Friends and Enemies: Guinea-Bissau President Takes the Rocky Road
NEED TO KNOW
Friends and Enemies: Guinea-Bissau President Takes the Rocky Road
GUINEA-BISSAU
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) aims to promote economic integration and cooperation among a dozen countries, mainly along the continent’s Atlantic coast.
The president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, therefore garnered global headlines when he allegedly threatened a team of ECOWAS election officials who were trying to help him resolve a political dispute related to his decision to run for reelection.
The ECOWAS team “prepared a draft agreement on a roadmap for elections in 2025 and had started presenting it to the stakeholders for their consent,” wrote the BBC. But they “departed Bissau in the early morning of 1st March, following threats by Embaló to expel it.”
Voters in Bissau-Guinean were scheduled to choose a new president in November last year. Embaló postponed the vote, however, and rescheduled it to Nov. 30 this year.
Opposition leader Domingos Simões Pereira, meanwhile, says the president’s term should have expired in late February. To further complicate the situation, the country’s top court has extended his term to September 2025, Deutsche Welle wrote. Pereira’s African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde won parliamentary elections in 2023, but contend that the president has stopped them from forming a government.
Meanwhile, Embaló had also pledged to step down after his term expired. But then he backtracked earlier this month and said he would actually run again: “I will be a candidate in my own succession,” he said in March.
A former Portuguese colony, the country has experienced numerous coups since gaining independence in 1974. Embaló, a 52-year-old former army general, has survived two attempted coups since he took office in 2020. After an attempted overthrow in 2023, he dissolved the opposition-controlled parliament, saying it was doing nothing to improve security.
While he has outlasted his initial five-year mandate, Embaló technically can run for a second term, the Associated Press added. However, the opposition has pledged nationwide strikes to bring him down. “The current political climate is fraught with uncertainty, as the opposition’s actions and the government’s decisions could lead to significant instability in the region,” wrote Africa News.
With its monoculture agrarian economy – it’s one of the world’s leading producers of cashew nuts, accounting for much of its exports and providing a livelihood to about 80 percent of the population – the country is one of Africa’s poorest, heavily dependent on foreign assistance.
As a result, it’s looking to develop its mineral wealth.
Recently, Embaló visited Russia, Azerbaijan, and Hungary, Xinhua noted.
During Embaló’s visit to Moscow, Russian state television showed how Russian metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska attended the Bissau-Guinean president’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Reuters, a Russian aluminum company wants to construct a railway and port for bauxite mining operations in Guinea-Bissau.
The military will expect a share of the spoils, analysts say. But the country will continue on its potholed path.
“More of the same looks likely – a power vacuum, entrenched drug trafficking, lack of economic viability – this will keep Guinea-Bissau stuck in a vicious cycle, preventing progress,” wrote GIS, a think tank.
“Political volatility in Guinea-Bissau has deeper roots than electoral calendar machinations – it has an institutional and constitutional nature and is driven by the unresolved tensions regarding the powers of the president, the national assembly, and the judiciary – all playing out amid attempts to ‘presidentialize’ the regime,” it added. “However, the opposition to dictatorial tendencies will likely continue in the country, as will the sense of entitlement among the military elite.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Ground Down: Israelis Protest as New Fighting Erupts In Gaza, Lebanon
ISRAEL/ WEST BANK & GAZA
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated across the country over the weekend to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s removal of senior officials, and demanded action to free the remaining hostages from Oct. 7, even as new fighting broke out in Gaza and on the Lebanese border, Reuters reported.
The protests – now in their sixth consecutive day – intensified after Netanyahu’s cabinet on Sunday approved a no-confidence vote against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin called on her to resign, citing “substantial and prolonged differences of opinion” that he said obstructed the government’s ability to function. The attorney general – appointed under former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – has frequently clashed with Netanyahu and his officials, most recently over the legality of dismissing Ronen Bar, the chief of the internal security organization Shin Bet.
Bar’s removal – approved by the government last week – was suspended by the country’s supreme court pending a hearing early next month, according to CNN.
