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Analysts say Turkey is expected to come under pressure to remove its military from Libya when world leaders gather Wednesday at a conference in Berlin. The meeting will include discussions on elections and the withdrawal of foreign forces from the war-torn north African country.

The Berlin conference is the second international meeting organized by Germany and the United Nations. Discussions will focus on permanently ending the Libyan civil war, and laying the groundwork for December elections.

A key goal of the gathering is the creation of a framework for the withdrawal of all foreign fighters, something Aya Burweila, a visiting lecturer at the Hellenic National Defense College, says is key to restoring stability in the country.

“Good governance is very difficult to establish in Libya. There are arms everywhere, there are militias everywhere. So, the presence of foreign powers really undermines that. Libyans want them all out. They want a normal country. Most of all, they want elections at the end of the year,” Burweila said.

Turkey deployed hundreds of soldiers and thousands of Syrian fighters in support of the Libyan Government of National Accord in its battle against forces of Libya’s General Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by Russian and Sudanese mercenaries.

A cease-fire is now in force.

While backing calls for the removal of foreign troops, Ankara says its presence is legitimate because it was invited by the internationally recognized government.

But with conference attendees, including EU members and the United States calling for the removal of all foreign troops, and Turkey seeking to improve ties with its western allies, international relations professor Serhat Guvenc of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University says Ankara will likely acquiesce, at least in part.

“Turkey will probably eventually come to the terms. They will take those foreign fighters from Libya, the Syrian fighters, the Turkish proxies [out],” Guvenc said.

A U.S. Defense Department report last year said Turkey sent thousands of paid Syrian fighters to Libya. Burweila said the mercenaries are among the most destabilizing forces in Libya.

“These Syrian mercenaries, their behavior in Libya, [is] very much similar to [their actions in] northeast Syria: Looting, sexual assaults, violence. There is something very jarring to natives seeing foreign men with arms driving around their streets with no accountability,” Burweila said.

Ankara denies such claims of misconduct.

Turkey’s wider military presence is also expected to come under pressure. The Turkish military constructed an airbase and wants to establish a naval base in Libya, a plan opposed by Egypt and France, which are also represented at the Berlin conference.

But Guvenc said Ankara sees its Libyan military presence as having strategic importance.

“Turkey has to keep a foot in Africa. That air force base in al Watiya in Libya offers tremendous opportunities in that regard. So, probably, Turkey will bargain very hard to keep that base,” Guvenc said.

Analysts say the Berlin conference sees Ankara working to balance its strategic goals of improving ties with its Western allies while expanding its influence in Africa.

Source: Voice of America

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has visited war-weakened Burkina Faso to show solidarity with people who continue to welcome the displaced, despite grappling with their own insecurity, and said the world isn’t doing enough to help.

“The humanitarian crisis in the Sahel seems to me to be totally neglected. It is treated as being of little geopolitical importance,” Jolie told the Associated Press. “There’s a bias in the way we think about which countries and which people matter.”

While Burkina Faso has been battling a five-year Islamic insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State that’s killed thousands and displaced more than one million people, it is also hosting more than 22,000 refugees, the majority Malian.

As Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie marked World Refugee Day on Sunday in Burkina Faso’s Goudoubo refugee camp in the Sahel, where she finished a two-day visit. She spoke with the camp’s Malian refugees and internally displaced people in the nation’s hard-hit Center-North and Sahel regions.

After 20 years of work with the U.N. refugee agency, Jolie told the AP the increasing displacement meant the world was on a “terrifying trajectory towards instability”, and that governments had to do something about the conflicts driving the vast numbers of refugees.

“Compared to when I began working with UNHCR twenty years ago, it seems like governments have largely given up on diplomacy … countries which have the least are doing the most to support the refugees,” she said.

“The truth is we are not doing half of what we could and should … to enable refugees to return home, or to support host countries, like Burkina Faso, coping for years with a fraction of the humanitarian aid needed to provide basic support and protection,” Jolie said.

