Au terme d'une importante réunion tenue, mardi 16 septembre 2025, le parti Bloc républicain (BR) a procédé à la désignation du colistier du candidat Romuald Wadagni à l'élection présidentielle de 2026 au Bénin. La formation politique de la mouvance présidentielle a porté son choix sur l'actuelle vice-présidente de la République, Mariam Chabi Talata épouse Zimé Yérima pour former le duo candidats de la mouvance présidentielle.
C'est Mariam Chabi Talata, qui sera la colistière du candidat Romuald Wadagni à l'élection présidentielle de 2026 au Bénin. Le secrétariat exécutif du parti Bloc républicain a procédé à sa désignation, mardi 16 septembre, au terme d'une importante réunion.
La vice-présidente de la République selon les militants BR, est une « femme de convictions et d'actions, engagée avec constance dans le service public ». Elle incarne à la fois « la rigueur, la proximité avec les populations et le sens élevé de l'État. Son parcours illustre un engagement continu en faveur du développement du Bénin et de l'émergence de la femme dans la sphère publique », précise le communiqué en date du 17 septembre 2025, et qui a sanctionné la réunion du secrétariat exécutif du parti.
Mariam Chabi Talata selon le BR, apparaît comme l'une des personnalités les mieux qualifiées pour accompagner le candidat Romuald Wadagni dans la poursuite des réformes et des actions de développement initiées depuis 2016 sous le leadership du Président Talon, et dans l'accélération de la dynamique de progrès socio-économique pour notre Nation.
Le secrétariat exécutif du BR se félicité de ce choix éclairé et stratégique, et en appelle à une mobilisation forte, massive et constante de toutes les militantes et de tous les militants du Bloc Républicain autour du DUO WADAGNI–CHABI TALATA.
F. A. A.
L'ancien directeur général de la Société béninoise d'énergie électrique (SBEE), Godefroy Tchékété n'est plus. Il a tiré sa révérence ce mardi 16 septembre 2025.
Deuil à la SBEE. L'ex DG, Godefroy Tchékété a rejoint la demeure éternelle ce mardi 16 septembre 2025. Pour l'heure aucun détail sur les causes et les circonstances de la mort de l'ancien patron de la société distributrice de l'énergie électrique au Bénin. Le regretté est un ancien gouverneur du district 403-A2 de Lions Club de 1994 à 1995.
Paix à son âme !
Gazan children standing in the rubble of their demolished home in Rafah. Credit: UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2025 (IPS)
On September 16, the Israeli military began its ground offensive in Gaza City, accompanied by intensified bombardment of residential areas and a surge in civilian displacement. Concurrently, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, issued a report in which it found that Israel is responsible for committing genocide in Gaza, citing deliberate efforts to destroy Palestinian life, carried out with near-total impunity.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “The Commission also finds that Israel has failed to prevent and punish the commission of genocide, through failure to investigate genocidal acts and to prosecute alleged perpetrators.”
The Commission found that Israeli forces have repeatedly disregarded orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as well as warnings from UN Member States, human rights groups and civil society organizations. Israeli officials have dismissed the Commission’s findings, accusing it of bias and refusing to cooperate with its investigations.
In response to the Commission, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told journalists, “While Israel defends its people and seeks the return of hostages, this morally bankrupt Commission obsesses over blaming the Jewish state, whitewashing Hamas’s atrocities, and turning victims of one of the worst massacres of modern times into the accused.”
The Commission described its report as the “strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date”, while noting that it operates independently from the UN and does not speak on its behalf. Currently, the UN does not categorize Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide, but has been under increasing pressure from its agencies to do so. Back in August, over 500 staff from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have urged UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk to explicitly recognize the situation as a genocide. “OHCHR has a strong legal and moral responsibility to denounce acts of genocide,” said the letter signed by the UNHCR Staff Committee in Geneva. “Failing to denounce an unfolding genocide undermines the credibility of the U.N. and the human rights system itself.”
Humanitarian experts project that ongoing bombardments will result in an immense loss of human life and eliminate the remaining prospects of survival for those still in the enclave. The UN Human Rights Council (HCR) noted that controlled detonations in Gaza City have leveled entire neighborhoods and are in the process of wiping out “the last viable element of civilian infrastructure’ essential for survival.
