28 2GM Monday January 3 2022 | the times
Wo r l d
Mali’s military junta is pushing to stay
in power for another five years rather
than hold elections next month, in a
move that has alarmed its neighbours
and boosted Russia’s ambitions in
Africa.
The delay in returning to democracy,
in defiance of international pressure,
also risks emboldening military coup
leaders in Chad and Guinea who face
similar demands to surrender power.
A conference to recommend an
election timetable last week said the
poll, initially due by February this year,
should be delayed by between six
months and five years. Mali’s foreign
minister Abdoulaye Diop said: “What
was retained was a duration of five
years... but it’s a question of indicating
that this period, it’s the maximum.”
He said the insecurity meant that
only five of Mali’s 19 regions would have
been in a position to hold elections.
Landlocked and impoverished, the
Quick sand The Czech motorcycle rider David Pabiska heads towards Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the Dakar Rally as he attempts to complete the race for the 13th time
India has cut off foreign funding to
Oxfam a week after blocking Mother
Teresa’s charity from receiving vital
donations from abroad.
The decision by Narendra Modi’s
government, which takes effect imme-
diately, was published on the Ministry
of Home Affairs website on Saturday.
Amid a feared third wave of Covid-19,
Russia the winner as Mali
junta postpones elections
nation once a symbol of democracy in
western Africa is at the centre of the
West’s fight against jihadist terrorism.
Militants have spread into neighbour-
ing Niger and Burkina Faso, and the
mayhem has killed more than 10,000
people in two years and forced two mil-
lion to flee their homes in the Sahel, the
vast, arid band south of the Sahara.
The failure by local and international
forces to quell the threat from the Isis
and al-Qaeda affiliates, and a souring of
relations between Mali’s leaders and
their former colonial power in Paris,
have created fresh opportunities for the
Kremlin to exert its influence. Russian
“trainers”, thought to be mercenaries
from the Wagner Group, recently land-
ed in Bamako, the Malian capital,
which has seen two coups in the past
two years.
The deployment drew demands from
Britain, France and other nations
involved in counter-insurgency opera-
tions that Russia “revert to a responsi-
ble and constructive behaviour in the
region”. UK troops arrived in Mali lastyear to join the world’s most dangerous
peacekeeping mission.
Wagner is a group of companies
linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, 60, a Rus-
sian billionaire and ally of President
Putin. Its fighters have been accused of
war crimes and rights violations in
Libya and the Central African Republic.
President Goita, 39, Mali’s military
leader, led the overthrow of Ibrahim
Boubacar Keita, 76, 18 months ago, with
a promise to return the country to civil-
ian rule after elections in February- However, in May last year he
grabbed power himself by forcing out
the interim civilian leadership and
derailing the election timetable.
The security situation worsened
after France announced in June that it
would halve its 5,000-strong military
presence. Sanctions were imposed on
the coup leaders by Ecowas, west
Africa’s main political and economic
bloc, over stalled elections, followed by
the United States cutting Mali from a
programme that gives duty-free trade
access to sub-Saharan African nations.
Mali
Jane Flanagan
South Korean
‘defects’ to
the North
South Korea
Didi Tang Beijing
A South Korean citizen has crossed the
border into North Korea in an apparent
defection.
It is unusual for anyone from the
south to flee to the north. He or she cut
through a barbed-wire fence to enter
the demilitarised zone and evaded
detection despite a search by South
Korean troops.
“We have confirmed that the person
crossed the military demarcation line
at 10.40pm and defected to the north,”
said Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff.
It was unclear whether the defector
survived. Reports in South Korea said
Pyongyang has a shoot-to-kill policy as
part of tough border control measures
to keep out Covid-19.
South Korea sent a message to North
Korea yesterday to inquire about the
person’s safety but has not received a
response. “Due to geographical condi-
tions, including the mountain terrain,
we failed [to capture the person],” a
military official told reporters.
