders last month that Putin doesn't want to end the war because he believes Russia is winning. On the other hand, Ukrainian operations help demonstrate Ukraine's usefulness to its foreign backers. Even more than having to justify the financial cost of U.S. aid, over $128 billion in total, Ukraine has to compete for scarce physical resources with other theaters of war. (Late last month, the U.S. military decided to move anti-drone proximity fuzes from Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East.) And Trump has made no secret of his belief that Ukraine is a freeloader that doesn't "have the cards." After the drone attack, Ukrainian spokespeople bragged that they do, in fact, hold "the cards." The Trump administration was reportedly very impressed by the "badass" Ukrainian attack. As one White House adviser told Axios, "you've got a chihuahua inflicting some real damage on a much bigger dog." Feats of reckless defiance might prove more effective than the half-baked scheme to market Ukraine's non-existent mineral wealth to Trump. Many political figures have misread Trump as someone who enjoys flattery. But he does not necessarily respect those who grovel before him, whether it's domestic politicians or allied heads of state, and he does enjoy winning over adversaries. Congress is also getting ready to impose new economic sanctions on Russia, something that Trump has threatened to do over the past few months. The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is fighting to "water down" the legislation, but the dispute seems to be more about keeping the president's options open to lifting sanctions than the strength of the pressure. Unlike in the Middle East, where U.S. enemies are relatively weak and American partners are extremely reliant on U.S. support, the United States does not have an easy "off" switch for the Russian-Ukraine war. Europe provides Ukraine with slightly more aid than the United States. Although U.S. aid to Ukraine has been massive—and irreplaceable in the areas of air defense and intelligence—Ukraine can fight on for quite a while with European support and its own domestic capabilities. "Both sides are suffering before you pull them apart, before they're able to be pulled apart," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. "You see in hockey, you see it in sports. The referees let them go for a couple of seconds, let them go for a little while before you pull them apart." That's a lot of suffering in the meantime. A recent estimate put overall casualties of the war—which includes both wounded and killed—at 1.2 million troops since 2022. And the United Nations has recorded 45,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine throughout the war. Each of those numbers represents a family torn apart forever. However depressing the situation sounds, the fact that neither side has a clear path to victory means that they will both have to come back to the negotiating table. It's in America's interest for this war to end as quickly as possible, and as other conflicts show, the U.S. can do a lot of good as a distant but powerful mediator. The post The Latest Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine Isn't Changing the Course of the War appeared first on
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia's Wagner mercenaries leaving Mali, Africa Corps to remain
Russia's Wagner mercenary group says it will withdraw from Mali after more than three and a half years on the ground. The paramilitary force announced the move on Friday, claiming it had successfully completed its mission against armed groups in the West African nation. In a post on its Telegram channel, the group said that it had brought all of the country's regional centres back under the control of the Malian military government, pushing out rebel forces and killing their commanders. But Wagner's withdrawal from Mali does not mean the country will be without Russian fighters. Russian mercenaries will remain under the banner of the Africa Corps, a separate Kremlin-backed paramilitary group created after Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian military in June 2023. 'Russia does not lose ground, but on the contrary, continues to support Bamako now at a more fundamental level,' said a statement by Africa Corps, referring to Mali's capital city. In addition to Africa Corps, 'Russian security advisers are stepping in where the mercenaries are stepping out,' said Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque, reporting from neighbouring Senegal. Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told Reuters that while 'the Russian military engagement in Mali will continue … the focus might change more to training and providing equipment and less actual fighting jihadists.' The shift in the Russian presence in Mali follows a spate of attacks in recent weeks that rebel fighters say killed more than 100 Malian soldiers, as well as some mercenaries. Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an armed group in the Sahel, claimed responsibility for the violence, including one attack on Sunday that killed at least 30 soldiers at central Mali's Boulkessi army base. Local officials told Reuters the military has since abandoned the base. Ukrainian-backed Tuareg rebels have also been behind some of the attacks on Russian mercenaries in the country, reported Haque. 'Away from the theatre of the Russia-Ukraine war, in the heart of Africa, the Ukrainians are supporting Tuareg rebels that are fighting Russian mercenaries,' said Haque. Meanwhile, Malian forces and their Russian allies have been accused of abuses against civilians, including a February attack on a convoy that killed more than 20 people believed to be Tuareg, among them children and elderly people.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Migrant bodies found in boat washed ashore on Caribbean island
