Tensions
West African delegation ‘very hopeful’ after meeting Mali junta
A West African delegation visiting Mali to push for a speedy return to civilian rule following a coup said it was “very hopeful” on Saturday after meeting with the country’s military junta and the president it ousted. The head of the delegation from the regional Ecowas bloc, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said that detained Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was doing relatively well. “We saw him, he’s very fine,” said Jonathan, who had earlier met for half an hour with the soldiers who seized power on Tuesday, including new strongman Colonel Assimi Goita. Jonathan told AFP that negotiations were going well and he was “very hopeful”. Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after a mutiny on Tuesday, dealing another deep blow to a country already struggling with a b...
One dead in fresh Ivory Coast clashes over president’s re-election bid
vAt least one person was killed in clashes in Ivory Coast on Saturday in the latest violence sparked by President Alassane Ouattara’s controversial decision to run for a third term in October. The shooting death brings to four the number of people killed in the central town of Daoukro, a stronghold of former president Henri Konan Bedie, who is also a candidate in the election. Across Ivory Coast, at least six people have died and more than 100 have been injured in violence after Ouattara’s shock announcement. Tensions were high on Saturday in Daoukro, where clashes between supporters of Bedie and Ouattara began on Tuesday. The town’s main market and shops were closed and police were deployed all over. Armed with shotguns, clubs and machetes, young people from the village of Anoumabo rushed...
China takes over closed US consulate in Chengdu
The American flag was lowered at the US consulate in China’s Chengdu city on Monday and Chinese authorities entered the building, as Beijing carried out a Cold War-style retaliatory closure of the mission. Earlier in the morning state broadcaster, CCTV showed footage of the flag being lowered, after diplomatic tensions soared between the two powers with both alleging the other had endangered national security. Beijing later confirmed the consulate had closed at 10am (0200 GMT). “Afterwards, Chinese authorities entered through the front entrance and took it over,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Relations have deteriorated in recent weeks in an intensifying standoff, with the Chengdu mission Friday ordered to shut in retaliation for the forced closure of Beijing’s consulate in Hou...
