Month: November 2019

A strong cyclone made landfall early Sunday in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people have moved to shelters across the low-lying delta nation’s vast coastal region.

Packing winds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 130 kph (80 mph), Cyclone Bulbul weakened when it started crossing Bangladesh’s southwestern coastal region, dumping incessant rains across the country. No casualties were reported immediately.

The weather office said the cyclone slammed ashore at Sagar Island in the southern part of India’s West Bengal state. Its path included the southwestern Khulna region, which has the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, which straddles the Bangladesh-India border.

Up to 1.8 million people were expected to be evacuated by Saturday evening, said Enamur Rahman, Bangladesh’s junior disaster management minister. More than 5,000 shelters had been prepared.

The weather office said coastal districts were likely to be inundated by storm surges of 1{-2 meters (5-7 feet) above normal tide because of the impact of the cyclone.

Several ships from Bangladesh’s navy and coast guard were kept ready in parts of the region for an emergency response, the TV station Independent reported.

The storm is also expected to impact parts of northeastern India, where precautions were being taken.

Rahman said the government suspended weekend leave for government officials in 13 coastal districts.

On Saturday, volunteers used loudspeakers to ask people to move to shelters in Chittagong and other regions, according to the Disaster Management Ministry. In the Cox’s Bazar coastal district, tourists were alerted to stay in their hotels, while a few hundred visitors were stuck on Saint Martins Island.

Authorities suspended all activities in the country’s main seaports, including in Chittagong, which handles almost 80% of Bangladesh’s exports and imports. All vessels and fishing boats were told to stop operating.

Local authorities ordered school buildings and mosques to be used as shelters in addition to dedicated cyclone shelters — raised concrete buildings that have been built over the past decades.

Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, has a history of violent cyclones. But disaster preparedness programs in recent decades have upgraded the country’s capacity to deal with natural disasters, resulting in fewer casualties.

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Hong Kong protesters suggested they could hold rallies at a several major shopping malls on Sunday, a week after similar gatherings resulted in violent clashes with police.

Last weekend, anti-government protesters crowded into a shopping mall when a man slashed people with a knife and bit off part of the ear of a politician.

Several other gatherings are planned for elsewhere in the city, to protest against police behaviour and perceived meddling by Beijing in the politics of the Asian financial hub.

China denies interfering in Hong Kong, but the protests have become the worst political crisis in the former British colony since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Thousands of people gathered on Saturday night at a vigil for “martyrs”, after a student died in hospital this week following a high fall.
Though the vigil ended peacefully, many attendees called for revenge after the student’s death from injuries sustained during a protest.
Protesters have also called for a general strike on Monday and for people to block public transport, although when such calls have been made in the past they have come to nothing.

As they departed Saturday’s vigil, a number of people shouted “strike on Monday” and “see you on Monday.”

Scattered vigils on Friday night descended into chaos as some protesters vandalised metro stations and blocked streets.

Riot police responded with tear gas, pepper spray, and at least one round of live ammunition fired as a warning shot to protesters who had barricaded a street. 

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When a coal company contractor working under federal oversight used a backhoe to dig up one of the largest known Native American bison killing grounds and make way for mining, investigators concluded the damage on the Crow Indian Reservation broke federal law and would cost $10 million to repair, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Eight years later, Colorado-based Westmoreland Coal has not made the repairs and is still mining in the area, under an agreement with former Crow leaders that some tribal members said has caused more damage to a site considered hallowed ground.

The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a civil violation notice in the case last year, according to agency spokeswoman Genevieve Giaccardo. A Westmoreland executive said no penalty was involved. No charges were filed by federal prosecutors who investigated potential criminal violations.

Burton Pretty On Top, a 73-year-old tribal adviser and spiritual leader, and other Crow members said they were frustrated no one had been held accountable for “desecrating” the 2,000-year-old southeastern Montana site. It held countless bison bones and more than 3,300 stone tools and projectile points in an area known as Sarpy Creek.

“It was a shrine or temple to us,” Pretty On Top said. “We wanted to preserve the whole area … No amount of money in the world is enough to replace what has been lost here. The spirituality of our people has been broken.”

The mining company plans to repair the damage but has not reached agreement with the tribe and government on how that should be done, said Westmoreland executive Joe Micheletti.

