World

The head of the Russian cultural centre in the Central African Republic was badly wounded Friday after opening a parcel bomb, Moscow’s embassy said, amid accusations France was behind the blast.

France denied the claim by the boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that Paris was involved and should be designated a state sponsor of terrorism.

Central Africa has been battling civil war since 2013 and is at the heart of Russia’s bid for strategic influence in Africa.

The last French troops deployed in CAR left on Thursday following a chill in relations caused by closer ties between Bangui and Moscow and the deployment of Russian forces, which some countries say includes Wagner mercenaries.

“The head of the Russia House (cultural centre) received an anonymous parcel on Friday, opened it and an explosion happened,” the embassy said, quoted by the official TASS news agency.

The centre’s head Dmitry Sytyi was hospitalised with “serious injuries,” it added.

“I have already requested the Russian foreign ministry to initiate the procedure to declare France a state sponsor of terrorism,” Prigozhin was quoted as saying in a statement released by his company, Concord.

He called for a “thorough investigation” into “the terrorist methods of France and its Western allies — the United States and others.”

France’s top diplomat on Friday denied Prigozhin’s claims.

“This information is false and is a good example of Russian propaganda and the fanciful imagination that sometimes characterises it,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told AFP during a visit to Morocco.

– ‘Son’s head’ –

Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said it was unclear if Sytyi would make it.

“Russian doctors are doing everything they can in the Bangui hospital to save him,” Prigozhin said.

Before losing consciousness, Prigozhin claimed Sytyi saw a note that allegedly said: “This is for you from all the French, the Russians will get out of Africa.”

Prigozhin said Sytyi first received a parcel from Togo on November 11. It contained a picture of his son residing in France and a note saying “next time he will receive his son’s head” if the Russians do not leave Africa.

Prigozhin said Sytyi opened a new package on Friday because he had thought it would contain his son’s head.

“If Dmitry Sytyi remains alive, he will continue the struggle and see with his own eyes how those who made the attempt on his life will burn in the flames of history,” Prigozhin added.

“If he dies, he will forever remain a symbol of this struggle.”

Russia’s RIA Novosti agency quoted a Russian diplomat saying Sytyi received the parcel at his home, away from the cultural centre. “He received it, took it into his house and opened it,” the diplomat said.

The centre in downtown Bangui remained open on Friday. No police presence could be seen around the building where traffic was normal, AFP reporters said.

France, the former colonial power, dispatched up to 1,600 troops to help stabilise CAR after a coup in 2013 unleashed a civil war along sectarian lines.

Over the last few years, friction has grown between the two nations over a mounting Russian military presence.

In 2018, Moscow sent instructors to the country, and in 2020 followed this with hundreds of paramilitaries to help President Faustin Archange Touadera defeat rebels advancing on the capital.

France, the UN and others say they are mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner group, who have been linked with atrocities and looting of resources.

Sanctioned by Washington and Brussels, Prigozhin has emerged as one of Putin’s most loyal lieutenants after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.

In November, the European Parliament recognised Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, accusing its forces of carrying out atrocities during its offensive in Ukraine.

A barrage of deadly Russian strikes battered Ukraine’s grid on Friday, worsening dire conditions for Ukrainians across the winter-worn country by knocking out water and electricity services in several regions.

The national energy provider warned Ukrainians already braving near freezing temperatures that it could take longer to restore electricity after dozens of Russian missiles targeted key infrastructure sites in the north, south and centre of the country.

“Priority will be given to critical infrastructure: hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities, sewage treatment plants,” Ukrenergo said in a statement Friday.

Residents of the capital wrapped in winter coats crammed into underground metro stations after air raid sirens rang out early Friday: the ninth wave of Russian aerial bombardments since October.

“I woke up, I saw a rocket in the sky,” Kyiv resident 25-year-old Lada Korovai said. “I saw it and understood that I have to go to the tube.”

“We live in this situation. It’s a war, it’s real war,” she told AFP.

The onslaught is the latest brought by Russian forces to target what Moscow says are military-linked facilities. The air assaults follow a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats for Russia.

