this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
184 points (97.9% liked)

World News

39173 readers
3407 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Eleven West African nations have agreed to commit troops to a military deployment aimed at restoring Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup, an official for the regional bloc said Friday after a defense ministers meeting.

top 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] fluxion 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hope they have a swift victory. No democracy is secure when someone can seize power without repercussions.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately, Mali and Burkina Faso (other military dictatorships in the area) said they would also get involved and back Niger's new military regime. If anything happens, it'll probably escalate into a regional war.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why did the coup occur? Do the citizens of Niger support the coup?

[–] lysol 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It has been reported that the Wagner group (Russia) supported the coup in some way. Russia does have an interest in getting African nations to support them instead of the West, so it would make sense.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

I could be wrong because I'm definitely not an expert here, but I don't think Wagner has been shown to be involved yet. The junta has asked for Wagner's help and Wagner has been active in several neighbouring countries, so they're absolutely not a million miles away, but it looks like the actual coup happened without them

[–] sirboozebum 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While Russia has an interest in weakening the regional power, France, Wagner doesn't appear to be involved.

The ousted President was going to fire the chief of the military and the Chief moved first.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let me get this right.

They're having trouble with Islamic extremists. The president fires the head of the military.

He then complains he has to launch a coup because of the military situation he has failed to resolve so hard he got fired.

He then decides, in his infinite wisdom, to suck up to a Nazi state-run PMC, as an African, because he thinks, what, liberal nations won't ally with military juntas if it makes them money?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mean Niger (and other West-African nations) have been exploited to hell and back by France (who's probably involved in the current military deployment). No wonder a new government would seek to ally with someone else instead, and I don't think China is in the coup business.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I have absolutely no doubt he plans to yell genuinely fair criticism of the French capitalist devils as he ruthlessly exploits his people in his fascist dictatorship.

[–] SuddenDownpour 7 points 1 year ago

If the citizens supported getting the president out, why not vote for it? Coups in democracies are almost always the instrument of those who cannot win elections.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here is a pretty good breakdown about the situation.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/Uw8VOxm-Ef0

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[–] FlyingSquid 15 points 1 year ago

I hope they succeed. Unfortunately, the people of Niger will suffer either way, but hopefully they will suffer less if the war is quick.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Everyday we inch closer to world war III, aren't we? There are military conflicts all over the world right now. You'd think people would chill out after surviving a global pandemic, but no, apparently not enough people die from pandemic, more must die from armed conflicts as well.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you think wwIII is going to start because the ECOWAS bloc is entering Niger I have good news for you- it’s not. I’m not sure I follow why multiple military conflicts prove wwIII is coming. The WWs were not an amalgamation of multiple small conflicts. They were larger theaters of war all interconnected, not disjointed like the Ukraine war, Yemeni conflict, and Niger coup are. You’re not really fear mongering, but your fears for the start of wwIII to be born out of any of the wars right now aside from the Ukraine one doesn’t make a lot of sense.

[–] SuddenDownpour 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Prior to WWII, there were a lot of different conflicts where most of the main actors in WWII were involved. Spanish civil war with the coupists supported by the nazis, Germany annexing Austria and Czechia, Russia trying to occupy Finland, Italy doing whatever the fuck Italy was doing... Of course, that doesn't mean that a world war is a necessary conclusion, but I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking it's a hint.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

All 3 smaller conflicts you just mentioned were all in Europe, and mostly (Spanish revolutionaries and nazis) were perpetrated by fascist. Again I don’t really see the similarity between the 1930s in Europe and the 2020s today. Maybe you could say the Yemeni war is similar to the Spanish civil war in that it’s a proxy conflict- though spains civil war didn’t last as long and had fewer foreign players.

The Japanese even had the anti-Comintern pact of 1936, the precursor to the tripartite pact, that really drew the lines of who was on what side. Again, aside from Russia and China bolstering relations I see almost no similarities between the conflicts happening now, and the Spanish civil war, the invasion Czechia and Austria, and the annexation of Finland. (Well I guess the last one is Russia invading it’s neighbor again, but no one would say wwII started because Russia invaded Finland).

[–] JJROKCZ 9 points 1 year ago

No one cares enough about sub-Saharan Africa for ww3 to start there. The only place I could see ww3 starting in Africa is if the Egyptian military leaves Africa to fuck with Israel again and Israel fires the big bomb