Crow Chairman Alvin “A.J.” Not Afraid said the tribe, too, bears responsibility, for signing off when Westmoreland first proposed excavating the site a decade ago. The mine generates about $13 million to $15 million annually in revenue for the Crow, which makes up the bulk of the tribe’s budget, Not Afraid said.

“How can we hold them accountable when we approved them to do something?” he asked.

The large number of artifacts found suggest various tribes killed bison there for centuries before the Crow arrived — butchering animals for meat and turning the hides into clothing, according to experts who examined the site. The number of bison bones found makes it the largest kill site of its time ever discovered, said Lawrence Todd, an archaeologist from Colorado State University who participated in the investigation.

“The magnitude of the destruction done there, from the perspective of the archaeology of the northwest Plains, is probably unprecedented,” Todd said.

Since the investigation, Westmoreland has mined around the killing ground while avoiding the massive “bonebed” of more than 2,000 bison.

Tribal officials and archaeologists said the company compounded the original damage by destroying nearby artifacts including teepee rings and the remnants of a sweat lodge. Pretty On Top said some of the bones excavated in 2011 were piled in a heap, with grass growing over it, when he recently visited.

The excavation was part of a cultural resources survey required under federal law before the mine could expand onto the reservation. The use of a backhoe instead of hand shovels saved the company money but largely destroyed the site, documents and interviews show.

A Crow cultural official later convicted in a corruption case oversaw the work. At least two Interior Department officials, took part in the decision to use the backhoe, according to the documents obtained by AP and interviews with investigators.

The agency, which must protect the tribe’s interests under federal law, declined to answer questions about its involvement.
Giaccardo said the matter was under litigation but would not provide details. Micheletti and tribal officials said they were unaware of any litigation.

Neither the company nor government would release the violation notice or the company’s repair plan.

“I’m not going to look in the rear-view mirror. We’re trying to go forward,” Micheletti said. “From our point of view, it’s pretty much all said and done and agreed to on what needs to happen there. The ruling basically concluded that there was no penalty…We did nothing wrong.”

Many bones and other artifacts that were excavated were put into off-site storage until a decision is made about what to do with them, he added. There are no plans to pay the tribe compensation.

Former Crow Chairman Darrin Old Coyote said the company originally planned to mine the entire area and warned the tribe that it would lose revenue if it avoided the killing ground. Old Coyote said that after the 2011 excavation work, his administration insisted on a buffer zone to protect the site from further damage.

Archaeological investigators brought in by federal prosecutors said the bison kill site’s potential scientific value was obvious long before the backhoe was used.

A preliminary survey in 2004 and 2005 revealed artifacts at the site and suggested more might lie beneath the ground. It was enough for it to be considered eligible for a historic designation and meant further damage had to be avoided, minimized or mitigated.

“The real culprits in this in my mind are the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of Surface mining. They should have said, `This site has to be avoided, period,”‘ said Martin McAllister with Archaeological Damage Investigation and Assessment, an archaeology firm that led the investigation.

In June 2010, after Westmoreland obtained approval from state and federal regulators to mine in the area, representatives of the company, tribe, BIA and Interior’s Office of Surface Mining gathered at the bison killing ground to decide what to do about the site.
To save on the high cost of excavating by hand — the accepted practice among archaeologists when working on high-value finds — they agreed to use “mass excavation with mechanical equipment,” according to records of the meeting.

The Crow tribal official at that meeting was Dale Old Horn, at the time director of the tribe’s Historic Preservation Office. He was later convicted in a corruption scheme in which preservation office staff who were supposed to be monitoring sites — including the bison killing grounds — took money from both the tribe and the companies they oversaw.

By the time the backhoe work was finished, enough soil, bones, artifacts and other material had been removed to fill more than 300 dump trucks, investigators determined.

Although the preliminary survey work was done under a permit, that permit expired in 2010 and was not renewed. That meant the backhoe excavation violated the federal Archaeological Resource Protection Act, investigators concluded.

In their 2013 damage assessment, they called the loss of archaeological information “incalculable” and said repairing it would cost $10.4 million.

“The damage that was present when we did the assessment has been amplified by having it just sit there since then — uncovered, unprotected and unanalyzed,” said Todd, the bison bonebed expert.

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Iran defended on Saturday its decision to block an U.N. inspector from a nuclear site last week.