– ‘Biggest’ missile attack of invasion –

Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, near the border with Russia, was left without electricity, its mayor said. Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv’s regional adminstration, said later they planned to have power restored by midnight.

The central cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk were also without power and regional officials in Kryvyi Rig, where Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was born, said the airstrikes had hit a residential building.

“A 64-year-old woman and a young couple died. Their little son still remains under the rubble of the house,” the region’s governor Valentyn Reznichenko said, adding that 13 more were injured.

Oleksandr Starukh, head of the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, which houses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, said more than a dozen Russian missiles had targeted territory under Ukrainian control.

Kyiv meanwhile “withstood one of the biggest missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. About 40 missiles were recorded in the capital’s airspace,” regional authorities said in a statement. 

Air-defence forces had shot down 37 of them, they added.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the water supply had been disrupted and that the metro had stopped running so people could shelter underground.

“Due to damage to the power system and emergency power outages, subway trains will not run until the end of the day today,” city officials later announced.

The Kyiv metro is a vital resource for the capital, which had a pre-war population of three million. It has been used as a city-wide bomb shelter since the Russian invasion.

– ‘Survive winter’ –

About half of Ukraine’s energy grid has been damaged in sustained attacks and the national provider warned Friday of emergency blackouts because of the “massive” wave of Russian attacks.

In Ukrainian-held Bakhmut — an eastern city at the epicentre of the war — some residents received wood stoves distributed by volunteers, AFP journalists said.

Bakhmut resident, 85-year-old Oleksandra was braving the cold to collect medication at a nearby pharmacy in the Donetsk region city.

“I’ll survive winter. I’ll just walk more to get warm,” the old woman told AFP. 

In the south, fresh Russian shelling in Kherson, recently recaptured by Ukraine, killed one person and wounded three more.

Kherson has been subjected to persistent Russian shelling since Moscow’s forces retreated in November and power was cut in the city earlier this week.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said a woman working as a paramedic for the Ukrainian Red Cross had been killed by Thursday’s strikes on Kherson.

Russian attacks overall killed 14 on Thursday, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said. 

In the Russian-controlled region of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, Moscow-installed officials said shelling from Kyiv’s forces had killed eight and wounded 23.

– Putin to visit Belarus –

“The enemy is conducting barbaric shelling of cities and districts of the republic,” the Russian-installed leader of Lugansk Leonid Pasechnik said on social media.

Moscow has said the strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure are a response to an explosion on the Kerch bridge connecting the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The Kremlin has said it holds Kyiv ultimately responsible for the humanitarian impact of the strikes for refusing to capitulate to Russian negotiation terms.

But Ukrainian defence officials said this week that its forces had shot down a swarm of more than a dozen Iranian-made attack drones launched at Kyiv, a sign that Western-supplied systems are having an impact.

Separately on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he will visit Belarus next week for talks with his counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko.

Minsk said the pair would hold one-on-one talks as well as wider negotiations with their ministers on “Belarusian-Russian integration”. 

A group of Iranians reached the final day of a hunger strike on Friday while camped out in tents outside the Islamic republic’s consulate in Frankfurt in support of the protest movement back home.

Iran has been rocked by huge demonstrations since the September death in custody of Mahsa Amini, arrested for allegedly violating the country’s dress code for women.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested in the unrest, described by authorities as “riots”, prompting further protests in solidarity around the globe, including in Germany.

Outside the Islamic republic’s Frankfurt consulate, a group of Iranian demonstrators had camped out in tents in the freezing winter weather to show support for the protest movement.

Eight of them then decided to go on hunger strike, choosing only to drink water.

“I am motivated by the murder of young people, women — children — and all people who are fighting peacefully for their freedom,” Hossein Zandi, who had been on hunger strike for 13 days, told AFP.

“My goal is that this consulate should be closed,” added the 53-year-old.

Ehsan Abbasy, who had stopped eating 24 days earlier, said he was starting to feel the impact.

“My body has become very cold,” he said, trying to keep warm in front of a heater.

