How did the war in the Sahel start?

The root causes of instability in the Sahel go back to the colonization of Africa, in particular the arbitrary establishment of borders by the colonizers, who did not take into account the distribution of the different ethnic groups.

However, the current conflicts are a direct consequence of the fifth Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali in 2012.. On January 17, 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) – which claims a territory of 822,000 km2 in northern Mali – attacked the Malian army. He had the help of fighters from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the forces of the Salafist group Ansar Dine.. At the request of the Malian army and with the agreement of the United Nations Security Council, France launched Operation Serval on January 11 in order to contain the Islamist threat.

Spain lent a C-130 Hercules aircraft from the Spanish Air Force with 50 support people on January 18, to help transport personnel from the International Support Mission to Mali. It later added a C-295 aircraft to help with troop movements in the country.

On February 18, 2013, the Council of the European Union established the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM Mali).. Its objective is to provide military training to the forces in Mali and to the armies of allied African countries, to enable them to carry out military operations to reduce the threat from terrorist groups.. Spain sent between 40 and 50 instructors for this purpose.

In 2014, Operation Barkhane replaced Operation Serval with more troops from the international community.

Who are the main armed groups today?

On one side are the rebels. They have carried out and continue to carry out attacks against civilians and soldiers on the ground.

On the allied side, in the front line are the armies of several African countries in the Sahel, such as Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania (the so-called “G5 Sahel”).

The French army was the first from a Western country to intervene in 2013, with the material support, and gradually with troops, from countries of the international community, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.

How many human losses are there so far?

The Malian army has suffered the most massive losses, with an estimated 1,500-2,000 soldiers killed between 2012 and 2022.. Between 2015 and 2020, Burkina Faso registered 436 dead soldiers. France has lost 59 soldiers in 10 years of conflict, and Spain mourns the death of Antonio Carrero Jiménez.

The different jihadist groups suffered casualties of at least 2,800 combatants between 2013 and 2022.

Among civilians, it is estimated that at least 11,000 people have died during these 10 years of conflict.

How is the situation today?

In Mali, the feeling grew that Barkhane's troops, especially the French, were not effective in countering the terrorist threat. The Malian government was willing to negotiate with the jihadist leaders. For this reason, Emmanuel Macron warned that the French troops would withdraw if the military junta came to negotiate. In the end, it was the entry of the Wagner group that accelerated the departure of the troops in 2022.. There are 1,500 French soldiers who were transferred from the Mali bases to the one in Niamey (Niger).

Following the July 26 coup in Niger, which follows that of Burkina Faso in 2022, the European Union has lost another valuable ally in the Sahel.

All eyes are now on Russia, which is seeking to extend its influence in Africa and has the support of public opinion in those countries.

The Sahel, one of the most underdeveloped, fragmented, corrupt and violent regions in the world, has never been an example of stability, but in recent weeks it seems to be slipping into the abyss of war. The current situation presents

The Police detained this Wednesday the security adviser to the Government of El Salvador, Alejandro Muyshondt, accused by the president himself, Nayib Bukele, of acting as a “double agent since 2019” for working for former president Mauricio Funes (2009- 2014), whom he “would have helped to evade justice and not be captured”, after he was investigated for illicit enrichment and fled to Nicaragua, where he has been since September 2016 after receiving asylum from the Daniel Ortega regime.

Specifically, the El Salvador Prosecutor's Office issued an arrest warrant against the security adviser for the crimes of disclosure of secret facts, actions or documents by an official employee and favoring evasion, for the benefit of Funes (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front). , for which it will be presented to the courts.

In his account of the social network X (formerly called Twitter), Bukele explained that the investigations of the State Intelligence Agency discovered that both Muyshondt and Funes leaked classified documents and “in several cases modified” to three journalists about the operations that were carried out. have been carried out in El Salvador since June 1 in the framework of the war against corruption that began that day and whose first action was the seizure of all the assets of former President Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994).