A spokesman for Iran’s atomic agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said that the Iranian government “legally speaking” had done nothing wrong in stopping the female inspector from touring its Natanz nuclear facility on Oct. 28.

Iran alleges the inspector tested positive for suspected traces of explosive nitrates. The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has disputed the claim.

“The reason that this lady was denied entrance was that she was suspected of carrying some material,” said Kamlavandi, referring to the allegations.

He added that Iran was exercising its “rights” under its agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency when it revoked “her entrance and accreditation.”

It marked the first known instance of Iran blocking an inspector amid tensions over its collapsing nuclear deal with world powers. The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the deal over a year ago.

Kamalvandi said Iran hasn’t imposed any restriction on inspections.

“We welcome the inspections,” he said, while warning against using them for “sabotage and leaking information.”

State TV carried Kamalvandi’s remarks from the Fordo nuclear site where Iran Thursday injected uranium gas into centrifuges aimed at producing low-enriched uranium as fuel for nuclear power plants.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran was not supposed to enrich uranium at the site until 2030.

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Germany marked the 30th anniversary Saturday of the opening of the Berlin Wall, a pivotal moment in the events that brought down Communism in eastern Europe.

Leaders from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic attended a ceremony at Bernauer Strasse — where one of the last parts of the Berlin Wall remains — before placing roses in gaps in the once-fearsome barrier that divided the city for 28 years.

Axel Klausmeier, head of the Berlin Wall memorial site, recalled the images of delirious Berliners from East and West crying tears of joy as they hugged each other on the evening of Nov. 9, 1989.

Klausmeier paid tribute to the peaceful protesters in East Germany and neighboring Warsaw Pact countries who took to the streets demanding freedom and democracy, and to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of reforms.

The protests and a stream of people fleeing East Germany piled pressure on the country’s Communist government to open its borders to the West and ultimately end the nation’s post-war division.

Thirty years on, Germany has become the most powerful economic and political force on the continent, but there remain deep misgivings among some in the country about how the transition from socialism to capitalism was managed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged this in a recent interview with daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, saying that “with some things, where one might have thought that East and West would have aligned, one can see today that it might rather take half a century or more.”

Speaking at a memorial service in a small chapel near where the Wall once stood, Merkel commemorated those who were killed or imprisoned for trying to flee from East to West Germany and insisted that the fight for freedom worldwide isn’t over.

“The Berlin Wall, ladies and gentlemen, is history and it teaches us: No wall that keeps people out and restricts freedom is so high or so wide that it can’t be broken down,” she said.

Merkel also recalled that Nov. 9 remains a fraught date in German history, as it also marks the anniversary of the so-called Night of Broken Glass, an anti-Jewish pogrom in 1938 that foreshadowed the Nazi’s Holocaust.

Light installations, concerts and public debates were planned throughout the city and other parts of Germany to mark the fall of the Wall, including a concert at Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.
 

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Self-exiled Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy landed in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday after promising to return home to rally opponents of authoritarian ruler Hun Sen.

“Keep up the hope. We are on the right track,” Rainsy said on arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in a message to supporters. “Democracy will prevail. Democracy has prevailed in Malaysia. Democracy will prevail in Cambodia.”

Asked whether he planned to return to Cambodia he said: “I cannot say anything. I do not deny, I do not confirm.”

The veteran opposition figure had planned to return to Cambodia on Saturday, Independence Day, in what Prime Minister Hun Sen characterized as an attempted coup against his rule of more than three decades.

But Sam Rainsy was blocked from boarding a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok in Paris on Thursday. He and other leaders of his banned opposition party have said they want to return to Cambodia by crossing the land border with Thailand.

Malaysia has no border with Cambodia.

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Sam Rainsy’s Planned Return to Cambodia Sparks Fears of Political Violence

In August, he announced his planned return to Cambodia on Independence Day, Nov. 9, to be accompanied by Cambodia National Rescue Party colleagues

An official of Rainsy’s banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Thailand said that nobody would be returning Saturday.

“We will be returning as soon as possible,” Saory Pon, general secretary of the Cambodia National Rescue Party Overseas told Reuters, complaining that some party officials in Thailand had been harassed and followed by security services.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said that if Sam Rainsy did return he would face outstanding charges against him in court.

