Mediterranean Migrant Shipwrecks: Accident or Mass-Murders

 

By Eze Eluchie,

 

Exactly 10 years ago today, early in the mornings of October 3^rd 2013, the world woke to the gut wrenching news that a ship with over 500 migrants aboard, which had taken off from the Libyan coast city of Misrata, headed for Italian port city of Lampedusa, had capsized, with majority of the passengers feared drowned. As dawn broke and the day got brighter, the magnitude of the disaster became evident to the ships that had hearkened to the distress calls, and soon enough the shock waves went global.

 

The migrant ship had totally sunk, 155 survivors had been rescued, and hundreds of corpses who had been ‘passengers’ on the now wrecked migrant ship, littered the Mediterranean (the Med). As the search and rescue operation gradually became a corpse recovery operation, it was discovered that hundreds of victims who had been in the hull of the ship, had gone down with the vessel. The total death count was officially stated to be ‘over 360’.

 

Barely eight days later, on the 11^th of October 2013, whilst the world was reeling from the shock of the 3^rd October 2013 shipwreck, yet another mass causality shipwreck occurred in the Med, within the territorial waters of Malta, leading to the death of over 130 migrants.

 

More in response to public concern at the horrific images of mass deaths that the media was projecting sequel to the twin sinking’s in the Med, the European Union adopted what can be described as a knee-jerk response, which was focused at preventing and discouraging migrants from embarking on the journey to Europe. The EU hurriedly raised budgets with which it supported the Navies and Coast Guards in the main take-off points of the migrants in their journey to Europe with speed boats and weapons (Tunisia and Libya) – essentially, facilities to forcefully stop emigration and or kill the intending migrants. The EU approach also included advocacy visits to the home countries from whence the migrants commenced their fatalistic journey’s to Europe, mainly in Sub-Sahara Africa and parts of the Asian subcontinent. In addition, the EU looked the other way whilst EU member States bordering the Med enacted vile and despicable laws which criminalized search and rescue efforts and assisting persons in distress at sea! Not even amongst animals who, as humans, we consider beneath our status, have such beastly evil as punishing saving lives been criminalized.   

 

Having equipped the border security officials in the North African countries of Libya and Tunisia, who are ordinarily vicious, intolerant and uncouth towards migrants, it was only expected that with such ‘greenlight’ and cooperation from supposedly democratic EU countries, an open cheque for mass atrocities had been issued, with an unspoken guarantee that the normal ‘human rights scrutiny’ expected from the major organizations who are ordinarily vociferous on matters of infringement on human rights.

 

Ever since, virtually no fortnight has passed without reports of the sinking, wreckage or disappearance of a migrant ship in the Mediterranean. In one dizzying spell of 5 days in the first week of August 2023, there was an astonishing officially recorded four migrant boat wrecks in the Med, on the Tunisia to Italy route, with 131 lives lost! Official figures in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 deaths on the Med per annum are touted only by those who, like the ostrich, opt to bury their heads in the sands. Estimated figures of fatalities are in the tens of thousands per annum. The idyllic Mediterranean which for centuries spawned countless visions of amity, trade and prosperity, has for many migrants and the families they left behind, turned into a graveyard of dreams for generations.   

 

Questions began to be raised as to what could be responsible for the increase in fatalities whilst crossing the Med. Some blamed it on the greed of the human traffickers who were willing to take greater risks for more profits, others attributed it to more turbulence in the Med due to climate change, yet others suggested that perhaps there now existed a new ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in the Med which was sucking in migrant boats. Plausible, but were those the reason? Are the waves in the Med now more violent than waves elsewhere? Did human traffickers suddenly become suicidal and no longer interested in raking in profits? Or were the EU efforts at preventing the arrival of migrants on mainland Europe now becoming more successful by virtue preventing and discouraging the arrivals of such migrants on EU soil – even if it meant torpedoing their vessels at sea and killing migrants in their thousands whilst also feigning to rescue them?