Malians began fleeing to Burkina Faso in 2012 after their lives were upended by an Islamic insurgency, where it took a French-led military intervention to regain power in several major towns. The fighting has since spread across the border to Burkina Faso, creating the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world. Last month Burkina Faso experienced its deadliest attack in years, when gunmen killed at least 132 civilians in Solhan village in the Sahel’s Yagha province, displacing thousands.

The increasing attacks are stretching the U.N.’s ability to respond to displaced people within the country as well as the refugees it’s hosting.

“Funding levels for the response are critically low and with growing numbers of people forced to flee … the gap is widening,” UNHCR representative in Burkina Faso Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde told the AP.

The attacks are also exacerbating problems for refugees who came to the country seeking security.

“We insisted on staying (in Burkina Faso), (but) we stay with fear. We are too scared,” said Fadimata Mohamed Ali Wallet, a Malian refugee living in the camp. “Today there is not a country where there isn’t a problem. This (terrorism) problem covers all of Africa,” she said.

Source: Voice of America

When the polls were supposed to close Monday in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, election workers said turnout was better than expected, and voting had been conducted safely. 

But crowds of people still queued, and closing time was extended for hours. Election organizers said logistical problems such as missing poll workers or ballots and bad weather were to blame.

Many people waited all day to cast their ballot in Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s first electoral contest. The vote is widely expected to solidify his rule, despite the beleaguered Tigray region’s nonparticipation and the postponement of several other regions’ votes for security reasons.

“This is, maybe not the last, but a very important chance to transform to democracy,” said Yeshiwas Assefa, chair of Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice, the main opposition party.

The ruling Prosperity Party is widely expected to win the election, but Assefa said the new parliament could be the most diverse in Ethiopian history, with opposition candidates expected to win some seats.

But his office counted more than 200 election irregularity complaints Monday, ranging from missing ballots to observers being intimidated at the polls.

Eden Hagos, a 27-year-old receptionist, arrived at the polls at 3 a.m. to line up to vote. By 6 p.m., she was exhausted and hungry, and unsure how much longer she could wait.

“It was supposed to be my first time voting, and I was so excited,” she said, in a crowded, wet garden where hundreds of people still queued Monday evening. “But now, I’m angry.”

Ruling party support

As the sun went down, some other voters said they would wait as long as it took.

Ayalew Gebremichael, a 43-year-old fitness instructor, said in previous elections, opposition parties were repressed, and voters were pressured.

“This is different,” he said as the line snaked around a building. “It is more free and fair than the others.”

Up a small hill and closer to the ballot boxes, Masho Ayele, 27, and a mother of two, wore a black coronavirus face mask and a pink knit hat. She had been at the polls since 6 a.m. to vote but said she planned to wait all night if necessary.

“In my opinion,” she said, “this election is going to change my life.”

Ayele said she supports the prime minister and believes the country is already getting stronger under his rule. The election itself, she said, is evidence the country is growing more free, with poll workers telling voters to choose as they wish.

“In the past elections, they told me who to vote for, and I was scared,” she explained. “I did what they said.”

Conflict in Tigray

But there will be no voting at all in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, which has been at war with the federal government for more than seven months.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced roughly 2 million. Civilians across the region have reported human rights abuses, like mass killings and rapes. The United Nations says 350,000 people are in danger of starving in a famine that is already under way.

At a traditional coffee shop in Addis Ababa, Habenyom Mekonen, a businessman from Tigray, said as a long-term resident, he can vote in the capital, but he refused to register.

“There is no party that represents us,” he explained.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) won local elections in Tigray last year in a ballot the federal government said was illegal. Then, after tensions deepened and war broke out, the government declared the TPLF a terrorist organization, making members ineligible to run, even if there was an election in Tigray.

Several other areas are postponing their votes until September, also because of conflicts, and in some cases, missing ballots.

Also missing are European Union observers who declined to attend after being denied permits to use their equipment in Ethiopia.

Analysts say if this election does, in fact, produce a more diverse government, achieving an enduring pluralistic democracy will take time.

“There are politicians who really believe in the electoral process,” said Kiya Tsegaye, a lawyer and political analyst. “There are also politicians who believe they can cling to power through shortcuts.”

Source: Voice of America