World

Chinese and Nigerien workers haul giant steel pipes over mounds of earth as heavily armed soldiers keep guard.

At Gaya in southwest Niger, near the border with Benin, the longest oil pipeline in Africa is being built. 

With a projected length of nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) — including 1,250 km in Niger itself — the pipeline will connect oil wells in the eastern region of Agadem, a zone troubled by deadly jihadist incursions, with the Beninese port of Seme.

Climate campaigners are clamouring for an end to investment in carbon-spewing fossil fuels.

But in Niger — the poorest country in the world according to the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index — this project is seen as an economic lifeline.

The landlocked West African state became an oil producer in 2011. The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), exploiting the reserves, has been sending oil by pipeline to refineries in Zinder in south-central Niger.

For exports, Niger initially planned to ship crude through the Cameroonian port of Kribi via neighbouring Chad.

It eventually opted for the “Beninese corridor” terminating on the northern rim of the Gulf of Guinea.

Launched in 2019, the project was supposed to be completed in 2022, but the Covid-19 pandemic slowed it down, said Nafiou Issaka, deputy general manager of the West African Oil Pipeline Company (WAPCO).

More than 600 km of pipeline has already been laid, and Niger is on track to sell crude on the international market from next July, according to the ministry of petroleum and energy.

More than 700 soldiers have been deployed to ensure security for the project, though a large part of the territory it crosses has so far been spared from jihadist violence, according to a security source who asked not to be named.

– ‘Niger’s biggest investment’ –

Niger has long been a major producer of uranium, ranked in global 7th place in 2021 with a total output of 2,248 tonnes, after a year-over-year decline in the past decade, according to the World Nuclear Association.

But uranium revenues continue to fall and the country’s leaders are banking on oil to boost the national budget, much of which is devoted to the fight against jihadists in the southeast and the west.

Six billion dollars will be invested in the pipeline.

“It is Niger’s biggest investment since independence” from France in 1960, said Kabirou Zakari, who heads the ministry’s oil refining division.

From 2023, oil production should be increased to 110,000 barrels per day, of which 90,000 barrels will be exported, Zakari told AFP.

Oil could then “generate a quarter of the country’s GDP” — more than 13.6 billion dollars in 2020 according to the World Bank — and “about 50 percent of Niger’s tax revenue”, compared to four percent and 19 percent respectively today, added Zakari.

He estimated Niger’s oil reserves at around two billion barrels. According to official projections, Niger will produce 200,000 barrels per day in 2026.

– Fuel smuggling –

The Algerian oil company Sonatrach has announced an “encouraging” discovery of oil in Kafra, a vast area of 23,737 square kilometres (9,165 square miles) on the border with Algeria.

The British company Savannah Energy, a major player in the gas industry in neighbouring Nigeria, says it too has found deposits in the Agadem region, where the Chinese are already operating.

A black market for oil products is flourishing in the capital Niamey and in other big cities. A litre of petrol (gasoline) exchanges hands for 300 FCFA (40 US cents), just under half of the price at the pump.

On Tuesday, Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum said fuel smuggling organised from neighbouring Nigeria had become a source of “supply for terrorists” and called for a crackdown.

Iran’s president Thursday accused arch-enemy the United States of seeking to destabilise the Islamic republic, which has been rocked by nearly a month of women-led protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

Outrage over the 22-year-old woman’s death, three days after she was arrested by Iran’s notorious morality police, has fuelled the biggest wave of street protests and violence seen in the country for almost three years.

Young women and schoolgirls have been at the forefront of the protests, shouting anti-government slogans, setting their headscarves ablaze and facing off with security forces in the streets.

Chants of “Woman, Life, Freedom”, the protest movement’s catchcry, were again heard overnight in the northwestern city of Bukan, where demonstrators burned the Iranian flag, in a video verified by AFP.

Iran’s ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi again blamed the United States, its bitter foe since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and chief adversary in a standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Following the failure of America in militarisation and sanctions, Washington and its allies have resorted to the failed policy of destabilisation,” he said.

Fresh protests were held on Thursday, with students gathered at Tehran University shouting insults at a security officer who pointed his gun at them, in online video footage verified by AFP.

Across town at Valiasr Square, a government billboard showing pictures of famous Iranian women all observing the hijab rule drew scorn as it featured some personalities known to be less supportive of the headscarf rule.

– Thousands detained –

Gunshots and tear gas were fired on Wednesday as security forces confronted protests in a crackdown that rights groups say has already claimed at least 108 lives.

New online videos showed members of the public confronting security forces as they sought to arrest demonstrators, at times forcing officers to run away.

In other footage verified by AFP, women are seen being beaten and chased by security forces in Rasht in Gilan province.

Some oil workers have gone on strike in support of the protests, and 12 from the Bushehr petrochemical plant were arrested as a result, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said Thursday.