“If he comes to cause instability and chaos, we will destroy him,” he said.

Opposition activists arrested

Some 50 opposition activists have been arrested in recent weeks.

In Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, security forces patrolled in pickup trucks on Saturday, which marks Cambodia’s 66th anniversary of independence from France. On Sunday and Monday, Cambodia celebrates an annual water festival.

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Cambodia Fortifies Border Town Ahead of Sam Rainsy’s Possible Return 

Uneasy calm will welcome opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party members, if they are able to reach Poipet; mixed security forces have garrisoned the town in anticipation of exiled leader Sam Rainsy’s possible return

Police armed with assault rifles lined up at Cambodia’s Poipet border crossing with Thailand, where Sam Rainsy had said he planned to cross, pictures posted on Twitter by the independent Cambodian Center for Human Rights showed.

Rainsy, a founder of the CNRP, fled four years ago following a conviction for criminal defamation. He also faces a five-year sentence in a separate case. He says the charges were politically motivated.

The 70-year-old former finance minister, who usually sports large, rimmed spectacles, has been an opponent of Hun Sen since the 1990s. He also vowed to return home in 2015 in spite of threats to arrest him, but did not.

The CNRP’s leader, Kem Sokha, is under house arrest in Cambodia after being arrested more than two years ago and charged with treason ahead of a 2018 election that was condemned by Western countries as a farce.

Before Sam Rainsy’s failed attempt to fly to Thailand, Malaysia detained Mu Sochua, his party’s U.S.-based vice president, at an airport before releasing her 24 hours later along with two other Cambodian opposition leaders detained earlier.

“We will continue our journey home,” Mu Sochua said on Twitter Saturday morning. “9 November is marked in history as our struggle for democracy.”

Rights groups have accused Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand of detaining and returning critics of neighboring governments, even those with United Nations refugee status.

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Two Somali-American women who won local elections this week are calling for full participation of women in Somalia’s politics, peace and development efforts.

Voters on Tuesday elected Nadia Mohamed for an at-large seat in St. Louis Park, a western suburb of Minneapolis, in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, and chose Safiya Khalid to represent a ward in Lewiston, in the northeastern state of Maine.

Both ran as Democrats and will be the first Somali immigrants on their respective councils. Both also are 23 and are black, hijab-wearing Muslims.

The two new city council members are urging women in Somalia to follow their path.

“I was elected with respect being a woman, a young, a Muslim, and hijab-wearing. So that, I would like to see Somalia doing the same because a woman can do sometimes better what a man can do,” said Mohamed.

“I would like to send a call to Somali women in Somalia, saying that they can do whatever they want, regardless of the challenges they face from the men who hold the country’s politics in monopoly,” Khalid told VOA Somali.

In Somalia’s conservative society, women’s participation in politics has have traditionally been low, and a controversial topic.

Khadiijo Mohamed Dirie, Somalia’s minister of youth and sports, said the success of young Somali politicians in the United States and Europe is a reminder of how women can be empowered in Somali society.

Right now, she says, female politicians as young as Mohamed and Khalid would have zero chance of being elected to public office in Somalia.

“Women rarely envision a position of a higher political leadership in our male-dominated social system,” Dirie told VOA.  “Those who are successful in the U.S and Europe politics got an opportunity of living with a developed society in a political maturity.”

Somalia’s provisional constitution gives women 30 percent quota in both houses of the parliament.  However, women currently make up less than a quarter of parliamentarians.

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Lebanon’s national news agency says the country’s banks will be closed for two extra days over the weekend amid deepening turmoil and public anxiety over liquidity and sustained anti-government protests.
 
The National News Agency says the banks will be closed both on Saturday and Monday, along with the regular Sunday closure for the weekend.
 
The report says this will allow for the observation of the holiday celebrating Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, which is set for Monday in Lebanon.
 
Earlier, banks were closed for two weeks amid nationwide protests calling for the government to resign. After reopening last week, individual banks imposed irregular capital controls to protect deposits and prevent a run on the banks.

Lebanon is one of the world’s most heavily indebted countries.

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Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, and why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Refugee restart

The U.S. refugee program resumed this week, after more than a month delay while the White House and Congress faced off over a dramatic cut to the number of refugees who will be admitted in the coming year. The final result? Largely what the Trump administration wanted.

