The United States began “as a precaution” to reposition its troops in Niger, the scene of a coup in late July, the Pentagon announced on Thursday, September 07, 2023.

The Department of Defense is “repositioning some of its personnel and assets from Air Base 101 in Niamey (the capital, ed.) to Air Base 201 in Agadez”, further north, a spokesman, Sabrina Singh, told the press.

“There is no immediate threat to our staff or violence on the ground,” she added, calling the decision a “precautionary measure”. Singh also said that “some non-essential staff and subcontractors” had left the country several weeks ago.

Soldiers toppled the President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, on 26 July and placed him and his family under house arrest at the presidential palace. The United States has some 1,100 soldiers stationed in Niger, operating against active jihadist groups.

On the evening of Wednesday, September 06, 2023, a muscular intervention by the New York police led to the arrest of a dozen Senegalese nationals, mainly street vendors. Reportedly, the police operation was triggered by the sale of counterfeit items, an illegal activity in the United States.

The US authorities also seized the subject goods, while legal proceedings were instituted against those involved. According to sources, the sale of counterfeit items is strictly prohibited in the United States, and the U.S. authorities take the suppression of this activity seriously.

However, this incident has elicited varying reactions from the Senegalese community in New York, with some expressing concern about the fate of those arrested, while others stress the need to respect local laws.

At this point, the New York police have not yet officially communicated on this case, and the exact circumstances of the police intervention remain to be clarified.

3 people aboard a canoe were rescued by the ship Guardamar Calìope. Two (2) lifeless bodies, one male and one female, were discovered upon arrival in the Canary Islands.

With a cut and a design more or less identical to those of a Senegalese boat, the boat was spotted in the south of Maspalomas. According to the rescue team, they arrived in Arguineguin at 5:05am in the Canary Islands on 25 July 2023.

As a reminder, at least 14 lifeless bodies were found after a pirogue capsized overnight from Sunday to Monday, July 24, 2023 off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, said Samba Kandji, deputy mayor of the Ouakam district and a source of the gendarmerie.

‘They are migrants a priori,’ said Mr Kandji. Gendarmes and firefighters are on the beach of Ouakam, a district of the Senegalese capital, and continue Monday morning rescue operations in search of other bodies.

“The navy forced the boat to dock and people fled. I was told 14 (dead) but then two bodies came out. It can be assumed that there were 16” deaths, Kandji said a few minutes later.

A wooden boat, on which migrants were found, according to several witnesses on the beach, floats on the water near the bank.

A firefighter assured anonymously that search operations had begun at 01:00 hours.

The migratory route of the Canary Islands, a gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean, has seen a marked increase in activity in recent weeks from the coasts of northwestern Africa.

Several tragedies have been recorded in the last two weeks. At least 13 migrants from around Dakar died in the sinking of their boat about a week ago off the coast of Morocco. Another boat capsized in Saint-Louis, in northern Senegal, killing at least 14 people.