Foreign News
Niger coup: Group drags ECOWAS to court over proposed military intervention
……Group drags ECOWAS to court over proposed military intervention
An International Civil Right Group, Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA) has dragged the Economic Community of West African (ECOWAS) to the bloc’s court over the proposed military intervention in Niger.
The group prayed the court to invoke ECOWAS protocols to stop the planned military action against Niger.
The suit was instituted on its behalf by a Nigerian lawyer, Kayode Ajulo.
The suit is marked ECW/CCJ/APP/3/23 said ECOWAS treaties prohibit aggression among member States
The group prayed the regional court to invoke relevant ECOWAS treaties and international laws to stop the military invasion of Niger.
The group said any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to aggression between ECOWAS member states.
The group in the suit said the planned military action or invasion would run foul of the obligations in the ECOWAS treaties and therefore amounting to illegality.
Read Also: Niger Coup: ECOWAS Leaders Meet Thursday, after Seven-day Ultimatum
Apart from EMA, other plaintiffs in the matter are a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of the Internal Affairs (NIIA), Prof Bola Akinterinwa and Hamza Dantani, a Northern Nigeria based lawyer
Defendants in the matters are the ECOWAS, Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, President of ECOWAS Mission, Federal Republic of Nigeria and Republic of Niger.
He said the military intervention would specifically violate Articles 1, 5, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22 and 24 of the African charter on human and peoples’ rights and others.
According to him, Article 22(2) of the protocol on the community court of justice mandates that when a dispute is brought before the court, member states shall refrain from any action likely to militate against its settlement.
A military group led by Gen. Abdourhamane Tchiani had on July 26 toppled the civilian and democratic government of President Mohammed Bazoun who has since been clamped into unlawful military detention.
NAN reports that the ECOWAS on Tuesday imposed fresh sanctions over the coup in Niger Republic.
The regional bloc had earlier given Niger junta seven days to reinstate President Bazoum or risk sanctions, including possible military action.
But the coupists called the bluff of ECOWAS and vowed to resist any foreign intervention on its soil.
It also severed ties with Nigeria, Togo, France and the U.S., and shut down Nigerien airspace indefinitely.
At the end of the ultimatum, the bloc scheduled a meeting for Thursday to review the situation in the West African nation.
NAN reports that President Bola Tinubu, the Chairman of the authority of Heads of state and Government of the ECOWAS, has vowed to do everything possible to reinstate the ousted Bazoum. (NAN)
……Group drags ECOWAS to court over military intervention
Foreign News
Microsoft Boss Warns of Meddling Ahead of U.S. Presidential Election
Brad Smith, the president of technology giant Microsoft has issued a stark warning regarding foreign attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.
“The most perilous moment will come, I think, 48 hours before the election,” Smith told a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday.
“That’s the lesson to be learned from, say, the Slovakian election last fall,” he added.
Smith said two days ahead of the parliamentary election vote in the European country “a Russian group” released and pushed, including by amplifying the story with a top Russian official, a deep fake audio purporting to reveal a vote-stealing plot.
“The Russian government is very capable, very sophisticated, not just in technology but in social science,” Smith said.
The Microsoft boss stressed that “there are real and serious threats,” including in the upcoming U.S. presidential election set to take place on Nov. 5.
The race for the White House may be between Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Democrats’ Kamala Harris, “but this is also becoming an election of Iran versus Trump and Russia versus Harris,” the Microsoft boss said.
“It is an election where Russia, Iran, and China are united with the common interest in discrediting democracy in the eyes of our voters,” Smith warned.
Just a few days ago, U.S. authorities exposed a Russian-sponsored campaign that deployed right-wing influencers.
Accounts masquerading as the websites of news outlets like conservative channel Fox News and newspaper The Washington Post posted fake stories.
On Wednesday, a Russian group published a video of Harris, manipulated with the help of artificial intelligence, in which words were put into her mouth that she never said, said Smith.
The administration in Washington has accused Russia of interfering in the U.S. presidential election campaign.
Similar accusations had been made in previous elections.
Smith testified alongside Meta’s Nick Clegg and Kent Walker, president and chief legal officer for Google’s Alphabet. (dpa/NAN)
Foreign News
Gaza: 6 UNRWA Staff Killed in Strikes on School
Six staff members with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees (UNRWA) were killed in Gaza on Wednesday when two Israeli airstrikes hit a school-turned-shelter and its surroundings.“This is the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident,” UNRWA said in a post on the social media platform, X.
At least 34 people were killed in the strikes, according to media reports. UNRWA said the shelter manager and other team members were among the victims. UN Secretary-General António Guterres deplored the bloodshed.“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he wrote on X.“These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”The UNRWA school in Nuseirat, located in the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip, was sheltering around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children.This marked the fifth time that it had been hit since the conflict began 11 months ago.Earlier on Wednesday the UN said the site had been previously deconflicted with the Israeli forces.UNRWA called on all parties to the conflict to never use schools or the areas around them for military or fighting purposes.“No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target,” the tweet said.UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini lamented the “endless and senseless killing, day after day” in Gaza.Writing on X, he said at least 220 agency staff have lost their lives since the war began.“Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war,” he said.He warned that “the longer impunity prevails, the more international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions will become irrelevant.”In a related development, the UN reported that health workers continue efforts to vaccinate young children in northern Gaza against polio, part of a wider campaign to defeat the disease, which can cause paralysis.More than 81,600 boys and girls were vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to preliminary data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).Polio was detected in Gaza in June and UN agencies and partners launched a two-round campaign this month to provide over 640,000 children with two doses of novel oral polio vaccine type 2.So far, nearly 528,000 children have been reached in the first round. (NAN)Foreign News
1 Dead, 10 Injured as Israel Strikes in Southern, Western Lebanon
An Israeli drone on Tuesday fired several missiles at a flat in a five-story building in the market town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.Eight people were injured, according to an initial toll announced by the Lebanese Health Ministry.It was not immediately clear whether there were any Hezbollah members were in the targeted building.
Earlier, an Israeli drone assassinated a Hezbollah fighter riding a motorbike on the Bab Mareaa-Saghbine road in Western Bekaa and wounded two passersby. Hezbollah said that one of its fighters, Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, was killed but did not specify where and when he was killed.The Israeli army confirmed it “struck and eliminated” the terrorist Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, who served as a Hezbollah Radwan Force commander, in the area of Qaraoun,It added that the Israeli artillery struck the areas of Sawaneh and Aita al-Shaab.Since the war began between Israel and the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas in Gaza last October, there have been clashes between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon in the border area.There have been casualties on both sides, most of them members of Hezbollah, which says it is acting in solidarity with Hamas. (dpa/NAN)