EU IN THE WORLD OPERATION IRINI. The EU will launch its new naval mission to enforce an UN arms embargo on Libya by April, but it still needs to be determined which member states will contribute to the operation, the EU’s chief diplomat Joseph Borrell announced. The new mission got the green light after clearing last-minute objections over migrants picked up during Irini’s operation. FIRST TRANSACTION. The EU-Iran trading mechanism INSTEX, designed to allow Europeans to bypass US sanctions and continue trade with Tehran, has successfully concluded its first transaction, likely to deepen the resentment between Brussels and Washington. MIGRATION VERDICT. Poland, Hungary and Czechia failed to fulfil their legal obligations under EU law when they refused to participate in the relocation system for refugees in 2015, the European Court of Justice ruled. DEBT RELIEF. The coronavirus pandemic may not, yet, have wreaked the same havoc as in Europe and North America, but most African countries have imposed nationwide lockdown and curfews. African finance ministers want the EU, the IMF and the World Bank to support a multi-billion debt relief programme for the continent to avert economic disaster. ‘SILENT SLAUGHTER’. Murderous attacks on Christians and ethnic minorities by the Fulani and Islamic terror groups in the northern regions of Nigeria have been going on for close to two decades, leaving more than 60,000 dead. But little has been done by successive Nigerian governments, or by the international community, to tackle and defeat the terror groups. In a Special Report, EURACTIV’s Benjamin Fox explores what Europe’s role in stopping Nigeria’s ‘silent slaughter’ could be. |