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US Restarts Refugee Program

The State Department reports 199 people from 13 countries traveled to the US on Tuesday, ending a pause in arrivals that lasted more than a month

Women take charge

If three’s a trend, then U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar started it — two Somali-American women won local elections in separate U.S. cities this week, both of whom — like Omar — came to the country as refugees.

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2 Somali Americans Elected to City Councils in US

Both are Democrats and also 23-year-old hijab-wearing Muslim women

UNRWA shakeup
 
The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees resigned during an internal investigation into how he was running the organization. Pierre Krähenbühl stepped down as UNRWA also faces a funding struggle following a cut to contributions from the United States last year.

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Head of UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees Resigns Amid Investigation

Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl resigned after being placed on administrative leave as misconduct allegations were investigated

Border wall breaches

People are cutting through Trump’s “virtually impenetrable” border wall, prying the metal rods enough to allow humans to pass through. These are parts of the barrier that replaced previous construction.

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Smugglers Cutting Through Trump’s ‘Virtually Impenetrable’ Border Wall  

Migrants entering US with help of hardware store saws

From the Feds

Polish nationals now have streamlined access to U.S. travel after being included in the Visa Waiver Program.

Two men were indicted this week in an alleged visa fraud ring that focused on South Koreans. More than 100 people paid the California-based suspects between $30,000 and $70,000 to come to the U.S., often with falsified documents.

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The U.S. House of Representatives has begun an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump over his efforts to push Ukraine to investigate a political rival. Many of the words and phrases used in the impeachment process are particular to U.S. law and clauses in the U.S. Constitution that govern the impeachment process. 
 
Here are some of the common terms used in an impeachment inquiry and what they mean: 
 
Articles of impeachment: A formal document listing the charges against an official and the reasons why that person should be removed from office. In the United States, the House of Representatives drafts the articles of impeachment, which are then voted on by all members of the House. If a majority of House members vote in favor, the official is impeached — essentially, the equivalent of an indictment — and the articles of impeachment move to the Senate, which then holds a trial. 
 
Bribery: The second offense listed in the Constitution as worthy of impeachment, following treason. Bribery takes place when one person gives something of value to someone in a position of authority in order to influence his or her actions. It often involves cash gifts, although the inducements need not be money and could include, gifts, services or favors.   

Censure: A formal statement of condemnation of a president, Cabinet member, judge or lawmaker passed by a chamber of Congress. Unlike impeachment, censure is not mentioned in the Constitution and would not trigger a trial and possible expulsion. Only one president has ever been censured: Andrew Jackson, by the Senate in 1834.   
  
Civil officers of the United States: The Constitution says that any civil officer of the United States is eligible for impeachment. Civil officers are officials in the U.S. government who are appointed to their positions and serve in any of the branches of government — executive, legislative or judicial. 
  
High crimes and misdemeanors: One of the categories of offenses listed in the Constitution worthy of impeachment. The framers of the Constitution did not define high crimes and misdemeanors, but the phrase has been interpreted to include both violations of criminal statues as well as noncriminal actions that are deemed an abuse of power. 
 
Impeachment: This refers to the U.S. House bringing charges against a government official for alleged wrongdoing. A common misconception is that impeachment means removal from office, but it is more akin to an indictment. If a majority of lawmakers in the House vote in favor of impeachment, the process then moves to the Senate, which holds a trial to determine whether to remove the official from office. 
 
Pardon: Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution grants the president the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” The question of whether a president can pardon himself was raised during the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. At the time, a Justice Department memo sent to President Richard Nixon said: “Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case,” the president cannot pardon himself. However, the Constitution does not expressly prevent a president from pardoning himself.   

Quid pro quo: The most literal translation of the Latin phrase is “something for something,” and in everyday terms it refers to an exchange of services or things of value. It has meaning in the legal system, finance and politics. It can describe perfectly legal transactions, but it can also apply to shady deals, where something improper or illegal is exchanged for something of value.    
 
Removal vs. disqualification: Once the impeachment proceedings move from the House to the Senate, a trial is held to determine whether to convict the defendant. If the Senate votes to convict, the defendant is removed from office. The Senate may then choose to vote to further punish the defendant by barring him or her from holding future federal office, known as disqualification. The Constitution states that removal and disqualification are the only punishments the Senate can issue. However, a defendant may also be subjected to punishment in regular state or federal courts. 
 