The Commission reports that since October 7, 2023, Israel has repeatedly bombarded densely populated residential areas, often relying on explosive weapons with wide-area impacts. One spokesperson for the Israeli security forces told the Commission that they were “focused on what causes maximum damage”. The Commission has documented numerous instances of Israeli forces targeting high-rise buildings and residential apartment blocks, leading to the destruction of entire neighborhoods and the deaths of almost all civilians involved.
Additionally, the Commission observed that the number of bombs used by Israel in the past two years is unprecedented in comparison to other world conflicts, noting that Israel drops in less than a week the number of bombs the United States used in Afghanistan over an entire year —concentrated in a much smaller and more densely populated area.
Airstrikes and shellings on critical civilian infrastructures have disrupted nearly all aspects of life for Palestinians in Gaza. According to the report, damage to agricultural lands across the entire enclave poses significant long-term risks to food production and accelerated food insecurity, leading to famine.
As of February 2025, 403 school buildings in Gaza have been damaged by Israeli bombardment, including eighty-five that have been completely destroyed and seventy-three left only partly functional. The Commission warns that the strikes have effectively collapsed Gaza’s education system, disrupting schooling for over 658,000 children. Without urgent intervention, thousands are expected to suffer long-term psychological harm and stunted cognitive development due to the loss of education and psychosocial support services.
Furthermore, the widespread destruction of hospitals and the immense number of traumatic injuries from Israeli attacks have overwhelmed hospitals and healthcare centers across Gaza, leading to the collapse of the healthcare system. The siege has led to severe shortages in fuel and electricity, while also causing the looting and damaging of life-saving medical supplies and medications. As a result, patients with chronic illnesses and infections from diseases have been deprioritized, leading to a sharp increase in the number of preventable deaths and complications. Medical experts told the Commission that the targeting of healthcare facilities has severely restricted access to care for thousands of Palestinians, with children being among the most affected.
According to the report, between October 2023 and July 2025, approximately 53,000 Palestinians in Gaza were killed as a direct result of Israeli military operations. The Commission reports that Palestinians in Gaza were also attacked in their homes, in hospitals, as well as shelters, such as schools and religious sites. Israeli forces also repeatedly targeted journalists, healthcare personnel, humanitarian workers, and other protected individuals, sometimes even during ceasefire periods and without warning.
The report also documents Israeli forces targeting Palestinians in evacuation routes and designated safe zones, finding that women and children were most often directly targeted and killed, often while alone and in areas not experiencing active hostilities. In every case reviewed, the Commission found that Israeli forces were aware of civilians’ presence but opened fire regardless. Many of the victims were children carrying makeshift white flags , including toddlers who were reportedly shot in the head by snipers.
Furthermore, the report underscores that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was largely ineffective in providing direct relief to struggling Palestinians and has been linked to a surge in civilian deaths. As of July 31, at least 1,373 Palestinians had been killed while trying to access food, with 859 killed near GHF sites and 514 along convoy routes—with most fatalities attributed to the Israeli military.
Furthermore, Israeli forces have effectively hindered humanitarian operations through routine bombardments and shellings. From October 2023 to July 2025, the Commission recorded at least 48 staff and volunteers from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) that were killed. Additionally, medical personnel also informed the Commission that Israeli forces deliberately shelled ambulances, with many workers stating that they believed that they had been intentionally targeted.
The Commission also found that Israel weaponised the withholding of life-sustaining necessities, such as food, water, fuel, and humanitarian aid, leading to a sharp increase in preventable civilian deaths. According to the report, families in Gaza have less than one liter of water per person per day for drinking, cooking, and hygiene, which is far below international minimum standards for daily water consumption.
Moreover, water shortages have led to a deterioration of the sanitation system, which is particularly pronounced in displacement camps, where nearly 400,000 kilograms of waste piles up each day. This has led to the rampant spread of infectious diseases such as Hepatitis A.
Additionally, more than ninety percent of the population in Gaza has faced acute food insecurity since October 2023, with the most severe cases being concentrated in northern Gaza. According to figures from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), as of July 2025, food consumption has fallen far below the famine threshold in most areas of the enclave and malnutrition has reached the famine threshold in Gaza City.
