Counternarcotics
This week, Turkey allowed roughly 150 Iraqi Kurds to transit Turkish territory in order to reinforce Kurdish forces defending the city of Kobani, Syria, which has been under siege by the Islamic State. President of Burkina Faso Blaise Campaore decided to step down following violent protests against efforts to amend the constitution to allow for his reelection. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto met with the families of dozens of students who went missing near the town of Iguala last month. The U.S.-appointed Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published a series of major reports this week showing that U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts are currently hampered by a variety of issues.
Last month, the White House called out Bolivia for “failing demonstrably” to comply with international anti-drug agreements for the seventh year in a row. Out of the 22 nations labeled major players in the global drug trade, Bolivia, the only country that permits nationwide legal coca cultivation, was also the only one denied U.S. State Department-managed anti-narcotics aid for the second year in a row.
Security Assistance Monitor published its first Country Profile analyzing U.S. security assistance to Yemen. South Sudanese rival factions signed a framework for future peace talks. Public demonstrations against corruption and insecurity continued across Mexico. The U.S. State Department welcomed the release of four Azerbaijani human rights activists. These stories and more in this weeks top security assistance news.
The Egyptian government denies carrying out airstrikes against militants in Libya, Mali has reportedly become the most dangerous country in the world for U.N. Peacekeepers, Mexican activists have threatened to bring the country to a standstll over the unsolved disappearance of dozens of students and the U.S. State Department urged the government of Azerbaijan to release human rights defenders held in pretrial detention. Read about these stories and more from this past week.