The dismissals of Baharav-Miara and Bar have fueled widespread anger, with critics accusing Netanyahu of undermining democratic institutions and weakening checks on executive power.
Protesters filled the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, carrying signs reading “Save Israeli democracy,” and calling for Netanyahu’s resignation. Many also joined marches organized by families of the 59 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza.
“All they want is power, and they are sacrificing the kidnapped and the values that the State of Israel was built on, that we value life and morality,” protester Sharon Huderland told Reuters.
Universities and public institutions also signaled a growing resistance to the government, with Hebrew University in Jerusalem warning it would suspend operations if the government ignores Supreme Court rulings on the dismissals.
Opposition leaders and legal analysts have accused Netanyahu of using the dismissals to shield himself from investigations, including a Shin Bet probe into alleged financial ties between his office and Qatar.
Netanyahu denied the allegations and described the investigation as politically motivated. He defended Bar’s dismissal as necessary for national security, adding that the official was being removed due to a “breakdown of trust” over the agency’s failure to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the conflict in Gaza.
The unrest comes as Israel intensified military operations in Gaza, resuming airstrikes that the Hamas-run Health Ministry says have killed more than 600 people since Tuesday, the Washington Post wrote.
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the military would permanently occupy parts of Gaza unless Hamas agreed to release all hostages, the BBC added.
Meanwhile, Israel launched a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing seven people, in retaliation for rockets fired from across the border.
The attack marked the largest escalation since the November ceasefire with Hezbollah.
In response, Hezbollah denied launching the rockets and accused Israel of using “false pretexts” to continue its attacks on Lebanon. The militant group said it remains committed to the ceasefire.
War By Inches: Sudanese Military Regains Control of Presidential Palace
SUDAN
Sudanese forces retook control of the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the military said this weekend, marking a major symbolic and strategic victory after nearly two years of brutal warfare that has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the country, the Washington Post reported.
On Friday, Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah, spokesperson for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), said army troops had “crushed” RSF fighters and reclaimed not only the Republican Palace – the prewar seat of government – but also key buildings including the Central Bank and the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service.
He announced Saturday that hundreds of RSF fighters were killed as they attempted to flee. The RSF has not commented on the military’s claims, but previously said its fighters remained near the palace and had attacked soldiers inside, according to the Associated Press.
Sudan erupted in civil war in April 2023 following a feud between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan of the SAF, and his deputy, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), head of the paramilitary RSF, a force formed from the Arab Janjaweed militia in western Darfur that killed thousands of people there in the 1980s.
The conflict initially began in Khartoum, but later spread into other regions, including Darfur. The RSF had seized the capital’s landmarks in the early days of the conflict in April 2023, but recent weeks have seen the army retake most of them.
The advance caps months of military gains in Khartoum and its surrounding cities of Omdurman and Bahri, with the army expected to now attempt to retake Khartoum International Airport – held by the RSF since the start of the war.
Analysts said the fall of the presidential palace is a blow to the RSF and comes just days after Hemedti made a rare appearance in a video urging fighters to hold the line.
But despite the military’s recent advancements, some analysts warned that the war is far from over and could turn into a protracted stalemate between the RSF based in the western Darfur region and the military-led government in the capital.
Volker Perthes, a former United Nations envoy to Sudan, told the Associated Press that the RSF is likely to withdraw to its strongholds in Darfur. The RSF continues to hold most of western Darfur and has surrounded the last SAF-held city there, Al Fashir, bombarding camps for displaced civilians with mortars and artillery.
The war has forced millions from their homes, collapsed government services, and plunged Sudan into what UNICEF describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Both sides have been accused of widespread abuses and war crimes, including mass rapes and ethnically targeted killings.
The US has accused the RSF of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, while also alleging that the SAF has obstructed aid deliveries in famine-hit areas.
The outgoing Biden administration imposed sanctions on both Burhan and Hemedti in January. Meanwhile, recent cuts by the Trump administration have eliminated support for grassroots-level humanitarian services, deepening the crisis in zones where major aid agencies cannot safely operate.
