First Independent Mena Newspaper
An ECOWAS summit opened on Sunday (7 July), a day after the military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger signed a confederation treaty in the latest show of their shift away from traditional regional and Western allies. During a summit in the Niger’s capital of Niamey on Saturday (6 July), the three junta leaders […]
Oil and gas rich Nigeria has defeated Algeria and other competitors, after it was chosen as the host of the newly created Africa Energy Bank, worth $5 billion. In hosting the new lender, Nigeria will become “at the forefront of Africa’s energy future,” said Nigerian oil minister Heineken Lokpobiri. The new bank aims to address […]
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger announced the creation of a confederation that will bring the three nations under one institutional umbrella, in a decision that signals a no-return to the West African regional bloc, the ECOWAS. The leaders of the three countries announced the confederation decision at a summit in Niamey, accusing ECOWAS of taking […]
The key features of the Royal Initiative for the Atlantic took center stage at the 7th edition of the international conference “Morocco Today Forum” (MTF), organized on Friday, July 5 in Dakhla, under the high patronage of King Mohammed VI. The “Morocco Today Forum” was held under the theme: “Vision of a King: The Atlantic […]
Dozens of guests, many of them young people, at a wedding ceremony have been killed by a group of unidentified armed men in an attack on a village in central Mali that has been struggling with violence from extremist groups for over a decade. Unidentified armed men cut the throats of approximately 40 people in […]
The junta-leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are set to hold their first ever joint summit of the so-called ‘Alliance of Sahel States’ (AES) since seizing power in a series of coups in Niger’s capital Niamey this weekend. “Our country will be hosting on Saturday (6 July) the first summit of the AES heads […]
A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has sentenced 25 soldiers to death in a one-day trial on Wednesday (3 July) after finding them guilty of fleeing the enemy, violating orders, dissipation of war munitions and theft, among other charges. The Congolese army has been fighting the Rwanda-backed M23 insurgency in the […]
The East African Community (EAC) is considering the admission of Ethiopia and Djibouti into the bloc following the joining of Somalia, but experts warn regional leaders not to prioritize “expansion at the expense of addressing pressing internal issues and security concerns.” The admission of Ethiopia and Djibouti into the EAC could potentially create new opportunities […]
The 2025 African Cup of Nations will take place in Morocco from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026. The Atlas lions have been drawn in Group B alongside Gabon, Central Africa Republic, and Lesotho. Morocco 2025 Qualifiers Draw was held Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa. A total of 48 nations, including the four […]
The Multinational Joint Task Force in Lake Chad has stepped up operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State terrorists who escaped to Chad and Cameroon, the task force said. The task force has launched a major operation, dubbed Lake Sanity 2, to destroy all terrorist camps around Lake Chad. The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) […]