It is this Tuesday, September 19, that the debates of the 78th UN General Assembly open in New York. While Africa, particularly in West Africa, has been experiencing repeated coups d’état for three years, which countries will be represented at this major annual meeting?
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Of all the new juntas in power, only the Guinean will be represented by its transitional president. For Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, this is the first major official international trip since the 2021 putsch. The head of state is expected to speak at the United Nations on Thursday, September 21. The opportunity, according to experts, to reassure partners on the conduct of the transition, while socio-political protests are growing in the country. He may say whether or not he keeps his promise to hold an election by the end of next year.
For Mali, Colonel Assimi Goïta has sent his essential Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, at a time when the UN Peacekeeping Mission is starting to pack up, on the orders of the Malian authorities. Burkina Faso, which has experienced two coups in eight months, will also be at the session by its Minister of Civil Service, Bassolma Bazié. For Gabon, which is preparing to appoint a new Parliament, General Brice Oligui Nguema has mandated its Prime Minister, Raymond Ndong Sima.
As for Niger, where elected president Mohamed Bazoum is still being held by the junta, General Adbourahamane Tiani and his emissaries do not seem to have been invited by the UN. Nothing is yet certain about the presence of a Nigerien representative in the General Assembly.
Some highly anticipated African speeches
Many African heads of state have just arrived in New York, reports our special correspondent Christophe Boisbouvier. Many face-to-face meetings are planned and numerous meetings, particularly on the Sahel, but there will also be some highly anticipated speeches from the UN platform.
One of the most prominent African heads of state at this general assembly will certainly be the Nigerian Bola Tinubu who currently chairs ECOWAS. His speech, which is expected this Tuesday evening at the UN, will perhaps shed light on Nigeria’s determination to carry out or not, with its neighbors, a military intervention against the putschists in Niger.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, it will be the turn of Congolese Félix Tshisekedi to speak at the UN and many want to know more about his timetable for withdrawing the Blue Helmets from MONUSCO.
Apart from the Guinean Colonel Doumbouya, and then this same Thursday, the Sudanese head of state, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan will also take the podium of the UN to try to isolate his rival, General Hemetti.
■ The French ambassador is still in Niger
It is not on an injunction that France will recall its ambassador to Niamey, declared this Monday, September 18 in New York Catherine Colonna, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in response to the coup authorities in Niger who wish to expel him.
Our ambassador is fine. I repeat that he is safe. That his situation, certainly, is not the most pleasant in the world and that it is not justified.
Catherine Colonna, French Minister of Foreign Affairs
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