The report found that Israeli forces were responsible for deliberately starving and depriving civilians in Gaza of resources that are paramount for human survival, with PRCS stating that Gaza is “unable to sustain life in its current state as civilians find their basic needs unmet”.
The Commission warns that the near-total impunity that Israeli forces and officials have emboldened the continuation of atrocities in Gaza, with global pressure mounting from the international community which urgently calls for an immediate de-escalation of hostilities, unimpeded humanitarian access, and credible mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable.
“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” said Pillay. “Every day of inaction costs lives and erodes the credibility of the international community. All States are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza,” she added.
Following the report’s release, the leaders of twenty aid agencies working in Gaza, including Oxfam International, CARE and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), issued a joint statement also urging member states to take action to “prevent the evisceration of life in the Gaza Strip”.
“All parties must disavow violence against civilians, adhere to international humanitarian law and pursue peace. States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action,” the statement reads.
“The UN enshrined international law as the cornerstone of global peace and security. If Member States continue to treat these legal obligations as optional, they are not only complicit but are setting a dangerous precedent for the future. History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing. Failing the people of Gaza, failing the hostages, and failing our own collective moral imperative.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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Les États-Unis ont mis en place de nouveaux frais de 1 dollar pour l’inscription à la loterie de diversité. Cette règle, publiée le 16 septembre […]
L’article DV Lottery 2027 : les États-Unis rendent les inscriptions payantes est apparu en premier sur .
Le Kazakhstan vise une politique étrangère constructive afin de protéger ses intérêts nationaux tout en favorisant la croissance et la stabilité à long terme.
The post Tokaïev présente la feuille de route numérique et politique du Kazakhstan appeared first on Euractiv FR.
En 2024, le Groupe Inter-gouvernemental d'Action contre le Blanchiment d'Argent en Afrique de l'Ouest (GIABA), a franchi un cap important dans son action régionale contre le blanchiment de capitaux et le financement du terrorisme. Malgré des avancées notables, plusieurs défis persistent dans l'espace CEDEAO.
Le Rapport Annuel 2024 du Groupe Inter-gouvernemental d'Action contre le Blanchiment d'Argent en Afrique de l'Ouest (GIABA), publié le 28 août à Dakar, met en lumière les actions menées par l'institution. Des progrès notables ont été enregistrés notamment l'achèvement du second cycle des évaluations mutuelles des Etats membres du GIABA ; la sortie du Sénégal de la liste grise du GAFI, et l'amélioration des cadres juridiques et institutionnels de plusieurs États membres. « Sur la base de leurs notes de conformité technique et d'efficacité, tous les États membres du GIABA évalués, à l'exception du Ghana et du Sénégal qui ont quitté le processus de suivi en février et en août, respectivement, restent dans le Processus de Suivi Renforcé, et soumettront leurs RdS (rapports de suivi) respectifs au GIABA aux fins d'examen et d'adoption par les réunions Plénières pertinentes en 2025 », indique le rapport.
Ces évaluations mutuelles sont essentielles à la mise en œuvre d'un dispositif robuste de LBC/FT dans un pays. Le GIABA se prépare pour le prochain Cycle des Évaluations Mutuelles qui mettra davantage l'accent sur l'efficacité des dispositifs de LBC/FT. « Les États membres sont invités à entamer les préparatifs en mettant en place des équipes d'évaluation mutuelle efficaces et dévouées à l'échelle nationale, composées de responsables possédant les connaissances requises pour le processus », souligne le rapport 2024 de la GIABA. Pour l'institution spécialisée de la CEDEAO, la formation continue de l'ensemble des parties prenantes et la sensibilisation sont primordiales. La collecte et la compilation de statistiques pertinentes en matière de LBC/FT/FP restent essentielles pour démontrer l'efficacité du dispositif.
Soutien aux Etats membres
En 2024, le GIABA a aussi fourni une assistance technique pour soutenir les États membres dans la mise en œuvre des mesures de LBC/FT. 2 607 personnes ont bénéficié de programmes d'assistance technique, avec une augmentation de 21 % de la participation féminine.