Deadly unrest has rocked especially Sanandaj in Amini’s western home province of Kurdistan — but also Zahedan in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, where demonstrations erupted on September 30 over the reported rape of a teenage girl by a police commander.

HRANA charged that “the unregulated use of shotguns with pellets by law enforcement has resulted in the injury of many protesters”, including elderly people, teenagers or even children.

The US-based group said it had the names of at least 106 people slain by the security forces, and knew of another 11 dead who remained unidentified.

At least 94 more had been killed in Zahedan, one of the few Sunni-majority cities in predominantly Shiite Iran, HRANA said, adding that 20 security personnel had been killed, including six in Zahedan.

It said on Thursday that it “estimates 5,710 individuals have been arrested in #IranProtests2022” and added that the number is growing daily.

– ‘Deepening the divide’ –

Iranian judges have been issued orders against handing down soft sentences for people found to be the “main elements of riots”, the judiciary said.

In its widening crackdown, Iran has restricted internet access and blocked social media platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Washington, which has imposed new sanctions against Tehran over the crackdown, said it was taking steps to ensure Iranians would have online access.

“Iran’s continued violent crackdown on peaceful protestors is an affront to human rights,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

“I spoke with major US tech firms and urged them to… provide the Iranian people with additional services and communications tools.”

The clerical state’s bloody crackdown has drawn widespread condemnation.

“Continued repression is not the answer,” said Comfort Ero, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group think-tank, in a tweet.

“The government’s violent crackdown is only deepening the divide between a state that will not give in to demands for greater freedom, and a society that will not give up asking for them.”

An Iranian investigation found Amini had died on September 16 of a longstanding illness rather than reported beatings.

Her parents have denied this and filed a complaint against the officers involved. A cousin living in Iraq has told AFP she died of “a violent blow to the head”.

Ukraine could extradite Russian war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC) even though Moscow is not a member, the tribunal’s prosecutor said on Thursday.

Kyiv authorities could send Russians to the Hague-based court if trials could not take place in Ukraine for legal reasons, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, refused to join the ICC when the court was set up in 2002 to try people for offences including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

“Legally yes it wouldn’t represent an obstacle to our jurisdiction,” Khan told a press conference at the headquarters of the EU’s judicial agency, Eurojust.

“Certainly if there was a need… and there was a reason why those trials could not take place in Ukraine, whether it’s because of some legal additional provisions that we have or not, I am sure that we would get the cooperation from Ukraine,” he added.

The ICC opened its own probe into the war in Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded, but has said it is keen for Ukraine to bring suspects to justice where possible.

Khan would not say when the ICC expects to file its own first charges, saying he would wait until the “evidence is sufficient.”

“We are moving forward, we have focus, but I will make announcements at the right time,” he said.

Kyiv has already convicted 10 people over crimes committed during Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told the news conference.

It has indicted a total of 186 people, mostly in absentia, and filed court papers for 45 people.

Ukraine will meanwhile file war crimes charges over Russia’s bombardment of Kyiv and other cities this week, said Kostin.

“All of the hits of every missile, every drone, every damage of civil infrastructure, every Ukrainian who was killed or wounded by these missile attacks, all of them are documented and criminal proceedings were opened,” he said.

Ukraine’s allies have pledged more powerful air defence systems after days of devastating Russian attacks that President Vladimir Putin said were retaliation for a deadly explosion at a Crimean bridge. 

Several Western leaders have described the Russian strikes as a war crime.

Romania meanwhile said it had joined an international investigation team probing war crimes along with Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, along with Eurojust and the ICC.

Ukraine said Thursday it had reset its power grid after mass Russian strikes on energy facilities as Turkey held back on an expected offer to mediate talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

And in a sign that Ukraine’s counter-offensive was advancing in the south, the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region under Russia’s control asked Moscow for help to evacuate civilians from the area. 

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Ankara’s booming trade ties with Moscow during an in-person meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a summit of regional leaders in Kazakhstan.

But Erdogan did not deliver an offer to mediate negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv — expected by the Kremlin — and comments between the leaders made no mention of Ukraine and focussed instead on economic ties.

Putin during the meeting proposed to create a “gas hub” in Turkey as Russia’s supplies to Europe have been disrupted by Ukraine-related sanctions.

NATO member Turkey has sought to retain dialogue with its Western allies as well as Moscow, and has not joined sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Erdogan also refrained from commenting on mass Russian strikes on Ukraine earlier this week that mostly targeted energy infrastructure and left at least 20 dead. 

The attacks caused power and hot water cuts across the country, but the head of Ukraine’s energy operator Ukrenergo said Thursday that the power grid had “stabilised”, reassuring users emergency power cuts would be unneccessary.