The protesters went on hunger strike for different periods of time, ranging from five to 24 days. 

They were supported by a network of volunteers from the local Iranian community and received daily medical check-ups to ensure their health was not in danger.

However, their hunger strike was finally due to come to an end on Friday.

One supporter, Fariba, said Iranians were rallying round to help each other “like a big family”.

“What has happened (in Iran) in the past three months has been unique during the past forty years,” said the 55-year-old, who only gave one name.

“We see real unity among Iranians.”

Several hundred Iranians also staged a demonstration outside the Frankfurt consulate Friday against the regime in Tehran, chanting and waving signs that read “Down with the oppressor”.

Since buying Twitter, Elon Musk has made radical changes that have sparked fears for the future of the platform, from firing half the staff to restoring ex-president Donald Trump’s account and suspending those of several journalists.

AFP looks back at a rollercoaster two months at the Silicon Valley giant.

– Enter Elon –

Musk, the world’s second-richest richest man and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, buys Twitter in late October for $44 billion after months of on-off negotiations.

“Let the good times roll,” he tweets after the deal is sealed on October 28. He becomes the sole director of the company after dissolving its corporate board.

– ‘Content moderation council’ –

In one of his first moves, the self-declared free speech absolutist announces he will form a “content moderation council”, in a nod to concerns that Twitter could become a free-for-all platform for disinformation and hate speech.

– Monthly charge –

On November 1, Musk announces the site will charge $8 per month to verify the accounts of celebrities and companies — a service that used to be free. But the November 6 launch of the Twitter Blue subscription plan goes awry. Musk is forced to suspend the move after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts alarm advertisers.

– Brands step back –

Top global companies, including General Mills and Volkswagen, suspend their advertising on Twitter on November 3 as they monitor the new direction the company will take.

– Massive layoffs –

On November 4, half of Twitter’s 7,500-strong staff are made redundant, sending shockwaves through Silicon Valley.

Musk tweets that “unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day”.

– Regulator’s ‘concern’-

The chaos draws a rare warning on November 10 from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US authority that oversees consumer safety.

“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” says an FTC spokesperson.

– Ultimatum to staff –

Musk delivers an ultimatum to Twitter staff on November 16, asking them to choose between being “extremely hardcore” and working long hours, or losing their jobs. He gives them a day to decide.

Large numbers of staff quit.

– Trump reinstated –

Musk reinstates the account of banned former president Donald Trump after conducting a poll of users, a narrow majority of whom support the move. 

A few days later he announces an “amnesty” for all banned Twitter accounts.

– ‘War’ with Apple – 

On November 29, Musk tweets that he is going “to war’ with Apple, claiming it has threatened to oust Twitter from its App Store. After meeting with Apple boss Tim Cook he later says the clash was a misunderstanding.

– Covid controversy  –

In late November, Twitter says it is no longer enforcing a policy of combatting Covid-19 disinformation. Musk had fiercely opposed Covid restrictions. Days later he is rapped by the White House for calling for President Joe Biden’s chief Covid adviser Anthony Fauci to be prosecuted.

– Kanye suspended –

Musk revises his promises of unfettered free speech after rapper Kanye West tweets a picture that appears to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David. His account is suspended for “incitement to violence”.

– Twitter Blue take two –

In mid-December Musk relaunches Twitter Blue. This time, Twitter conducts a review of the account before giving it the coveted blue check mark.

– Journalists’ accounts suspended –

On December 15, Twitter suspends the accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists, including reporters from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Musk accuses them of endangering his family through their reporting on Twitter’s shutdown of an account that tracked flights of his private jet. 

Media outlets criticise the move and says they are re-evaluating their use of Twitter.

EU threatens to sanction Twitter.

Gunfire killed a senior Jordanian officer and wounded two other police in the country’s south, where protesters have taken to the streets for days against rising fuel prices, authorities said on Friday.

Colonel Abdul Razzaq Dalabeh, the deputy police chief of Maan province, was shot in the head on Thursday while officers tried to “calm down riots” in the town of Al-Husseiniya, the Public Security Directorate said in a statement.