Sur le plan du plaidoyer, le GIABA a intensifié sa stratégie de communication et de sensibilisation, en multipliant les actions à l'endroit des médias, des organisations de la société civile et parties prenantes. Ces initiatives visent à vulgariser les enjeux liés au blanchiment d'argent et au financement du terrorisme, et à encourager l'adhésion de tous à cette lutte régionale.
Le rapport 2024 du GIABA mentionne des vulnérabilités persistantes dans la LBC/FT. Il s'agit entre autres de l'utilisation abusive des actifs virtuels, la faible supervision des EPNFD (Entreprises et Professions Non-Financières Désignées) et les risques accrus dans les zones frontalières peu régulées.
Sur un total de 139 activités prévues pour être réalisées au titre de l'année 2024, dans le cadre de son plan d'action stratégique 2023-2027, le GIABA a exécuté 87 d'entre elles, soit un taux de réalisation de 63 %, en hause de 7 % par rapport à l'année précédente. « Les objectifs et étapes importants fixés ont été atteints », informe le rapport annuel 2024 du GIABA.
Akpédjé Ayosso
By CIVICUS
Sep 17 2025 (IPS)
CIVICUS discusses the deaths of Indigenous activists in custody in Tajikistan with Khursand Khurramov, an independent journalist and political analyst.
Khursand Khurramov
Five Indigenous Pamiri activists have died in Tajikistan’s prisons in 2025, reportedly after being denied adequate medical assistance. Since 2021, around 40 Pamiris have been killed and over 200 activists arbitrarily detained. Civil society organisations condemn these deaths in custody and the state’s broader pattern of systematic repression against the Pamiri ethnic minority, who make up less than three per cent of Tajikistan’s population.What’s the background to the state’s persecution of Pamiri people?
The Pamiris are an Indigenous minority who have lived on their land for thousands of years. Throughout history, they have been part of various empires – from the Achaemenids and Alexander the Great to the Arab Caliphate and the Timurids – but have always retained de facto autonomy. At the end of the 19th century, the Pamir region was divided between the British and Russian empires, and the Pamiri people found themselves separated by the borders of modern states – Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Tajikistan – while retaining their cultural and linguistic characteristics and, importantly, their historical attachment to their land.
In Tajikistan, the Pamiris live in an area called Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO). The Soviet period was favourable for them in terms of demographic, economic and technological progress. The region had good transport links with Kyrgyzstan, while the road to the central regions of Tajikistan was only accessible seasonally.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, civil war broke out in Tajikistan in 1992. The Pamiris supported the United Tajik Opposition and became victims of mass repression. Many were murdered, with the number of victims unknown to this day. Following the war, the authorities continued to persecute former opponents, including the Pamiris, and several military operations have been carried out in the region, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests.
This means the Pamiri identity formed amid difficult conditions, largely in response to state pressure. Tajik authorities apparently fear recognition of Pamiri identity will lead to separatism, although there have never been any calls or demands for separatism within the Pamiri community.
It’s clear the authoritarian regime perceives Pamiri people’s desire for democratisation and freedom as a bad example for the rest of Tajikistan’s population, and it uses collective punishment to suppress any challenge to its authority.
What led to the recent wave of deaths in custody?
In November 2021, Tajikistan’s security officers carried out an operation in GBAO, in which a local resident was killed. This sparked mass protests, which in Tajikistan are prohibited by law and therefore extremely rare. Activists tried to hold those responsible to account by cooperating with law enforcement agencies. But instead of investigating, the authorities launched a large-scale crackdown on protesters, instrumentalising the law to justify violence by security forces.
In 2022, when protests flared up again, the authorities classified them as terrorist acts, allowing security forces to use firearms against protesters. As a result, around 40 people were killed. They also conducted mass arrests of activists. Some 300 people were imprisoned with sentences of over 15 years, and 11 received life sentences. Considering the entire Pamiri population is only about 220,000, these numbers represent a catastrophic scale of persecution. Prison conditions are extremely harsh, with relatives of prisoners repeatedly reporting overcrowding, lack of access to medical care and systematic psychological pressure. In 2025 alone, five men from GBAO aged between 35 and 66 have died in Tajikistan’s prisons.