The bodies of 11 people believed to have been migrants have been found inside a boat washed onto the shores of the Caribbean island of Canouan, which forms part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. The identities of those on board remain unclear, a police official said, but several passports found at the scene suggest they were from Mali, a land-locked country in western Africa more than 6,000km (3,800 miles) away. The boat, measuring 45ft (14m) in length, 12ft in width and 6ft in depth, was found grounded in Little Bay, on Monday. The discovery comes just months after a boat with 13 dead bodies - some of whom also had Malian documents - was found washed ashore in St Kitts and Nevis. Authorities in St Vincent and the Grenadines said they were alerted to the boat with the 11 deceased migrants on Monday. Eujin Byun, the UN Refugee Agency's global spokesperson, told the BBC the migrants - believed to be from Mali - had probably planned to go to the Canary Islands. Given the small size of the boat recovered in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ms Byun said it was "highly unlikely" those on board would have been attempting to reach the Caribbean. She added: "We cannot talk on behalf of those who have passed away, but our best guess is that they wanted to take the Atlantic route to get to the Canary Islands" Hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced inside Mali, whose central and northern regions have known little stability since independence from France in September 1960, and many others have fled abroad. Around 6.4 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the European Commission, and more than 1.5 million people require emergency food assistance. Ms Buyn explained that Mali had experienced "a cycle of violence" since 2012, when the Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali triggered a military coup and Islamist groups that helped defeat the government captured several towns. Access to services in the west African country had been "severely restricted" and Malians were crossing the border in search for better livelihoods, she added. But when refugees cross the border to neighbouring countries in the Sahel region, they are often confronted with a similar landscape, Ms Byun said, which leads them to seek refuge further afield. "Desperate people make desperate decisions," she concluded. The UN official worries that the Atlantic route from Africa to Europe is not getting as much attention as the Mediterranean route, and "smugglers are taking advantage of this". The region with more 'terror deaths' than rest of world combined
NDTV
15-05-2025
- NDTV
How This Country Is Transforming Sahara Desert To Attract Tourists
Algeria, the largest country in Africa, has long struggled to attract tourists to its desert landscape. But it's changing now, with the Algerian government rolling out a master plan for tourism development to make the country a major tourist destination by 2030. After decades of a self-reliant policy that kept international visitors at bay, the Algerian government is now determined to revive its tourism industry, CNN reported. In January 2023, the government implemented a visa-on-arrival policy for all non-exempt international visitors to the Sahara, which practically includes everyone except residents of Malaysia, the Seychelles, and the five bordering Maghreb nations. Visas for stays up to 30 days, which were formerly difficult to get, are now all but assured. Guests only have to pay the relevant costs $38 to $376 (Rs 3,154 to Rs 31,208), depending on length of stay) when they arrive. As a result, tourism has received an unprecedented boost. With an estimated 3.3 million tourists in 2023, the numbers saw a 45% rise from the year before. Of the total, 2.2 million tourists were foreign visitors, said the Algerian Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts. Located in the Sahara Desert, Tassili n'Ajjer National Park is the main draw for tourists here. This park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is popular for its bizarre sandstone formations that resemble petrified wood. It has over 15,000 prehistoric sculptures and paintings that date back to 10,000 BCE and provide a striking portrayal of prehistoric animals and lifestyles. Tourists embarking on desert expeditions are led by experienced Tuareg community members, who provide guests with a distinctive cultural immersion. Algeria also intends to increase the number of direct flights it offers from different European capitals in order to meet the increasing demand. At the same time, measures are being taken to improve border security in order to provide a stable and secure environment for travellers. By 2030, Algeria hopes to draw 12 million foreign tourists to the country. The government has created a roadmap, including the Tourism Development Master Plan 2030, with the goal of greatly boosting investment and hotel capacity while also improving the quality of tourist services and infrastructure. There are also plans to improve ties with other European capitals, especially for desert visits.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Saharan Desert sound comes to region via Etran de L'Aïr
NELSONVILLE, Ohio Stuart's Opera House will host Etran de L'Aïr at Snow Fork Event Center, home of the Nelsonville Music Festival, at 8 p.m. on May 8. Hailing from Agadez, Niger, Etran de L'Aïr ('Stars of the Aïr region') has spent more than 25 years performing high-energy compositions of Saharan rock, blending traditional Tuareg sounds with pan-African influences from Northern Malian blues to Congolese Soukous. Etran is a family band of brothers and cousins, formed in 1995 when leader Moussa 'Abindi' Ibra was 9. Over the decades, they have built a reputation as one of Agadez's most celebrated musical groups, performing everywhere from bustling city streets to remote desert gatherings. Advance general admission tickets are $22, with prices increasing to $25 on the day of the show. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at or by calling (740) 753-1924. For more information about Stuart's Opera House, at 52 Public Square, call (740) 753-1924.