A separate PSD statement said an officer and a non-commissioned officer “were shot” under similar circumstances, also in Al-Husseiniya.

Several provinces in the south of Jordan have seen strikes by transport drivers over the past few days. Merchants closed their premises on Wednesday to also protest higher fuel costs.

In some areas demonstrators blocked roads with burning tyres or scuffled with security officers.

AFP correspondents saw armoured vehicles on the streets of Maan on Friday and said calm had been restored. In Al-Husseiniya, the remains of burned tyres could still be seen.

Forty-nine security force members have been injured and more than 150 security and private citizens’ vehicles attacked, PSD chief Major General Obaidullah al-Maaytah told reporters.

The PSD’s cybercrime unit said on Friday it suspended operations of the TikTok app inside the kingdom “after its misuse”, citing incitement to violence and “calls for chaos”.

Fuel prices in Jordan have nearly doubled compared with a year earlier, particularly the diesel used by trucks and buses, and kerosene for heating.

The government has proposed relief measures including financial aid for the most-affected families.

– ‘We’re not rioters’ –

Global crude prices are up over the past year, and the economic consequences of Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine increased economic pain for already-struggling people around the Arab world.

“Our demands are only reducing the price or cancelling taxes on fuel, effectively linking it to the global price,” one protester, Majed al-Sharari, told AFP.

He joined dozens of striking public transport drivers who stopped their buses at the side of the road in Maan. They raised banners that read, “Dignity strike.”

“We’re not calling for chaos, and we’re not rioters,” Sharari said, blaming the government for “the blood of the martyr.”

“The strike is peaceful and we are cooperating with the security services.”

Sharari, 56, complained that the protesters had been there for 15 days but no official had spoken with them.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told a press conference the government “is aware of the difficult living conditions and that coping with them is not easy,” but violence would only make things worse.

“This crime will not go unpunished, and the security services are working to arrest the perpetrator and bring him to justice as soon as possible,” Faraya said.

He added that government buildings and private institutions had been set on fire, car windows smashed, and 48 electricity poles toppled in Maan.

Energy costs have led to protests in Jordan before, including in 2018 when prime minister Hani Mulki resigned after several days of rallies against proposed tax reforms and energy price increases.

– In debt –

The United States, a close ally of Jordan, on Thursday said US government personnel had been restricted from both personal and official travel to the provinces of Karak, Tafilah, Maan, and Aqaba until further notice.

This was because of “reports of ongoing protests, burning tyres, and throwing stones at vehicles on streets and highways throughout Jordan and particularly in the south,” the US embassy in Jordan said.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II personally extended condolences to the family of the dead officer.

“We will not accept assaults on the members of our security forces,” a statement from his office quoted him as saying.

The king affirmed the citizens’ “right to express their opinions through peaceful means” over the economic conditions, but added “anyone who raises a weapon against the state will be dealt with firmly”.

The World Bank says Jordan is heavily in debt and faces around 23 percent unemployment.

The Hashemite kingdom relies extensively on foreign aid.

Buckingham Palace on Friday declared a reconciliation between Prince William’s godmother and a black British woman who was repeatedly asked where she was “really” from.

Sistah Space charity founder Ngozi Fulani was grilled at a palace reception on November 29 by Susan Hussey, who refused to accept that she was British.

After Fulani revealed the exchange, the 83-year-old Lady Hussey stepped down from her role as a household companion to Queen Consort Camilla, the wife to King Charles III.

Fulani and Hussey on Friday held a meeting at Buckingham Palace that royal officials said was “filled with warmth and understanding”.

Hussey offered her “sincere apologies” and pledged to learn more about the racial sensitivities involved, while Fulani accepted the apology “and appreciates that no malice was intended”.

Fulani, who works to help black survivors of domestic abuse, had received “the most appalling torrent of abuse on social media and elsewhere”, the palace noted, after she was forced to suspend her charity work to protect her clients and staff.