Thus, he indicated that Muyshondt's office, being from the security branch, was one of those that had access to a “small part” of the evidence that can prove the commission of crimes related to corruption.. In addition to revealing the information to journalists, according to Bukele, the adviser also leaked it to “a foreign government and several citizens of other countries, as a safe in case they were discovered.”

The Salvadoran president stressed that there is “direct evidence” indicating that a person from the State Intelligence Agency, an informant of former President Funes, “would have notified Muyshondt of the investigation,” for which the latter decided to leak evidence accusing the deputy Erick García, from Nuevas Ideas, Bukele's party. The president acknowledges that some of these tests are “conclusive” and others “required further investigation, such as the possible use of drugs acquired from a drug dealer known as Anubis.”

However, as detailed by the president, the security adviser decided to publish all the evidence against the deputy that he had helped to collect against him and threatened to publish all the other evidence in his possession from all the other cases to which had access, including “real ones, others still incomplete, others in the investigation process and other false ones that were intended to be implanted together with Funes, including edited audios and/or taken out of context, as well as false documents, in case of being prosecuted.”

Expulsion of a deputy

Faced with this situation, Nuevas Ideas also expelled the deputy from the party and canceled his candidacy for the February 2024 elections, after the Prosecutor's Office concluded that there was fraud in the public faith by García, while he was still they investigate the other crimes that could have been committed by this deputy and his substitute.

For now, Bukele stresses that the evidence is “sufficient” to prosecute the deputy for ideological falsehood, which is why Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado delivered a petition to the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday to withdraw his immunity so that he can be investigated for that crime.. The deputy himself had requested that the jurisdiction be withdrawn.

The arrest of Muyshondt and the expulsion of García were due to an altercation between them, after the security adviser published on his X account the screenshots of a supposed conversation between the deputy and a drug trafficker in which they talk about some packages that the legislator brought from Mexico. He also published images of plastic-lined barrels and two suspicious packages.. García denied that he was the one who sent those messages and denounced the security adviser for slanderous accusation, simulation of crime and coercion.. For his part, Muyshondt challenged him to remove the immunity of a deputy so that he could denounce him at the Prosecutor's Office.

The assassination of Fernando Villavicencio occurs only two years after the torture and execution suffered by the then president of Haiti Jovenel Moïse, victim of a conspiracy in which some twenty Colombian mercenaries led

The Ecuadorian Police points to a group of Colombians as the alleged perpetrators of the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. He died yesterday after being shot dead at the exit of an electoral rally in Quito.

According to police sources, the six arrested on suspicion of committing the crime and a seventh who died as a result of crossfire with the police have Colombian nationality.

Initially, the Ecuadorian Interior Minister, Juan Zapata, had limited himself to pointing out at a press conference that the six detainees were foreigners, without specifying their nationality, although he did identify them as Andrés M.. José L., Adey G., Camilo R., Jules C.. and JohnR.

The arrests occurred after a series of searches in homes in two neighborhoods of the Ecuadorian capital, where various weapons were found such as a rifle, a submachine gun, four pistols and three grenades.. Late on Thursday, a judge ordered the provisional detention of the six suspects.

To reinforce the investigation and clarify the crime, a delegation from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will arrive in Ecuador in the next few hours, at the request of the country's president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, after the US ambassador to Quito offered him “urgent investigative assistance.”

viral terror

While the arrests were being made, a video of unknown origin was going viral on social networks showing a large group of heavily armed, hooded men who declared themselves members of the criminal gang “Los Lobos” and who claimed responsibility for the murder of Villavicencio and They threatened another candidate: Jan Topic.

This was answered by another video, also viral and of unknown origin, where another group of men, dressed in white and with their faces uncovered, claimed in the same way to be members of “Los Lobos” and denied the attack on Villavicencio.

“Los Lobos” is one of the largest criminal gangs operating in Ecuador and the cause, along with others such as “Los Tiguerones” or “Los Choneros”, of the security crisis and the rise of violence, since according to the Government they are behind of the increase in intentional homicides that led the country to register a rate of 25.32 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, the highest figure in its history.

