The Lord is not in the alliances that are being formed with political movements. They are bound to bring confusion and great entanglement. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, … and touch not the unclean thing.” Verse 17. 13LtMs, Lt 4, 1898, par. 31

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Analysis by Andreas Kluth | Bloomberg

August 8, 2023 at 12:20 a.m. EDT

My brethren who believe the truth. I tell you that division will constantly arise. Unholy principles will be brought to the front. All classes will be called upon to take their stand on one side or the other. Christ says of one class, Let them alone. Men who have so long trampled upon the rights of God, who have accepted the idol Sabbath will accept very strong and unreasonable beliefs.
The Lord is not in the alliances that are being formed with political movements. They are bound to bring confusion and great entanglement. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, … and touch not the unclean thing.” Verse 17.
The Word of the Lord is to be studied. It contains lessons for nations, for churches, for individuals. Warnings are given us in this Word, that we may learn clearly the way of safety for the soul. The greatest thing each human agent is to study is, How shall I save my soul? God has given to every man his work. Do you stand under God’s colors, the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ? Those who would be overcomers are to make it their first work to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all other things shall be added unto them. We are not as a people to become mixed up with political questions. All would do well to take heed to the Word of God, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers in political strife, nor bind with them in their attachments. There is no safe ground on which they can stand, and work together. The loyal and the disloyal have no equal ground on which to meet.
He who breaks one precept of the commandments of God is a transgressor of the whole law. Keep your voting to yourself. Do not feel it your duty to urge every one to do as you do. That one rotten plank is in every platform. Men trample under their feet the holy law of Jehovah. “What communion hath light with darkness? … Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” Verses 14, 15. I tell you in the name of the Lord, You cannot bind up Christ with Belial. The elements will never mingle. The Lord tells His people the conditions of their prosperity and the continuance of His favors and blessings. There must be no intercourse with idolaters. It was a violation of this contract on the part of the Jewish nation that led to their overthrow. No man can possibly serve two masters. He cannot enter into partnership with Christ and with Belial. 13LtMs, Lt 4, 1898, par. 30 – 13LtMs, Lt 4, 1898, par. 33

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You can think of the unfolding disaster in Niger in four ways, from embarrassing to ominous, catastrophic and apocalyptic.

Embarrassing, because the country’s coup on July 26 is blowback for a clueless West: Neither the hapless former colonial power, France, nor the waning superpower, the US, saw this coming. Ominous, because it’s a windfall for Russia and China, as they vie with the West for influence in the region and world. Potentially catastrophic, because it’s a setback in the struggle against jihadist terrorism and uncontrolled migration. Possibly apocalyptic, if it marks a slide into world war.

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And all this because a general heard that he might be fired and decided instead to oust the leader he was meant to protect. That — not ideology, not geopolitics, not the world food crisis, not anything large, but a staffing problem — is the immediate reason for Niger’s coup, the fifth since its independence from France in 1960.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
Amos:8:11-12

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It brings to more than half a dozen the putsches in the region just since 2020, including two each in Mali and Burkina Faso, and others in Guinea and Sudan. Chaos now reigns from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. If there is hell on Earth, it’s the Sahel, the arid and wretched savannas south of the Sahara.

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The Nigerien general’s name is Abdourahamane (Omar) Tchiani. As commander of the presidential guard, he was supposed to protect President Mohamed Bazoum, elected in 2021 and a rare American ally in the Sahel. But when Bazoum mused about replacing Tchiani, the general showed up with his junta and goons. Bazoum fled across the hall from his office into a safe room. Holed up, he’s been begging the outside world for help, even dictating an op-ed article in the Washington Post by phone. 

If the coups in Burkina Faso and Mali are any guide, here’s what’ll happen next. Niger’s junta will kick out French and American troops stationed there and throw itself into the arms of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, a ruthless Russian mercenary army. Even as the Nigerien revolt was underway, Putin was hosting other pliant African leaders in St. Petersburg, schmoozing them into supporting, or at least not opposing, his war against Ukraine. 

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Prigozhin also showed up in St. Petersburg for photo ops with the African leaders. That may seem surprising, since the Wagner boss is supposed to be in Belarusian exile, in punishment for his short-lived mutiny in June. Apparently, though, Putin’s interests in the Sahel trump his concerns about Prigozhin. 