 

As more dead bodies of migrants begun to wash up on the shores of Libya, Tunisia and the southern shorelines of Europe, and reports of delayed or aborted rescue efforts of passengers aboard sinking vessels became normalized, it was clear that it would only be a matter of time before hard irrefutable evidence of some of the untoward practices in the Med would come to light.

 

Despite its repeated feeble, unsubstantiated denials, the role the Greek Coast Guard played in the sinking of the trawler which was transporting several hundred migrants (mostly of Pakistani extraction), from Libya to Italy proved to be a smoking gun episode. When the lies and denials by the Greeks couldn’t stand the science, evidence and testimonies of the survivors, silence enveloped prior efforts at denial. With just 104 survivors from this 14^th June 2023 shipwreck and over 500 migrants missing, the Greek Coast Guards had been caught pants down as main culprits in a mass atrocity that dwarfed the Lampedusa tragedy.

 

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the various mechanisms for addressing mass atrocities in Europe and even the Security Council of the United Nations, have acted as though the mass murder of 14^th June 2023 off the coast of Greece never occurred.

 

If any was in doubt as to State complicity in deaths in the Med, the migrant boat wreck off the coast of Libya sometime in the last week of September, 2023, cleared any such doubts. The video released by Sea-Watch International which showed Libyan Coast Guard vessel in a most brazen manner and despite warnings and being aware that observers were watching, crash into and torpedoed a migrant boat with several migrants on board. Soon thereafter, as can be seen on the video, another Libyan coast guard patrol vehicle, hypocritically, showed up and threw life vests at the migrants who could swim. Were it not for the heroic and expository video by Sea-Watch International, this despicable attempt at mass murder (using equipment supplied and staff trained by the EU), would have been passed off as a ‘heroic rescue of migrants’ by equipment supplied by the EU. Could this be how the other several instance of rescues by Navies and Coast Guards have played out?

 

How many of these mass murders have taken place in the past one week, or one month or over the years? How many migrants were killed when their boats were wrecked by navies or coast guards who were striving to uphold the EU policy to prevent and suppress migrants from getting to the coast of Europe, in keeping with EU policies? One cannot but help if a similar crime was what transpired on the coast of Lampedusa in 2013, and several other such episodes.

 

Has the world kept silent in the face of mass atrocities of genocidal proportions?

 

Are the crimes of mass murders of identifiable segments of populations not within the purview of the International Criminal Court to prosecute under the Rome Statues?

 

Is the Prosecutor of the ICC unaware of the crimes against humanity being perpetuated in the Mediterranean?

 

Should the EU not take responsibility for the consequences of some of her actions which has directly led to the commission of mass atrocities?

 

Are there better ways to address the migrant crisis?

 

….the answers to the above questions will be addressed here shortly.

 

 

 

Picture: The coffins of victims of the Lampedusa migrant ship disaster, 2013.

Coup Season II in Africa: Causes and where the next one will occur

 by Eze Eluchie

 

Despite being awash with vast deposits of mineral and natural resources, countries across Africa, particularly in the West and Central regions of the continent, have maintained near-permanent positions on the lowest rankings in global index for all negatives: ranging from the poorest countries, the highest unemployment levels, lowest life expectancies, highest infant mortality rates, highest illiteracy levels, widest income gaps, amongst other global parameters for gauging standard of living, strength of national economies and quality of lives of populations within any jurisdiction.

Whilst the vast majority of the populations in the various countries in these region eck out a living at subhuman levels, the individuals opportune to rule over the mineral rich countries in these regions are globally notorious for ostentatious lifestyles, junketing in state-of-the-art private jets and yacht, shopping at the most exquisite and exclusive of designer outlets, purchasing multi-million dollar mansions and making payment for all these purchases and lifestyles in raw cash, and generally portraying themselves as living life to the fullest

A vicious looting-cum-ruling class:

Those at the helm of affairs and their inner circle (which often times cuts across all sectors of society including identified cronies in the political, religious, and military settings), in the various countries in the region often times have no other means of livelihood except for access to the public till. In direct and real terms, these characters were merely robbing their countries dry and living large off the loot, whilst viciously emasculating and pauperizing the populations over whom they rule.

