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ECOWAS Leaders Meet In Abuja As Region Struggles With Coups

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West African leaders meet on Sunday for talks with the region in deepening crisis, after four countries fell under military rule and with risks growing from Sahel jihadist conflicts.

After coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger since 2020, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc also saw member states Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau claim attempted coups in recent weeks.

A French military withdrawal from the Sahel — the region along the Sahara desert across Africa — is increasing concerns over conflicts spreading south to Gulf of Guinea states Ghana, Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast.

“These military coups are not only based on fake narrative and false justifications; they are also a driver of insecurity in the region,” ECOWAS commission president Omar Touray said in a meeting before the summit.

ECOWAS leaders will meet in Nigeria’s capital Abuja for an ordinary summit where they will discuss delayed transitions back to civilian rule for Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger.

Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is current chair of ECOWAS and US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee will also be at the meeting to discuss how to support Niger’s return to democratic rule and Sahel security.

Niger — a key Western partner in the fight against Sahel militants — has demanded French troops based there leave, while the US still has military personnel in the country.

ECOWAS members have imposed tough economic sanctions on the military regime in Niger, whose troops ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in July.

Mediator

ECOWAS has demanded Bazoum’s immediate return to the presidency, but the military junta has kept him in detention and says it may need up to three years for a return to civilian rule.

Earlier this month, Nigeria said it was asking the Niger regime to free Bazoum and allow him to fly to a third country, as a step to opening talks on lifting sanctions.

But Niger’s military leaders rejected that option and have asked Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe to act as a mediator.

Before Sunday’s ECOWAS meeting, Niger’s military leader General Abdourahamane Tiani visited Togo on Friday with some of his ministers.

ECOWAS has also left on the table the last option of a military intervention in Niger though analysts say that appears increasingly unlikely.

Transitions back to democracy and elections have also been stalled or left uncertain in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

After French troops began leaving the region, military regimes in Niger, Mali and Burkina, struggling with jihadist violence, hardened their positions and joined forces in an Alliance of Sahel States.

Last month, armed attackers stormed military posts, prisons and police stations in another ECOWAS member Sierra Leone, in what the government called a coup attempt that killed 21 people.

A week later Guinea-Bissau also denounced an attempted coup, with fighting between the national guard and special forces of the presidential guard.

AFP

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Democrats Win US midterm elections

Trump acknowledges the Iran war, and the rising cost of living, were factors in his Republican Party’s defeat – as the White House posts on social media: “Trump is still your president”

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US President Donald Trump

The Democrats win the Senate and the House in US midterm elections, taking control of Congress for the rest of Donald Trump’s tenure.

Voters in conservative bastions who had propelled the president to his second term in office just two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, fueled by deep frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, anxiety over the high cost of living and anger at ‌Trump’s stewardship of the country.

Trump acknowledges the Iran war, and the rising cost of living, were factors in his Republican Party’s defeat – as the White House posts on social media: “Trump is still your president”

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In Texas, the biggest Republican state, Democrats ended a decades-long losing streak in seismic fashion, winning a Senate seat and ousting three-term Governor Greg Abbott.Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression nearly a century ago, and in South Carolina, a state that Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024, Democrats turned aside his hand-picked Senate candidate.The results will usher in a new era of divided government in Washington, following two years in which the Republican-controlled Congress rarely exercised its power to rein in Trump.

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JUST IN: Plane Crash Near Trump’s Florida Home Kills All 9 Aboard

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A private Learjet 60 crashed into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, killing all nine people on board, officials confirmed.

The aircraft, flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, went down around 12:50 p.m. local time near Cresthaven/Greenacres, roughly 7–11 kilometers (about 4–7 miles) from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

It struck near a busy roadway at the entrance to a mobile-home community, creating a large fireball and leaving a crater in the road. Debris was scattered across a wide area, and nearby power and water lines were damaged.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the crash a “horrific tragedy” and confirmed there were no survivors among the nine occupants.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the impact as “cataclysmic,” saying it “looked like a missile going down.” No injuries were reported among people on the ground. About 600 residents of a nearby mobile-home park were evacuated.

Trump had been at Mar-a-Lago earlier Sunday but departed on Air Force One from the nearby airport about an hour before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, with support from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Early reports noted the crew had discussed moderate turbulence and ice shortly before the steep descent.

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Tens of thousands protest against Narendra Modi regime in Delhi

The protest was one of the largest shows of opposition strength in years, taking place amid a wider resurgence of anti-government dissent which has been systematically crushed over the 12 years of the Modi regime.

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Thousands of opposition supporters have gathered in Delhi as protests against the Narendra Modi government continue to gather momentum.

Led by the Congress party, India’s opposition alliance has brought together supporters from across the country, amid growing anger over a large-scale revision of the country’s voter roll that has seen 130 million names erased.

Opposition leaders have alleged the process gives Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) an electoral advantage, and have called for the resignation and impeachment of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.

The BJP has denied the claims.

Addressing tens of thousands of party workers and supporters, the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said Kumar had “carried out the biggest crime. He has tried to silence the voice of people, strangulate our country.”

Gandhi said the opposition, united under the acronym India (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), would not let “democracy be finished in the country” and warned Modi: “You can’t run anywhere.”

The protest was one of the largest shows of opposition strength in years, taking place amid a wider resurgence of anti-government dissent which has been systematically crushed over the 12 years of the Modi regime.

The Guardian Uk

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