How has the crackdown on civic freedoms affected GBAO?
Restrictions on civil liberties affect the whole of Tajikistan, but GBAO is subject to particularly harsh repression. In 30 years of independence, not a single independent media outlet has existed in GBAO. International media outlets such as the BBC and Radio Liberty have been unable to obtain accreditation to cover events in the region. As a result, most of what happens in GBAO remains unknown to the public, and state propaganda interprets events in a light favourable to the authorities, demonising Pamiri people in the eyes of the rest of the population.
At the national level, these restrictions take the form of a ban on political activities, a complicated procedure for registering associations and informal bans on the creation of parties and movements within the country and abroad. Any political or civic activity outside Tajikistan seems to be viewed by the authorities as a potential threat. Until 2022, Pamiris had a fairly powerful informal youth diaspora structure in Russia, but this has been effectively destroyed with its key figures arrested and returned to Tajikistan. The main reason for this was a rally they organised in November 2021 outside the Tajik embassy in Moscow.
Now even likes of social media posts by opposition groups are classified as extremism. According to the Tajikistan Prosecutor General’s Office, 1,500 people have been convicted for this, including nine journalists and bloggers. Many of them were not involved in politics at all. Their posts were exclusively about social rather than political issues.
How are Russia and other states in the region involved?
Russia and other post-Soviet states play a role in this process as political allies of the Tajik government. For Russia, the regime is an important partner in the areas of security and labour migration, so it tries to prevent the strengthening of forces that could threaten the status quo. As a result, it supports Tajikistan’s official position, including in international organisations, and often returns wanted political activists and opposition figures to Tajikistan.
Some post-Soviet states share a similar political logic, because they fear recognising ethnic or regional diversity within their borders. By supporting Tajikistan in suppressing Pamiri identity, they are consistent with their domestic policies of denying minority rights. Russia and the other member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – cooperate on security matters, exchanging data and coordinating operations against opposition activists, including Pamiris. This is a mutually beneficial practice that strengthens authoritarian solidarity and reduces the risks of alternative centres of political influence emerging in the region.
What role can civil society and the international community play in holding the government accountable?
In Tajikistan, civil society in the classical sense has practically ceased to exist. Even those organisations that continue to operate are forced to coordinate their activities with the government. Although on paper these organisations may address civic space or human rights issues, their activities are largely formal: they function more as a facade than a mechanism for protecting rights within an authoritarian system. Over the past decade, any human rights work has been effectively equated with political activity, which carries serious risks.
Outside Tajikistan, diaspora civil society is also underdeveloped, with no strong institutions yet in place. However, the main thing activists and the diaspora can do is to draw international attention to the problem, talking about it as often as possible in different forums and in different languages. Only then can we expect the international community to put pressure on the Tajik authorities.
Despite these efforts, the situation for Pamiri people in Tajikistan has remained virtually unchanged. Authorities continue to deny the existence of their distinct identity. In prisons, people continue to die from torture, disease and inhumane conditions, but these facts are silenced and their deaths are presented as natural deaths.
The international community must move beyond statements to tangible action by strengthening monitoring and reporting through the European Parliament, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations. They must impose personal sanctions on officials responsible for repression and torture, and condition aid, loans and grants on Tajikistan’s compliance with human rights obligations. Support for the diaspora and independent media is also essential to provide alternative information channels and prevent the regime isolating GBAO.
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SEE ALSO
Tajikistan: end systematic repression of Pamiri people CIVICUS 04.Aug.2025
Tajikistan: ‘Authorities silence dissent by accusing activists of extremism, terrorism and spreading false information’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Leila Seiitbek 20.May.2025
Tajikistan’s crackdown on dissent: erosion of rights and civic space CIVICUS Monitor 17.Feb.2025
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Ce mercredi 17 septembre, la présidente du Parlement européen, Roberta Metsola, est à Kiev pour rencontrer les plus hauts responsables ukrainiens, notamment le président Volodymyr Zelensky, la Première ministre Ioulia Svyrydenko et le président de la Rada, Rouslan Stefantchouk.
The post La présidente du Parlement européen en visite à Kiev appeared first on Euractiv FR.