Diplomacy

North Korea has announced plans to close its embassy in Uganda, ending half a century of diplomatic presence in one of its oldest African allies. The move was announced on Monday, after a meeting between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and North Korean ambassador Jong Tong Hak. A statement from the …

Military leaders in Niger have demanded that the head of the United Nations diplomatic mission there leave the country within 72 hours, accusing the U.N. of excluding Niger from its General Assembly last month. The army officers who seized power in a coup in July did not have a representative …

American authorities have announced the resumption of the delivery of food aid to refugees in Ethiopia, after a five-month interruption. This comes after the authorities in Addis Ababa agreed to step away from distributing the supplies. Washington suspended aid in May – following a similar move by the UN – …

Kenya says it is confident the deployment of hundreds of its police to Haiti by January will end gang warfare there. Last year Haiti’s government appealed for help because of the spiralling gang violence. Gangs have largely overpowered the police and now control more than three-quarters of the capital. Initially …

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the return to Paris of the ambassador to Niamey and the withdrawal of French troops from Niger, but also the end of all military cooperation with the country. This comes as calls for the departure of the ambassador and French troops from this West …

Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted the North Korean president’s invitation to visit the Asian country, the official North Korean agency KCNA reported and later confirmed by the Kremlin. The invitation comes after a meeting between the two leaders in Russia. “Kim Jong-un courteously invited Putin to visit the DPRK (Democratic …

China assured this Wednesday that it had not implemented a ban on iPhone brand phones in its ministries. In Chinese ministries, employees can not only use Apple iPhones, but also “other foreign brand phones.” “China has no laws, regulations or directives that prohibit the purchase or use of foreign brand …

The Chinese government intends to play a “mediating role” in the political crisis in Niger, declared Jiang Feng, the Chinese ambassador to this country in an interview on Monday on Nigerien national television. “The Chinese government intends to play a role of good offices, of mediator, with total respect for …

Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, insisted on Thursday on the difference between the coups in Niger and Gabon, declaring that the elections in Gabon were marred by irregularities. “Naturally, military coups are not the solution but we must not forget that in Gabon there were elections full of …

Russia, Bamako’s ally, vetoed on Wednesday a UN Security Council resolution extending sanctions against Malians threatening peace in the country, which the Malian junta was demanding be lifted. The resolution which planned to extend for one year the sanctions regime put in place in 2017 against individuals endangering the 2015 …