DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Local journalists in the Sahel region of Africa are facing increased security risks, a media freedom group said Tuesday, as extremist attacks and military coups have shaken the region in recent years.
At least two community radio journalists were killed and two kidnapped by armed groups in Mali and Chad since November last year, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement calling for the protection of local journalists.
“These crimes illustrate once again the deteriorating security context in which journalists in the Sahel are working,” Anne Bocandé, the organization's editorial director, said.
“They are still present in these territories, to which no other information professional has access any more,” she added.
Three nations in the Sahel, an arid swath of land south of the Sahara, have been wracked by coups in recent years. Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are now ruled by military leaders who took power by force, pledging to provide more security to citizens.
But the security situation in the Sahel has worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and a record number of civilians killed both by Islamic militants and government forces. Over the first six months of this year, 3,064 civilians were killed by the violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a 25% increase compared to the previous six months.
Meanwhile, the ruling juntas have cracked down on political dissent and journalists. Earlier this year, Malian authorities banned the media from reporting on the activities of political parties and associations. Burkina Faso suspended the BBC and Voice of America radio stations for their coverage of a mass killing of civilians carried out by the country’s armed forces.
In June, at least three journalists in Burkina Faso disappeared under suspicious circumstances, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Generally speaking, the three juntas censor the media as soon as the security situation in the country is addressed in an unpleasant manner or when abuses are revealed,” Sadibou Marong, head of the sub-Saharan Africa office of Reporters Without Borders, told The Associated Press.
“Finding reliable and neutral information on government activities has become extremely complex, as has covering security situation in these countries,” Marong added.
FILE - Kadidia Bocoum shows a picture of her brother Yeri Bocoum, a Malian journalist who was kidnapped by what is suspected to be state security forces after covering a march against Mali's electricity crisis, in Bamako, Mali, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed, File)
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump is expected on Tuesday to pledge not only to stop U.S. businesses from offshoring jobs, but also to take other countries’ jobs and factories.
Among the ideas he is planning to pitch is luring foreign companies to the U.S. by offering them access to federal land. He teased the plan earlier this month when he proposed a cut to the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S.
His opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, wants to raise it to 28%. The corporate rate had been 35% when he became president in 2017, and he later signed a bill lowering it.
Trump has pressed Harris on the economy and proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry, even as economists warn U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Up until now, Trump has mostly framed his economic approach with measures to punish companies that take their businesses offshore. But on Tuesday, he is set to reveal incentives for foreign firms to leave other countries and migrate to the U.S. The former president wants to personally recruit foreign companies and to send members of administration to do the same.
A senior Trump adviser shared advance excerpts of Trump's speech, which the former president could still change.
It is unclear whether foreign companies would be attracted by some of these incentives he says he will adopt if elected to the White House. The former president also had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. For example, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.
It’s also not clear how possible it is for a president to offer these perks to foreign corporations. The Bureau of Land Management has restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry Monday night about whether companies from China would be excluded, given his longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.
The Republican presidential nominee is set to discuss his plan in Savannah, Georgia, which has one of the busiest ports in the country for cargo shipped in containers.
It is Trump’s first visit in this battleground state stop since a feud between the former president and the Republican Gov. Brian Kemp came to an end last month with the popular Georgia governor finally endorsing Trump.
Some Republicans have said they fear Georgia has gotten more politically competitive in the two months since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential bid after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection efforts. Harris gave a speech in Atlanta last Friday, calling Trump a threat to women's freedoms and warning voters he would continue to limit access to abortion if elected president.
Trump's running mate JD Vance is holding a rally later this week in Georgia as well as paying a visit to Macon.
Before Trump's remarks, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the crowd that the former president is a “successful businessman that gave us the best four years of our life.” Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones assailed Harris for calling Trump a threat to democracy, saying that she secured the Democratic nomination with delegate votes, and not through a primary process.
Jones served as a fake elector and signed on to the “unofficial electorate certificate” falsely claiming that Trump won the 2020 election he actually lost to Biden. A special prosecutor, however, declined to move forward with criminal charges against Jones in the matter.
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Indiana, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
FILE - President Donald Trump tours a Foxconn facility, June 28, 2018, in Mt. Pleasant, Wis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Members of the crowd dance as they wait for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump to begin speaking during a campaign rally at Ed Fry Arena in Indiana, Pa., Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump dances after finishing his remarks at a campaign rally at Ed Fry Arena in Indiana, Pa., Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