The socioeconomic situations in most countries in sub-Sahara Africa is simply not sustainable, akin to being perched on a keg of gunpowder – all it required was the slightest spark to ignite an explosion. As the populations became more aware of their sorrowful predicament in the hands of their rulers, the agitation for betterment in life conditions was met with more brutal suppression of rights and more frenzied approach to stealing of public resources, by a rulership which had become less attached to their populations, and more fixated on their ‘friendship’ with foreign powers, who they felt would always come to their aide, whenever.

Not bothered about the responsibilities of a State to its citizens, the plight of their citizens or to even treat their nationals like human beings, regimes across the region focused more on crippling national economies, undermining their populations and allowing their States to be plundered by foreign interests under the most dubious of international agreements. To conform with what they perceived were ‘international norms’, these kleptos who ruled over much of Africa deployed mechanisms to schedule a date when their local populations will ostensibly, ‘revalidate their mandate’, under supposedly ‘democratic elections’. The practice of democracy was reduced to the sham of having a date set aside for ‘elections. Democracy thus became a ruse vile dictatorial regimes adapted to mask their stench and present their foreign collaborators with a tool to obscure sordid realities from populations in the West. The fragrance of domestic and foreign election observers and monitors served to spice up the façade, providing on the one hand domestic collaborators, who for access to donor-grants, will validate electoral heists, and on the other, foreign adjudicators who will using the veiled threat of ability to rule an election ‘far below acceptable international democratic standards’, ensure that even where there was a ‘slip’, only outcomes favorable to Western powers were deemed acceptable.

Unfortunately, the judiciary, which in times past used to exude some semblance of independence, objectivity and competence, and was generally thought of as ‘the last hope of the common man’, acquiesced their noble role and joined in-bed, with the looting class, and repeatedly failed to uphold basic tenets of justice, constitutionalism and the rule of law in adjudicating over election disputes and efforts to tweak constitutional provisions to prolong the sufferings of the people – thus leaving the majority disillusioned, anxious and worried.

Continuing hemorrhage by former colonial overlords:

Visible foreign collaborators with the ruling echelon of these African countries, are the same colonial overlords from whom the African countries had gained ‘flag’ independence in the 60’s – mainly France and Britain. These two European countries continue to maintain, with support of an elite looting class to whom they had ‘relinquished’ political power, lecherous relationships which serve to impoverish the vast majority of the populations in the African countries, allowing vain perks to the looting class whilst the colonial overlords, through deft bilateral agreements retain stifling control over the assets of the African countries. The French are more brazen in their approach as they virtually control the economy, serve as Central Bank and maintain military bases in all their former colonies. The British on the other hand are suave about their overbearing control, as they impose stooges and operate more from behind the scene. They both, however, achieve the same insidious goal of neocolonialism which has dastardlier consequences for the citizens of the African countries than what transpired during the colonial era.

The real coups in Africa occurs when the looting class who man the various African countries discard Constitutional provisions guaranteeing people’s rights and those related to Presidential tenure limits, renege on State responsibilities towards the citizenry under the Social Contract theory and institutionalize bad governance, corruption and vendetta as cardinal principles of the State. The silence of regional, continental and international multi-State organizations to these aberrations which diminish the citizens of African countries, convinces Africans that alternate templates for liberation and development must be adapted.

 

Fed up with the pretense at democracy without any positive add-ons to the lives of the people, and denied of any meaningful path towards effecting necessary changes to the leadership of their countries via the ballot box, the emasculated populations are primed, ready and prepared to support any and all change in government!

Having effectively gauged the socioeconomic environment and the likelihood of mass support for a putsch, with public show of force in the form of motorized convoy of military hardware and troops taking over major parts of the national capital, staccato of bullets rendering the peace of night, and a terse broadcasts in local media announcing the sacking of the corrupt regimes, closure of all border entries and the airspace (pretending they have the capacity to monitor their national airspace), a group of soldiers readily step in: announcing oft rehashed condemnation of corruption and promising to right wrongs, better the lot of the citizens, and lead their country to Eldorado. The severely abused and maligned citizens of the African countries will readily troop out onto the streets to welcome their new found ‘messiahs’.