Charles, Camilla and other royals “are pleased that both parties have reached this welcome outcome”, the statement concluded.

There was no immediate comment from Fulani.

The row erupted in the days before William’s estranged brother Prince Harry and wife Meghan issued fresh allegations of racism in the family, in their Netflix documentary series.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who like Meghan is mixed race, rallied to the royals’ defence at the weekend.

He said there was no stronger supporter of a multicultural Britain than Charles, Harry’s father.

“And I think the royal family’s attitude to this country reflects the modern country that we see,” Cleverly told Sky News.

Russia is readying for a protracted war in Ukraine and Kyiv’s NATO backers must keep sending weapons until President Vladimir Putin realises he “cannot win on the battlefield”, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg told AFP on Friday.

Almost 10 months into Moscow’s invasion, Kyiv’s forces have inflicted a succession of defeats on the Kremlin that have seen swathes of territory liberated.

But NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg warned there was no sign Putin had “given up his overall goal of controlling Ukraine”.

“We should not underestimate Russia. Russia is planning for a long war,” Stoltenberg said in an interview. 

“We see that they are mobilising more forces, that they are willing to suffer also a lot of casualties, that they are trying to get access to more weapons and ammunition,” he added.

“We have to understand that President Putin is ready to be in this war for a long time and to launch new offensives.”

NATO allies, led by the United States, have sent billion of dollars of weaponry to Ukraine that have helped it turn the tables in the conflict and put Moscow on the back foot.

“Most likely this war will end at the negotiating table, as most wars do,” Stoltenberg said, insisting any solution should ensure “Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent nation.

“The fastest way to achieve that is to support them militarily so President Putin understands that he cannot win on the battlefield but has to sit down and negotiate in good faith.”

– ‘Ramping up production’ –

In response to its setbacks on the battlefield, Moscow has unleashed waves of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure.

US reports say Washington is finalising plans to send its most advanced Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine to add to other Western air-defence systems provided to Kyiv.

Stoltenberg said there was a “discussion going on” about delivering Patriots, but pointed out that NATO allies had to make sure there was enough ammunition and spare parts to keep weapons sent so far working.

“We have a dialogue among allies on additional systems, but it becomes more and more important to ensure that all the systems that are delivered are functional.”

Ukraine’s demands for more weapons and a huge flow of ammunition have drained the stockpiles of NATO members and sparked fears the alliance’s defence industries may not be able to produce enough.

“We are ramping up production to do exactly that: to be able both to replenish our own stocks for deterrence and defence, and to continue to provide support to Ukraine for the long haul,” Stoltenberg said. 

In the short term, that means more shifts at factories to maximise output and over time bolstering joint purchases of weapons and giving industry “long-term demand signals so they can invest more,” he said.

– ‘Pivotal moment’ –

Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been a seismic shock for the West. 

It has forced NATO to carry out its biggest adaptation since the end of the Cold War by massively bolstering its eastern flank and it has seen Finland and Sweden push to enter the alliance.

“This is the most dangerous security crisis we have been in in Europe since the Second World War,” Stoltenberg said. 

“This is a pivotal moment for security.”

Stoltenberg said that while there had been a drop-off recently in nuclear threats from Putin, the alliance remained “vigilant and will constantly monitor what they do.

“Nuclear rhetoric in reference to potential use of nuclear weapons is reckless, is dangerous,” the NATO chief said. 

“His aim is of course to deter us from supporting Ukraine, but he will not succeed in doing that.”

Stoltenberg’s current term as NATO head is set to expire towards the end of 2023, after allied leaders in March extended his tenure for an extra year because of the war raging in Ukraine. 

The former Norwegian prime minister, 63, remained non-committal on whether he would definitely leave the post next year, saying only “I have no other plans”.

He would not be drawn on calls from some for a woman to succeed him as NATO’s first female secretary general. 

“My focus is on fulfilling my responsibilities as secretary general of NATO in a way that ensures that this alliance continues to stand together,” he said. 

“That’s my only focus and then I leave it to the heads of state and government to decide what happens after my term.”