Foreign Digest: Afghanistan, Mali and Niger and Migration

Afghanistan: A United Nations report last week found the Taliban militia regime of Afghanistan violates human rights with arrests, torture and denial of due process to prisoners. This facet of Taliban rule is only one aspect of its tyranny. The Taliban, who are not internationally recognized as the legitimate Afghan government, returned to power in 2021 after the disastrous Trump-Biden withdrawal of United States and allied forces who had been protecting the Afghan Government against the return to power of the Islamist, tyrannical Taliban who were state sponsors of terrorism. The U.S. had led an international coalition to overthrow the Taliban for harboring al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America, which killed a record nearly 3,000 people. Mali and Niger: The United Nations force for Mali, which was been aiding the State in the Sahel region of Africa since 2013 against Islamist terrorists, has gradually been withdrawing at the request of the Malian military junta. French forces, who had already been forced to withdraw, had been effective in aiding the former French colony, but U.N., Malian and Kremlin-backed Russian mercenaries have not. There have been multiple military coups against Malian governments regarded as ineffective against the violent jihadists, but attacks and casualties have increased and Islamists doubled the territory they control. Meanwhile, separatist Tuareg rebels have taken up arms again, claiming Malian forces have violated a deal; they had been allied with the Islamist terrorists before they and the terrorists turned on each other. There has been a similar result in Niger, one of three States in the Sahel that have suffered military coups because of perceived ineffectiveness against the Islamist rebels, and which then rejected Western military support, without any transition back to civilian rule or elections. France, the region’s former colonial ruer, and the United States maintain forces in Niger as a bastion in the fight against Islamist terrorism, but the Nigerien coup leaders have demanded French troops withdraw. Migration: Pope Francis on the Catholic Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees today emphasized the right to emigrate or not to be forced to, encouraged the saving of lives of migrants at sea, the welcoming of migrants with Christian love and through more legal channels for migration, and the fair sharing of the burden of providing for them while processing their claims, particularly noting the increased migration in the Mediterranean region. The Head of State of Vatican City and leader of the Holy See as Bishop of Rome dismissed the categorization of migration as an “invasion” or an “emergency,” which is used for anti-migrant propaganda against those fleeing persecution, war, disaster, or desperate economic circumstances for a better life.