For years, the Wagner Group has been fighting for the worst kind of people in Africa, hawking its services in return for concessions to diamonds or other riches of the soil. Putin blesses these Wagner operations and atrocities because he’ll do anything to pry countries away from the US. 

In that way, Putin — like his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping — views the Sahel as just another front line in his civilizational struggle against the US-led West. Others run through Ukraine, obviously, but also Asia and the Arctic — last week, a combined Russian and Chinese flotilla sailed provocatively close to Alaska. 

To fight the terrorists: Western countries, and notably France and the US, have stationed troops in the few places that remain cooperative.

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Luke:21:20-22

Putin is particularly drawn to the Sahel because the region can destabilize the West in many ways at once. It has become the global epicenter of terrorism, as groups such as Boko Haram and the local branches of the Islamic State move into the power vacuums left by coups, ethnic uprisings, banditry and Wagner mercenaries. To fight the terrorists, Western countries, and notably France and the US, have stationed troops in the few places that remain cooperative. Niger has been among the most important, housing an American drone base. Without a Western presence, there’ll be nothing to stop the terrorists.

Putin loves that prospect. It’ll cause even more suffering and even greater migrations northward and toward the European Union, which he loathes and wants to destabilize. That’s also a reason Putin has weaponized grain, which he’s preventing Ukraine from exporting, fully aware that his blockade causes hunger in places like Africa. 

The cynicism on the part of Putin and Prigozhin is breathtaking. Even as he’s starving other Africans by bombing Ukrainian grain depots, Putin promised the ones who showed up in St. Petersburg “free” Russian grain instead — in amounts the United Nations considers risible. Prigozhin went on Telegram to praise the Nigerien junta for its righteous “struggle” against their country’s “colonizers,” by which he apparently means the French and Americans. 

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The willful gullibility of their African audiences is just as shocking. It should be plain to all countries in the region, and indeed every human alive, that Russia is the cause of the world’s food crisis, and that Putin is nowadays the colonizer fighting an imperialist war of subjugation in Ukraine. 

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas)

What can the rest of the world do? Hard to say. The African Union and the West have of course condemned the putsch. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a bloc led by Nigeria, has stopped trade with Niger and shut off Nigerian electricity exports to it. 

Ecowas even issued the junta an ultimatum to restore Bazoum to power or face military intervention. On cue, the pro-Russian regimes in Burkina Faso and Mali answered that they’d then come to the aid of the new leaders in Niger. With Russians in the second row on one side and Americans on the other, we’d be in another proxy war, and another step closer to World War III.

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For now, Nigeria and the other Ecowas countries appear to have calculated that the risk is too great — they let their ultimatum’s deadline pass on Sunday without sending soldiers. The US and France are also unlikely to take up arms for Bazoum. They fear that Niger could be the next Iraq or Afghanistan, or worse, that they might end up shooting at Russians and igniting a global conflagration.

As I said, blowback. The US and its allies have for years neglected the region diplomatically. Of late, Washington hasn’t even had ambassadors to Niger or Nigeria. Senator Rand Paul has until recently been blocking nominees to force the White House to release information on Covid-19; a new ambassador to Niger was confirmed only the day after the coup.

Politics must once again stop at the Jordan 🇯🇴 water’s edge.

Politics must once again stop at the water’s edge. As Putin and Xi see it, we’re already in the next world war, even if nobody’s declared it yet or started shooting directly at the other side. The US, Europe and the wider West must support Africa — and indeed the whole Global South — not just now, but from now on. We have to make it easier for the world not just to stare down juntas, but to resist the dark side in geopolitics.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:
Daniel:3:2-5

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

• Putin and Wagner Are Still Gunning for Africa: James Stavridis

• Russia Outnumbers the US 10-to-1 in Tactical Nukes. Now What?: Andreas Kluth

• Wagner Is Losing Its Grip on Africa, Too: Bobby Ghosh

(Corrects status of US ambassador to Niger in 17th paragraph.)

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US diplomacy, national security and geopolitics. A former editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist, he is author of “Hannibal and Me.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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