In July 2020 a North Korean defector
returned to the north from the south,
prompting Kim Jong-un, the north’s
leader, to declare a national emergency
and seal off a border town as the defec-
tor was suspected of having Covid.
Two months later, North Korean
troops shot dead a fisheries official from
the south who went missing at sea.
Pyongyang blamed antivirus rules and
apologised.
Only 229 North Koreans fled to the
south in 2020, compared with 1,047 in
2019 and 1,137 in 2018.
The number dropped further to 48 in
the first nine months of 2021, according
to South Korea’s unification ministry.Modi cuts off Oxfam’s funding lifeline
Oxfam India said that it would appeal
to the government “to ensure vulnera-
ble communities keep receiving the
support they need at this critical time”.
Foreign donations account for four-
fifths of Oxfam’s India budget. Amitabh
Behar, the organisation’s chief execu-
tive, said that the ban would “signifi-
cantly affect... crucial humanitarian
and social work”. The ministry gave no
explanation for the decision, he added.
Oxfam began operations in India in1951 but became independent of its
parent in 2008. It works in 16 states.
The Hindu nationalist government
was criticised on Christmas Day when
it announced that it was not extending
Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Char-
ity’s licence to receive outside funds.
The government said that it had “ad-
verse inputs” about the charity’s work
— believed to be a reference to allega-
tions that the nuns convert Indians to
Christianity, which the order denies.India
Penny MacRae
YOAN VALAT/EPA
PM quits as two killed
in fresh coup protests
Sudan Abdalla Hamdok, the
prime minister, said yesterday he
was resigning, six weeks after
being reinstated as part of an
agreement with the military.
Hamdok, who failed to name a
government as protests continued
against a military takeover in
October, said a round-table
discussion was needed to produce
a new agreement for Sudan’s
political transition to democracy.
It came hours after security
forces killed two people during
protests against military rule,
doctors said. This brought to 56
the death toll in protests since the
coup on October 25, the Central
Committee of Sudanese Doctors
claimed. (Reuters)Iran demands UN act
over general’s death
Iran The United Nations has been
urged by Iran to take formal
action against the United States
over the assassination of its top
general Qasem Soleimani in
drone strike two years ago today.
A letter from Tehran called on
the general assembly to use “all
legal initiatives in its power”. The
UN rapporteur for extrajudicial
killing concluded in 2020 that the
attack violated the UN charter.Seized alcohol barrels
are emptied into canal
Afghanistan About 3,000 litres of
alcohol seized during a raid in
Kabul has been poured away into
a canal. The country’s General
Directorate of Intelligence
released a video showing its
agents disposing of the liquor,
which was being stored in barrels.
Three alleged dealers were
arrested. Consuming alcohol was
banned even under the previous
western-backed regime. (AFP)Death of conservation
expert Richard Leakey
Kenya Richard Leakey, the
paleoanthropologist known for
his fossil-finding and
conservation work in his native
Kenya, has died at 77. The cause
of death was not given. Paula
Kahumbu, head of WildlifeDirect,
the group he founded, hailed him
as a man with a natural sense of
leadership, “old-fashioned but
straightforward”. (AP)
Obituary, page 42Third pro-democracy
news site closes down
Hong Kong An online news site
has said that it will close in light
of falling press freedoms. Citizen
News said: “We are helpless as we
are not only facing wind and rain,
but tornadoes and huge waves.” It
is the third news outlet to close in
recent months as the authorities
clamp down on dissent. Last week
seven reporters were arrested at a
separate pro-democracy online
publication. (AP)Mayor fights crime on
way to first day in job
United States The New York
mayor Eric Adams started his first
day in the role by breaking up a
fight on his commute. Adams, 61,
a former city police captain, saw
two men tussling near a subway
station on his way from Brooklyn
to City Hall and called 911. He
later pledged to tackle violent
crime at a press conference about
a police officer who was shot and
injured hours earlier. (AP)