Israel to Join African Union as Observer Country

Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi, and Chad Aleli Admasu with the AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat (African Union)
Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi, and Chad Aleli Admasu with the AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat (African Union)
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Israel to Join African Union as Observer Country

Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi, and Chad Aleli Admasu with the AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat (African Union)
Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi, and Chad Aleli Admasu with the AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat (African Union)

Israel's Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that the country will be joining the African Union (AU) as an observer state.

Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi, and Chad Aleli Admasu presented his credentials to the AU Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat.

Israel enjoyed observer status in the predecessor Organization of African Unity until 2002 when it was expelled for its policy against Palestinians during the second intifada.

The former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refocused his efforts to rejoin the Union and prioritized Israel’s relations with Africa during the latter half of his 12 years in office.

Besides seeking new markets for Israeli agriculture, high-tech, and security, the former prime minister was eager to improve African nations’ voting record on Israel-related matters in international forums such as the United Nations Security Council and UNESCO.

In July 2016, Netanyahu became the first Israeli premier in decades to travel to the continent when he visited four East African nations: Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.

In December of that year, Jerusalem hosted seven ministers and many other top officials from over 12 Western African countries at an agricultural conference in Israel, co-sponsored by ECOWAS and Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation.

In June 2017, Netanyahu attended the annual conference by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an organization that includes 15 nations with a combined population of some 320 million.

He was invited to the 51st Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Community in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city.

“Israel is returning to Africa in a big way,” Netanyahu said before the trip.

Israel has relations with 46 of the 55 AU member states. Israel re-established ties with Guinea in 2016 and with Chad in 2019. Sudan proceeded to normalize relations with Israel after the Abraham Accords.

Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, sent the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry, Aliza Ben-Nun, to Addis Ababa, where she met the ambassadors of 30 AU members and asked for their support for Israel as an observer member.

“This is a day of celebration for Israel-Africa relations,” said Lapid, adding that this diplomatic achievement resulted from efforts by the Foreign Ministry, the African Division, and Israeli embassies on the continent.

“This corrects the anomaly that existed for almost two decades,” he continued, “and is an important part of the strengthening of the fabric of Israel’s foreign relations. This will help us strengthen our activities in the continent and the organization’s member states.”



Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
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Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed on Saturday what he said was the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region after Moscow said they had been expelled from the last village they had been holding.

Russia also confirmed for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russian troops in Kursk, with the chief of the military General Staff praising their "heroism" in helping to drive out the Ukrainians.

However, Kyiv denied that its forces had been expelled from Kursk and said they were also still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces seized a swathe of territory in Kursk region last August in a surprise incursion that embarrassed Putin. Russian forces, later reinforced by North Korean troops, have been trying ever since to drive them out.

Putin, speaking amid intensified diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to end the Ukraine conflict, said the expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Russian soil opened the way for further Russian successes inside Ukraine.

"The Kyiv regime's adventure has completely failed," Putin said in video footage released by the Kremlin that showed him receiving a report from the head of Russia's general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

"The full defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region creates conditions for further successful actions by our forces on other important parts of the front," Putin added.

Gerasimov told Putin that the last occupied settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, had been "liberated from Ukrainian units" on Saturday.

"Thus, the defeat of the armed formations of the Ukrainian armed forces that had invaded the Kursk region has been completed," Gerasimov said.

The Ukrainian military, in a statement later posted on social media platform Telegram, said its forces were continuing their operations in some districts of Kursk region.

Ukraine also denied Gerasimov's assertion that all Ukrainian "sabotage groups" had been "liquidated" in Belgorod region, where Kyiv's forces launched an incursion last month.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield assertions of either side.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the armed forces were now helping authorities in the Kursk region to restore "peaceful life" and to remove mines planted there.

NORTH KOREANS

Gerasimov praised the North Korean officers and soldiers' contribution in Kursk, saying they had shown "high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism", fulfilling combat tasks "shoulder to shoulder" with Russian servicemen.

North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials said. Lacking armored vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.

Russia had previously neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops in Kursk.

Russia's military cooperation with North Korea has grown rapidly since Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers, which would violate UN embargoes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had hoped his forces' seizure of Russian territory would give him a bargaining chip in any future talks to end the war in his country.

Zelenskiy held what the White House described as a "very productive" meeting with US President Donald Trump on Saturday in Rome, where both leaders were attending the funeral of Pope Francis.

Trump is pressuring Zelenskiy to agree to give up some Ukrainian territory to help end the three-year war that has caused large-scale casualties and devastation in cities, towns and villages across Ukraine.