This situation made the campaign for these extraordinary elections in Ecuador revolve almost exclusively around the security problem and the threat of organized crime, mainly dedicated to drug trafficking and other crimes such as extortion and kidnapping.

Although the eight main candidates have promised to address the situation and reduce the violence, Villavicencio had repeatedly reiterated his intention to confront mafias such as drug trafficking, and for several weeks he had denounced death threats.

“My husband was assassinated because he was the only one who confronted the political mafias and drug traffickers in this country,” Villavicencio's wife, Verónica Sarauz, said Thursday on her X account (formerly Twitter).

Wake in Quito

Villavicencio's mortal remains were transferred around noon from the Legal Medicine Center where the autopsy was performed to a funeral home in the north of Quito where the body will be watched over by relatives, and initially on Friday it will be open to the public.

The attack also left at least nine injured, five of whom are in stable condition at the Women's Clinic, according to a statement from the medical center where Villavicencio also arrived “in a sudden condition” and where they failed to save his life.

The consternation of the murder of Villavicencio clouded the celebrations planned this Thursday in Ecuador to commemorate another year of the first cry for independence, which coincided with the first of the three days of national mourning decreed by the Government.

The Armed Forces began to deploy in the country to comply with the state of emergency declared by Lasso and the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified that the election process continues and hopes that the Construye movement, for which Villavicencio was running, can designate to a replacement.

However, Villavicencio's photo will continue on the ballot papers, which are already all printed, and Construye has asked for an international group to investigate the crime, as well as postponing next Sunday's candidate debate, which will be held seven days before the vote.

This morning there has been another attempt to attack Russia using drones. This is stated by the governor of Kursk, who has revealed that the Russian air forces have destroyed two drones that were approaching his city, according to Reuters.. These types of attacks have become commonplace in the war in Ukraine in recent days.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to advance in the war. This Thursday the daily report of Moscow assured that its forces are advancing towards the Kupiansk railway junction, in the Kharkov region, in the northeast of the country.. For this reason, the kyiv authorities had to give an order to evacuate the civilian population of the city and other nearby towns.. It is estimated that some 11,000 people, including 600 children, must leave that area as soon as possible.

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, spoke out this Thursday against the proposal to concession lithium slipped by senators from the right-wing parties Renovación Nacional (RN) and Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI), stressing that his administration will continue to promote the Strategy Nacional del Litio that contemplates the State as a leading actor in the production process of the so-called white gold and giving a relevant role to the private sector.

“I have read the position of some political sectors, mainly from the right, in order to eliminate the non-concessibility of lithium and I want to tell you that as long as I am president, lithium will belong to all Chilean men and women,” he said in a public act.

“Therefore, we will oppose this initiative, but positively promoting the National Lithium Strategy,” he added.

With US capital, lithium began to be exploited in Chile 30 years ago through a simple brine evaporation process, after being pumped and deposited in large pools at a rate of 2,000 liters per second; the mineral is obtained when 95% of the water present in the original substance is lost.

Despite the fact that there are more than 50 salt flats in the South American country, currently only one is exploited, the aforementioned Atacama, the largest in Chile and the third largest in the world.

There are only two companies in charge of exploiting Chilean lithium: Sociedad Química y Minera SQM, controlled by China's Tianqi and the son-in-law of former dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), Julio Ponce Lerou; and the American Albemarle.

According to the Autonomous Fiscal Council (CFA), in 2022 the State received more than 5,000 million dollars (about 4,553 million euros) for the exploitation of this mineral, equivalent to 1.6% of GDP.

In 2022 there were sales of lithium carbonate abroad for 7,763 million dollars, an increase of 777% compared to 2021, according to the Central Bank.

“I am returning to work after a few weeks of treatment,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, who just recovered from Covid, tells us by phone. He often recalls his country's European identity and his memories as a “child of Chernobyl”

Maria Dolhopova is 33 years old, and in 2021 she married Artem Verbovsky, two years her junior and senior lieutenant of the Azov regiment. From his mobile phone he shows the last messages they exchanged through Telegram in the most intense days of