Coup Season II

In the course of the past 3 years, starting from 2020, sub-Sahara Africa seems to have cruised into a season of coups, with soldiers (renegade or patriotic, depending from which perspective one views the situation), with a rapidity that was last witnessed in the continent over 30 years ago, staging a total of 8 coups and counter coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Niger and now Gabon. The coups, with the sole exception of the coup in Sudan, occurred in countries which had continued to reel under the stranglehold and economic exploitation of France.

Blindsided by the rapidity of the collapse of its stooges in West Africa, France was left flatfooted with the swiftness with which it lost control of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, and the ridicule it was exposed to when its former victim-States ordered France to pull out the French military bases off their territories. Faced with the obvious economic collapse its loss of the freebies it raked in from outlandish exploitation of its colonial outposts, the French leadership delved into childish tantrums, threatening hell and brimstone when yet another coup occurred in its former territory, the Republic of Niger, from which France dubiously appropriated Uranium and Gold deposits. France realized the existential threat it would suffer if it lost the vice-like grip it had over a source from which she bolstered the Gold Reserve which found the French economy and the cheap uranium with which it lit up its homes and industries in France.

In desperation to ensure that Niger does not remain out of its grip, France reached out to known stooges, it had long propped up in Senegal and Cote D’Ivore, and a new lackey on the bloc whose very selection as President of Nigeria had come after a most dubious electoral heist that had further blighted Democracy as a reliable system of government in the estimation of Africans. The Nigerian ruler, in a stark display of his inexperience and novice status in international relations, acting on the behest of the former colonial overlords and using the auspices of the regional multinational body, ECOWAS, issued a one-week ultimatum to the coup leaders in Niger, to reinstate the deposed French stooge, or face military invasion by some ECOWAS member States.

Tinubu’s naivety & sour antecedents ups the stakes:

This unprecedented condescending acts of some sister-West Africa countries against Niger, backfired as it directly elicited patriotic fervor from Nigeriens, who thereafter trooped in their millions in support of their new Government. The position of the colonial overlords and their regional stooges masquerading under the ECOWAS tag was worsened when the Governments of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso vowed support for the Government in Niger and concretized their support by moving in troops and armaments in support of the new regime in Niger

The fact that the Nigerian ruler who was spearheading efforts at ‘restoring democracy’ in Niger was himself a product of electoral heist tantamount to a coup, and had not been able to stem the rising waves of banditry and extremist Islamist terror attacks in Nigeria, coupled with the desperation in former colonial overlords exhibited in their avowal to commit human and material resources towards the invasion of Niger, exposed a deeper non-altruistic and selfish coloration to efforts to deny a people who had, via a coup, eased themselves of the yoke of bad rulers.

Whilst the Niger coup was approaching boiling point with the declaration by France that it would neither recognize the authority of the new rulers in Niger and would not withdraw its Ambassador as requested by the new regime, thus setting the stage for a possible invasion of Niger by France, yet another group of military officers struck in Gabon, and sacked another dictator who was seeking to use the ruse of a ‘democratic elections’ to perpetuate his families’ chokehold on Gabon. A hold that had rendered the population of what ought to have been one of the richest countries in Africa, to destitution and backwardness.

If the Niger coup, set alarm bells ringing, the Gabon coup soon thereafter, pushed the bells to overdrive across the globe. Sit-tight dictators across Africa immediately embarked on mass sacks/retirement of senior Generals in their military’s and replacing same with trusted cronies, laboring under the illusion that with such cosmetic changes in the military, they will continue their vice hold over their population. Member States of the European Union likewise got quite started about the sudden loss of stooges who had served to assure Europe of extremely cheap sources of gas, crude oil and myriad other mineral resources. The EU leadership, sequel to the Gabon coup, immediately summoned a meeting of their Foreign and Defense Ministers to harmonize actions to confront the desire by African countries to be free.

The usual condemnation for coups in Africa, such as announcement of the suspension of the ‘erring State’, and measured sanctions were announced by the Africa Union, and other Heads-of-States Clubs, also known as sub-regional multinational organizations in Africa, were reeled out after each of the 8 coup thus far in the course of the past 3 years – all to no effect whatsoever.