Ça Suffit: French Protest Rise of Far-Right
FRANCE
Tens of thousands of people rallied across France over the weekend to protest racism, the rise of far-right politics, and government policies on immigration, in nationwide demonstrations timed to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, France 24 reported.
More than 90,000 people participated in the demonstrations, according to the French Interior Ministry, which were held in dozens of cities including Paris, Marseille, and Lille.
The protests come amid growing concerns over France’s political shift to the right, with demonstrators criticizing the administration of President Emmanuel Macron for fostering an environment of intolerance and hate speech.
Protesters carried placards denouncing racism, Islamophobia, and the normalization of far-right ideas. Some signs read “Fascism is gangrene from Washington to Paris” and “Tesla is the new swastika,” Euronews noted.
Others held Palestinian flags and accused Macron of complicity in what they described as a “genocide” in Gaza.
In Paris, scuffles broke out between protesters and riot police, leaving three people injured and two others arrested.
The demonstrations also included criticism of US politics, with participants warning of authoritarian trends in both countries.
Far-left lawmakers and activists also participated in the protest and accused the French government of embracing far-right ideas, while warning of the growing popularity of the anti-immigrant National Rally party of Marine Le Pen.
Others expressed concern over the “global reactionary offensive” against minorities, including Muslims in France.
The rallies followed controversy sparked by a campaign image shared by the far-left France Unbowed party featuring right-wing media personality Cyril Hanouna, who was born into a Jewish family that had immigrated to France from Tunisia.
Critics accused the image of echoing antisemitic tropes, prompting party leaders to remove the post and admit it was a “mistake.”
DISCOVERIES
Lost, and Found
Recently, archeologists working near Luxor, Egypt found an ancient Egyptian royal tomb in an area usually reserved for aristocratic women.
But when they entered the burial chamber and saw a ceiling painted in blue with yellow stars and scenes from the ancient religious text, the Amduat – the kind of decoration normally exclusive to pharaohs’ tombs – they were confused.
Then they were stunned to realize what they found: One of the last missing royal tombs of the ancient Egyptian 18th dynasty – the burial place of King Thutmose II.
It was the first tomb of a royal pharaoh found in a century.
“The emotion … is just one of extraordinary bewilderment,” field director of the mission, Piers Litherland, told the BBC. “And when I came out, my wife was waiting outside and the only thing I could do was burst into tears.”
The discovery came about after a British-Egyptian team of archeologists headed by Litherland had been exploring the western wadis near Egypt’s Valley of the Kings for more than a decade when he discovered a staircase that led to the tomb.
It took months to clear flood debris from the corridor and gain access to the burial chamber, the archeologists having to crawl through a 32-foot-long passageway that had a small, 16-inch gap at the top while clearing away parts of the collapsed ceilings.
The team expected to find the crushed remains of a burial chamber but the tomb was empty. Litherland believes the tomb was deliberately evacuated of its contents because it was built beneath a waterfall, which flooded a few years after the burial, whereupon the contents are thought to have been moved to another tomb.
After sifting through the limestone at the burial site, they found fragments of alabaster jars inscribed with the names of Thutmose II and his more famous wife, Queen Hatshepsut – one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs, and one of the few women to rule outright.
Thutmose II is believed to have reigned from 1493 to 1479 BC and was an ancestor of the famous pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose tomb was found in 1922. These are the first artifacts found to be associated with Thutmose II’s burial.
Now, Litherland believes he has a rough idea of where the second tomb is, which could still be intact with the treasures from this tomb.
Archeologists believe this second tomb has been hiding in plain sight for 3,500 years, secretly buried beneath 100 feet (23 meters) of limestone flakes, rubble, ash, and mud plaster and made to look like part of the mountain.
“There are 23 meters of a pile of man-made layers sitting above a point in the landscape where we believe … there is a monument concealed beneath,” he told the Guardian. “The best candidate for what is hidden underneath this enormously expensive, in terms of effort, pile is the second tomb of Thutmose II.”
“You dream about such things,” he added, referring to the discovery of the Thutmose II tombs. “But like winning the lottery, you never believe it will happen to you.”