EU agrees ‘roadmap’ for easing Syria sanctions

NIAMEY, Niger: Niger’s army said on Thursday it had recovered four lorries used by Moroccan drivers who went missing near the border with Burkina Faso, in an area where militants operate.
Four Moroccan truckers were reported missing in mid-January and have not been found.
The army said in its latest bulletin that the drivers “were abducted by unidentified individuals on January 18” on the road linking Tera in western Niger to Dori in northeastern Burkina.
It said that during a reconnaissance operation in the Tera area last week, soldiers had recovered the lorries and taken them back to the capital Niamey as part of the probe into the incident.
The vehicles were carrying equipment destined for Niger’s state power company NIGELEC and had been traveling “without a security escort.”
The army said it would intensify search and reconnaissance missions in the region and monitor sensitive border areas in collaboration with neighboring Mali and Burkina.
The leaders of the three west African nations formed a defense pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) after seizing power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and leaving the region’s main political and trade group ECOWAS.

OSLO: The Norwegian government said Thursday that it would contribute $24 million to the UN agency that helps looks after Palestinian refugees, the same day that Israel banned the group from operating on Israeli territory.
“Gaza is in ruins, and UNRWA’s help is more necessary than ever,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement. “It is extremely dramatic for Palestine that Israeli laws come into force that in practice can prevent UNRWA from working.”
Starting Thursday, UNRWA is banned from operating on Israeli soil and contact between it and Israeli officials is forbidden. Israel’s supreme court rejected late Wednesday a challenge to the ban.
UNRWA has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for over 70 years, and it says it has brought in 60 percent of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas in 2023.
But Israeli officials have repeatedly accused it of being a cover for militant groups and undermining the country’s security. The hostility intensified in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with accusations that a small number of UNRWA employees participated in the assault.
A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but said Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
Many donors cut their support for UNRWA following the accusations, though almost all have resumed their funding.
Relations between Norway and Israel have worsened in recent years, especially after the Scandinavian country recognized a Palestinian state last May along with Spain and Ireland.