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France Moves to Strip Citizenship From Pro-Russian Activist With Record of Antisemitic Barbs
Activist Kémi Séba is seen at a 2023 conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Reuters/Maksim Konstantinov
The French authorities have launched proceedings to strip the citizenship of a prominent pan-Africanist writer and activist with a long record of viscerally antisemitic comments who is also closely aligned with the Russia’s ruling regime.
The activist, Kémi Séba — who was born in the city of Strasbourg to parents who immigrated from the west African state of Benin — revealed on social media last Thursday that he had received a letter from the French Ministry of Interior informing him that the procedure to remove his nationality had been initiated due to his “constant and current resolutely anti-French posture, likely to seriously harm French interests and likely to characterize manifest disloyalty towards the country of which you are a national.”
The 42-year-old Séba, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, has been closely associated in the past with Dieudonné, a French antisemitic agitator who bills himself as a comedian, and Alain Soral, a notorious far right Holocaust denier. In 2006, Séba first made himself known when he led a Black nationalist group known as Tribu Ka on an antisemitic demonstration in the historically Jewish Marais quarter of Paris. While the group subsequently disbanded, Séba continued with his activities, serving short prison sentences in 2009, 2011 and 2014 for violent behavior.
Séba has frequently invoked antisemitic tropes in his writings. In one article published in 2009, he accused international institutions including the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the International Monetary Fund of being “controlled by the Zionists who impose on Africa and its diaspora living conditions so execrable that the concentration camp of Auschwitz can seem like a paradise on earth.”
During the 2010s, Séba moved to Africa, where his activism saw him expelled in turn from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso. In 2018, the US authorities began monitoring his activities as he drew closer into Russia’s orbit, joining forces with Yevgeni Prigozhin, the late head of the Wagner mercenary group, to spread pro-Moscow propaganda throughout Africa. “Two influencers serve as vital nodes of Prigozhin’s network: French-Beninese Kémi Séba and Swiss-Cameroonian Nathalie Yamb,” a Nov. 2022 State Department briefing noted. It further observed that “Séba’s anti-western narratives intensified following Russia’s further [Feb. 24, 2022] invasion of Ukraine. In February 2022, Séba gave an exclusive interview to Prigozhin’s RIA FAN and posted a Facebook video (over 1.6 million views) defending Russia’s actions and blaming the West and NATO for destroying the USSR, encircling Russia, and arming former Soviet republics to threaten Russia the same way the West ‘destroyed and dismantled’ Africa.”
Under Article 25 of the French civil code, individuals who attained French nationality through immigration can have their citizenship stripped if they act in a manner deemed by the authorities to run counter to the national interest.
Séba responded defiantly to the proceedings against him on social media. “You still don’t understand that the more you persecute me, the more my political message is gaining popularity,” he wrote.
The post France Moves to Strip Citizenship From Pro-Russian Activist With Record of Antisemitic Barbs first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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