Standard vs. burden of proof: The Constitution says any officer of the executive or judicial branch can be removed from office for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”  However, it does not define “high crimes and misdemeanors.”  The determination is left to the members of the House and Senate. The Constitution also leaves it to lawmakers to determine whether there is enough evidence for impeachment. Unlike in criminal cases, there is no need for proof of misconduct “beyond a reasonable doubt.”   

Supermajority: The Constitution requires two-thirds of the Senate to vote to convict an official facing impeachment and removal from office.

Treason: The first offense listed in the Constitution as worthy of impeachment. It is also the only crime specifically defined in the Constitution, which states a person is guilty of treason if he or she goes to war against the United States or gives “aid or comfort” to an enemy. The Constitution says that no one can be convicted of treason “unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court.” 

U.S. Constitution: The document that defines the fundamentals of the government, laws and basic rights granted Americans. It was written in 1787 and ratified the next year by the 13 original states. 

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An 89-year-old Holocaust survivor in Italy has been placed under police protection after receiving hundreds of threats on social media.

Liliana Segre, who was sent to the Auschwitz death camp at age 13, has been receiving as many as 200 threats daily, many against her life. 

In response to the attacks, Segre, who is senator for life, called for the creation of a parliamentary committee to combat hate, racism and anti-Semitism. 

The motion was approved by Italy’s Parliament, even without the support of Italy’s right-wing parties, including former Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s Euroskeptic League Party and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

Since then, the attacks against Segre have amplified. 

The Milan-based Center of Contemporary Jewish Documents’ Observatory on Anti-Jewish Prejudice says anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise in Italy, particularly online. 

In the first nine months of this year, 190 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to the observatory, compared with 153 incidents for all of 2018, and 91 for all of 2017.

“An 89-year-old Holocaust survivor under guard symbolizes the danger that Jewish communities still face in Europe today,” Israel’s ambassador to Italy, Dror Eydar, tweeted Thursday.
 

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The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on a senior jihadist leader and preacher from Mali for his membership in Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaida affiliate active in the Sahel region of Africa. 
 
Amadou Kouffa led Mali’s Macina Liberation Front militant group before announcing its merger with JNIM and three other Islamist groups in March 2017. The U.S. State Department designated JNIM as a terrorist organization in September 2018. 
 
Since its formation, JNIM has targeted Malian and French troops, as well as U.N. peacekeepers. The group has been blamed for the deaths of more than 500 civilians and the kidnapping of dozens of others in attacks in the Sahel region, including the June 2017 attack at a resort frequented by Westerners outside Bamako, Mali, and the March 2018 attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 
 
“Earlier this year, Kouffa led an attack against the Malian army in which more than 20 soldiers were killed,” the State Department said in a statement. 
 
The State Department said the terrorist designation aims to deny Kouffa the resources to plan and carry out more terrorist attacks.  Among other consequences, it prohibits U.S. nationals from engaging in any transactions with him. 
 
“Today’s designation notifies the U.S. public and the international community that Amadou Kouffa has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism,” the department added. 
 
Who is Kouffa? 
 
A radical preacher from the central Malian town of Mopti, Kouffa has worked to exploit the rivalry between Muslim Fulanis and the Bambara ethnic group in the country to advance his agenda. In his messages to supporters, he has often called for rebuilding the 19th-century Massina Empire extending from Mali to Senegal and Nigeria. 
 
The French Defense Ministry and Malian army officials reported Kouffa killed in a French raid in Mali’s Mopti Region in November 2018. 
 
In February 2019, Kouffa reappeared in a 19-minute video in which  he mocked news of his demise and called on his supporters to continue targeting the Malian  and French military forces. 
 
France, the former colonial power in the region, has fought JNIM and other radical groups in Mali and other countries of the Sahel region for years. It intervened in Operation Serval in 2013 to help the Malian government push back against advancing Islamist militants from the north. The intervention has reportedly helped contain the jihadist threat but has failed to eliminate it. 
 
France’s Defense Ministry announced this week that its forces in Mali killed Ali Maychou last month. Maychou was second-in-command of JNIM, behind leader Iyad Ag Ghaly. 

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