Election outcomes won't change its Ukraine support, says the UN General Assembly's president

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly will keep standing up for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty whatever the outcome of national elections across the globe this year, the body's president said Wednesday, adding that “no country has the right to invade another country.”

That stance “cannot change because this is a matter of law,” General Assembly President Dennis Francis told The Associated Press during his first visit to Ukraine as Kyiv's forces battle Russia's invasion for a third year.

The U.N.'s main policy-making body has given broad support for efforts to uphold Ukraine's sovereignty, Francis said.

But elections this year in the U.S. and in a handful of key European Union countries have raised concerns about a potential shift in policies among Western nations whose military and financial support has been crucial for Ukraine to thwart the Kremlin's ambitions.

“It will be for us to witness over time what the implications of the results of those elections are for the entire international system and in particular for the state of Ukraine,” Francis said.

“I am convinced that the people of Ukraine will not give up,” he said, whatever the election outcomes. “They will not accept it and they will not allow foreign domination of their homeland.”

Speaking in Kyiv at the end of a two-day visit, Francis called on Russia “to withdraw immediately all its military forces from the territory of Ukraine” — a reference to a General Assembly resolution that was approved shortly after the outbreak of the war. More than two years later, Moscow’s army is slowly seizing new land in eastern Ukraine.

Francis met with Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to discuss peace and international security. He pledged support for Zelenskyy's peace plan, which was discussed at a recent international gathering in Switzerland attended by scores of countries and bodies, including the U.N.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Dennis Francis, President of the United Nations General Assembly, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The U.N. General Assembly will keep standing up for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty whatever the outcome of national elections across the globe this year, the body’s president Dennis Francis said Wednesday, adding that “no country has the right to invade another country.” (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Dennis Francis, President of the United Nations General Assembly, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The U.N. General Assembly will keep standing up for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty whatever the outcome of national elections across the globe this year, the body’s president Dennis Francis said Wednesday, adding that “no country has the right to invade another country.” (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

In this photo released by the Dnipro Regional Administration, people stand near shop windows damaged following Russia's missile attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Dnipro Regional Administration via AP)

In this photo released by the Dnipro Regional Administration, a view of the damage caused by Russia's missile attack on multi-story building in Dnipro, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Dnipro Regional Administration via AP)

In this photo released by the Dnipro Regional Administration, a woman looks on damaged cars after Russia's missile attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Dnipro Regional Administration via AP)

In this photo released by the Dnipro Regional Administration, rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged during Russia's missile attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Dnipro Regional Administration via AP)

In this photo released by the Dnipro Regional Administration, Ukrainian flag waves as smoke rises after Russia's missile attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Dnipro Regional Administration via AP)

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Ten years after declaring a short-lived caliphate in the Nigerian town of Gwoza, just across the border with Cameroon, Islamic extremists deployed female suicide bombers there — their first in the conflict-battered region since 2020 — to sound an alarm: One of the world’s longest wars is still happening.

The first of the three coordinated suicide bombings on June 30 targeted a well-attended wedding. The second was detonated at the burial ceremony for the victims, and the third at a hospital attending to those injured.

At least 32 people in total were killed in the attacks, including nine family members and friends of Mohammed Kehaya, a resident who is now worried about his safety in Borno state, the hotbed of the Islamic militancy that started in 2009.

Nigeria Defense Chief Gen. Chris Musa said the attacks were not a setback for the military but “a sign of desperation," describing them as a one-off by the extremists who once took the world by surprise when they kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in Borno in 2014.

“Some individuals would do everything possible for us not to succeed,” Gen. Musa said of the attackers.

However, several security analysts and locals interviewed about the bombings echoed concerns that the attacks must have taken a lot of planning and coordination and portend danger in Borno, where some villages lack security presence.

One of the extremists’ goals could be to distort the narrative that the security situation in the region has normalized, said Vincent Foucher, consulting senior analyst for West Africa at the International Crisis Group.

“It’s a way to show the war goes on,” Foucher said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but blame quickly fell on Boko Haram, which since 2009 has launched an insurgency to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in northeastern Nigeria. They have since splintered into different factions, together accounting for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million amid a humanitarian crisis with people in dire need of foreign aid.

Two days before the bombings, Nigerian military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edward Buba was meeting with reporters in the capital, Abuja, where he spoke of successes recorded by security forces in their war against extremists. Even while admitting it would “take time and effort to completely destroy” them, he repeated a phrase frequently said among Nigerian officials: “We have greatly degraded the terrorists.”

In Borno, however, the bombings sent shock waves across families and left many wondering whether they should pack what was left of their belongings and flee once again.

“Parents have been calling in to ask if their kids would be safe going back to school,” said Yusuf Ibn Tom, a public school teacher in Maiduguri. “Everyone here is scared.”

At the height of the insurgency in 2014, Boko Haram was considered the world's deadliest terrorist group, killing at least 6,000 people that year alone, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index. A lot has changed since then that has made the extremists far less lethal.

The military has pushed them further into the fringes of the Lake Chad axis. The 2021 death of the group’s founding leader, Abubakar Shekau, demoralized some members and made suicide bombing less popular. Clashes between Shekau’s faction and the one linked to the Islamic State group have made the extremists turn against themselves, sometimes shifting the focus of attacks from the military and civilians and even contributing to the defection of thousands who are undergoing a reintegration program.

But what has not changed over the years is the “operational prowess” of the extremists, said Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Attacks like the latest one “are rarely one-off incidents and are often part of a wider series,” Hudson said, not ruling out that more might come in the future. “That will give a better indication of the relative strength of the insurgency today as well as the Nigerian military’s ability to respond,” he added.

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.

Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

FILE - Parents of Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped in 2014 by Islamic extremists, attend a 10th anniversary event of the abduction in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 4, 2024. Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded the Islamic extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million. (AP Photo/Mansur Ibrahim, File)

FILE - Injured victims of a suicide bomb attack receive treatment at a hospital in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on June 30, 2024. Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded the Islamic extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million. (AP Photo/Joshua Omiri, File)

FILE - An injured victim of a suicide bomb attack receives treatment at a hospital in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on June 30, 2024. Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded the Islamic extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million. (AP Photo/Joshua Omiri, File)