– Rebels push to Bakhmut –

On the battlefield, Russian-backed separatist forces in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine said they had captured two villages near the industrial city of Bakhmut, posting small gains against Kyiv’s counteroffensive.

“A group of DNR and LNR troops — with fire support from the Russian Armed Forces — liberated Opytne and Ivangrad,” a statement released by separatist authorities said on Telegram, using acronyms for the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. 

The villages are located just south of Bakhmut, a wine-making and salt-mining city that used to be populated by some 70,000 people and which Russian forces have been pummelling for weeks to capture.

The reported gains after Ukrainian troops had for weeks been clawing back large swathes of territory in the south and east of Ukraine — including Donetsk — controlled by Russian forces for months.

The Ukrainian military countered in an update that it had repelled attacks near several frontline villages.

– Boy pulled from rubble –

Ukraine troops told AFP this week near the frontline south of Bakhmut that they were still outgunned by Russian artillery on their section of the frontline. Russian supply lines from the part of Donetsk occupied since 2014 are still intact. 

AFP reporters in Yampil just outside the recently liberated town of Lyman on Thursday heard heavy exchanges of artillery fire to the southeast. 

A Ukrainian soldier returning from the frontline said that positions in the village of Torske were under fire from Russian guns guided by spotter drones.

In the southern Kherson region, that Russia has claimed to have annexed, Ukraine forces have been clawing back territory for weeks.

The Moscow-appointed leader Vladimir Saldo suggested to residents that they “leave to other regions to protect themselves from missile strikes”.

Saldo said the region was being hit by an increasing number of rocket attacks that were causing “serious damage” and asked Russia to help organise the evacuations.

Also in the south, where Ukrainian forces have also announced sweeping gains over recent weeks, the town of Mykolaiv was again rocked by Russian bombardments.

The head of the city Oleksandr Sienkevych said on social media that a five-story residential building was hit, with two upper floors destroyed completely.

“An 11-year-old boy was recovered from under the rubble and another seven people may still be there,” he said, adding a security guard was killed at a sea rescue station.

The French government on Thursday ordered workers back to a second fuel depot in a bid to ease petrol shortages from a three-week strike, a move that infuriated unions hoping to amplify the conflict into a broader protest against President Emmanuel Macron.

Motorists across the country have faced long queues to fill tanks at stations that often run dry in a day, as six of France’s seven refineries have been shut down.

“I have to honour my contracts for cleaning homes. And when there’s no petrol and I have a lot of rounds to make, things get complicated,” said Elisabeth Mailhes, waiting at a station in the capital.

Macron acknowledged the mounting anger in a televised address Wednesday, promising that relief was in sight for next week.

The office of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Thursday the government was “counting on talks resuming in the coming hours between management and labour representatives”. 

But in the meantime, essential workers were told to return to work Thursday at the huge TotalEnergies fuel depot near Dunkirk, northern France, where around a dozen police were stationed outside, an AFP journalist saw.

Borne’s office cited a “real economic threat” for much of northern France, which relies heavily on agriculture, fishing and industry.

The strike has left 30 percent of service stations nationwide with little or no fuel, though nearly half of stations are impacted in northern France and the greater Paris region, the energy transition ministry said.

The CGT and FO unions leading the refineries strike have said they will fight the requisition orders in court, calling them an illegal manoeuvre against the right to labour action.

“This is the Macron dictatorship,” said Benjamin Tange, a CGT official at the Dunkirk site.

“What we’re seeing is the anger built up over several months and years, and a breakdown of any social dialogue,” he said. 

– Escalation of tensions feared –

The government had already requisitioned depot workers to return to the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery at Gravenchon-Port-Jerome in northern France on Wednesday.

In response, CGT and FO leaders planned to meet with other unions Thursday to discuss broadening the strike to other sectors, potentially with a mass walk-out next Tuesday.

The CGT is already pushing to extend the strike throughout the energy sector, potentially disrupting operations in the country’s all-important nuclear sector.

The refinery unions are seeking pay hikes in response to steep inflation, pointing to the massive profits of energy companies as gas and oil prices have soared during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, TotalEnergies told AFP it would propose a six percent raise for next year, below the CGT’s demand for an immediate 10 percent hike, retroactive to January 1.

“We’re not going to negotiate through the media,” responded Eric Sellini, the CGT coordinator at the company.

Government officials are pressing the companies to negotiate, fearing an escalation of tensions ahead of a nationwide march Sunday against inflation, organised by Macron’s left-wing opponents.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio that given TotalEnergies’ huge profits this year, it had “the capacity… and therefore an obligation” to raise workers’ pay.

In a sign that talks are making headway, striking workers at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Fos-sur-Mer, outside Marseille in the southeast, voted Thursday to lift the blockade after reaching a pay deal, unions and management told AFP.