Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 1/17/2025
News and analysis from the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn, and the Middle East
Last week’s links can be found here.
General
At Derek Davison’s Foreign Exchanges newsletter, I wrote this week about the American Left, foreign policy, and whether and how the Left can try to build influence on the road to the 2028 elections.
Sahel and West Africa
Aanu Adeoye and Camila Hodgson in the Financial Times on Sahelian juntas’ tough tactics vis-a-vis mining companies:
Canada’s Barrick, the world’s second-biggest gold miner by market capitalisation, shut its Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex, which produced the company’s second-highest gold output in 2023, after being restricted from shipping out of the site for seven weeks. Mali on Saturday had also begun carting off precious metal from the mine following a provisional court order, according to the letter seen by the Financial Times.
The Malian government has also hired external advisers to lead negotiations on its behalf. People familiar with the process say Mamou Touré is leading the charge for the authorities. The veteran executive worked at London-listed miner Randgold for a decade before it merged with Barrick in 2018, prior to co-founding his own mining consultancy.
A two-month jihadist blockade of Léré, Mali (Timbuktu Region) has ended, although the reasons/conditions remain undisclosed.
Senegalese Prime Minister Ousman Sonko visited Mauritania January 12-14 to discuss a major gas project and other important issues.
An Austrian citizen was kidnapped in Agadez, Niger, and a Spanish citizen was kidnapped in Tamanrasset, Algeria - possibly by the same perpetrators.
AP: “Nigerian Airstrike Mistakenly Kills Civilians Supporting Security Forces While Targeting Rebels.” The rebels in question were bandits in Zamfara State.
Emele Onu and Anthony Osae-Brown at Bloomberg: “Nigeria Gets Tough with Its Economic Zones to Boost Exports.”
North Africa
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has offered to visit Algiers in a bid to decrease French-Algerian tensions.
RFI: “Morocco Is Multiplying and Diversifying Its Purchases of Military Equipment.”
Jeune Afrique’s Bilal Mousjid profiles Chakib Benmoussa, new head of Morocco’s High Commission for Planning.
Human Rights Watch: “Tunisia: Drastic Closure of Civic Space.”
Reuters: “Head of Libya's National Oil Corporation Resigns.”
Ariel Bardi in New Lines Magazine: “The Bawdy Rai Music of Oran Reflects the City’s Pluralist Past.”
Greater Horn of Africa
U.S. Department of the Treasury (January 16):
Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan (Burhan), the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), under Executive Order (E.O.) 14098, “Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons Destabilizing Sudan and Undermining the Goal of a Democratic Transition.” This action follows the designation of the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa (Hemedti), on January 7, 2025. In addition, OFAC is sanctioning one company and one individual involved in weapons procurement on behalf of the Defense Industries System (DIS), a procurement arm of the SAF that OFAC sanctioned in June 2023.
Hamid Khalafallah for Arabi Facts Hub and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy: “Beyond the Battlefield: Sudan’s Virtual Propaganda Warzone.”
Tom Gardner in The Economist: “A Hidden Refuge in Sudan That the Internet, Banks - and War - Can’t Reach.”
At the BBC, Mary Harper writes about Somaliland and Donald Trump:
Like many American Republicans, Somaliland's Foreign Minister Abdirahman Dahir Adan sees the relationship in transactional terms.
"If the deal is good for us, we will take it. If the US wants a military base here we will give it to them."
Recognition sympathisers argue that Somaliland is located at the site of several converging US interests - economic, military and strategic.
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Gabobe on piracy, politics, and allegations of illegal fishing in Somalia:
Mohamud, the town elder from Eyl, feels the foreign trawlers do not only cause problems for Puntland but Somalia as a whole, because of what he called the “real pirates” that work with them – referring to individuals like government ministers or parliamentarians who “give out illegal licences for these trawlers to be here”, he said.
Daniel Ogetta and Brian Wasuna in Kenya’s Nation: “Judiciary Under Siege: What Started As Social Media-Fuelled Protests Has Snowballed into a Push for Removal of Some of Senior Judges.”
Jorgelina Do Rosario for Bloomberg: “IMF Board to Discuss Ethiopia’s Next Disbursement on Friday.”
Mashriq
Some perspectives on the (seemingly) imminent Israel-Hamas ceasefire:
Sharif Abdel Kouddous at Dropsite News: “Five Journalists in Gaza Reflect on Ceasefire Announcement.”
Chaim Levinson at Haaretz: “Trump's Mideast Envoy Forced Netanyahu to Accept a Gaza Plan He Repeatedly Rejected.”
Mohammad Alsaafin in The Nation: “We Have a Ceasefire Deal, but This Isn’t the End.”
Chris Hedges: “The Ceasefire Charade.”
Bassem Mroue at AP:
Lebanon’s new president [Joseph Aoun] has asked prominent diplomat and jurist Nawaf Salam to form the country’s new government after Salam was named prime minister by a large number of legislators Monday. The move apparently angered the Hezbollah group and its allies.
Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice and his nomination was made by Western-backed groups as well as independents in the Lebanese parliament. Salam has the support of Saudi Arabia and Western countries as well. Hezbollah legislators abstained from naming any candidate for the prime minister’s post.
Karim Safieddine had an interesting thread on Twitter about the challenges facing Aoun and Salam, comparing the situation to that of President Fouad Chehab (in power 1958-1964). Safieddine writes, “If this is a New ‘Chehabist’ era with ‘new characteristics’, the only thing that could possibly make it successful is the creation of strong, well-entrenched bottom-up cross-sectarian forces that are able to negotiate, fight, and struggle in that direction.”
Timour Azhari for Reuters: “Syria's New Central Bank Chief Vows to Boost Bank Independence Post Assad.”
Salwa Baalbaki in Al Majalla: “A New Syria Gives Lebanon a Chance to Reevaluate Past Deals.”
Ingrid d'Hooghe, Vera Kranenburg, Erwin van Veen for Clingendael Institute: “China in Iraq.”
A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander has sparked controversy after portraying Assad’s fall as a “very bad defeat.” Behrouz Esbati also accused Russia of abetting Israeli strikes that have killed top Iranian commanders in Syria - fanning accusations that Moscow is untrustworthy as an ally.
Natasha Turak at CNBC: “Saudi Arabia Vows to be ‘Fast and Furious’ in Mining As It Reveals $100 Billion Investment.”
Human Rights Watch: “Yemen: Increased Threats to Civil Society, Humanitarian Aid.”