Where the next coup will take place:

The reality which all must acquiesce to is that there is a new wave of decolonialization sweeping across Africa. The old order had terribly short-changed Africa, rendering the continent richest in mineral and natural resources, the poorest and most raped continent. Those who have benefited from the scam which has held Africa so backward over the past few decades, need only to realize that human beings with a quest for advancement and betterment of themselves, their environment and safeguarding their future, also inhabit the Africa continent.

As the Coup Season continues, it is likely to, like a tornado, gather more momentum and intensity as it barrels across the continent. Thus far, the soldiers who had executed putsches over the past 2 years have remarkably been non-violent. In some instances, such as the Republics of Niger and Gabon episodes, allowing the rulers they had deposed access to meetings with foreigners, meetings that had sustained unwarranted foreign interference and which could have truncated the putsches. Bets are ow being wagered as to where the next ouster of despotic regimes masquerading as democracies will occur. Some countries which, by virtue of the disconnect between the regimes in power and their populations, level of large scale corruption, viciousness of the regimes in dealing with their civil populations and other criterion to assess good governance, can rightly be predicted as eminently qualified for a change of guards include: Cameroon, Uganda, Senegal and Central African Republic. Others not too far behind include such territories as Nigeria, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire. Nigeria and Senegal have had very dubious election processes which led to imposition of unfits as rulers over very vibrant populations.

 

As the coup season unfolds, if coups were to take place in the aforelisted countries, the various international multi-State organizations (such as ECOWAS, AU, UN EU and others), which have not sufficiently urged for the adoption of good governance principles and the rule of law in the countries highlighted, will do their already depleted images before Africans a world of good, by refraining from the usual condemnations of coups and imposition of economic sanction, when and if the coups eventually occur.

 

The next few months before the Coup Season lapses would be quite interesting…..

Picture: Malians celebrate coup leaders the ouster of President Ibrahim Keita

France must respect Niger Republics sovereignty – an invasion would be against the so-called ‘Rule-based International Order’

 by Eze Eluchie,

 

It is preposterous that France has rejected orders from the defacto and dejure Government of the Republic of Niger to withdraw its Ambassador and diplomats by Sunday 27^th August 2023. This rejection is an affront to all norms and texts of international Law and the so-called rule based world order being championed by Western powers

 

Such rejection by France, leaves the leaders of Niger with no other option than to, at the end of the period to vacate, seek to arrest and deport from Niger, the said French Ambassador and other French diplomats in Niger. When it is realized that the French Ambassador will ordinarily have some French soldiers guarding him and his residence, there is all probability that confrontation may ensue.

 

The Emmanuel Macron regime in France has given the feeble excuse that it does not recognize the Government in control of Niger, claiming to still recognize the deposed Bazoum junta. President Macron must realize that, far and above France, the United Nations has already acknowledged the reality of the Government in Niger and is already obeying the instructions of the leaders of Niger – thus relegating France’s present stance as mere agent provocateur for conflict.

 

Under the false and deceptive pretext of ‘restoring democratically elected government of Bazoum’, a phrase used to mask a desperate desire to retain a stranglehold over the mineral resources of Niger, whilst ensuring that the people of Niger remain economically retarded and emasculated, the regime of Emmanuel Macron in France appears to be ready to invade Niger for economic and geopolitical reasons

 

If France under this pretext, send in her soldiers to invade Niger, all moral pretentiousness and rationale sustaining NATO support for Ukraine against Russia invasion will evaporate – reducing French and NATO involvement in Ukraine to a mere opportunistic frolic to undermine an adversary (Russia) without any regard for the cost of such endeavor on the peoples and territory of Ukraine.

 

It is hoped that France will refrain from levying an unjust and unproved war against the Government and people of Niger. Macron’s Government ought to obey the desire of the Niger Government and withdraw its Ambassador and diplomats from Niger.

 

 

Picture: President of Niger, Abdourahamane Tchiani and President of France, Emmanuel Macron