“So what?” Richard Martin, a US-based pan-Africanist, shot back on LinkedIn, dismissing another user who dared to call a trending speech of Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, by its real name: a deepfake. It was the kind of fiery anti-imperialist speech delivered by Muammar Gaddafi at the United Nations in 2009. “You ask, …
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The political landscape of West Africa is undergoing a profound transformation, marked by the recent decision of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). This bold move, celebrated by mass rallies across the three countries on Jan. 28, …
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Burkina Faso’s elite military forces killed 29 terrorists on Jan. 1 during a raid on their enclaves in the Solenzo area of the country. After launching Operation Zero Terrorists, a military-grade operation to flush out terrorists in the Solenzo forests, the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) collaborated with the Volunteers for the Defense of the …
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For the second year in a row, the displacement crisis in the West African country of Burkina Faso has been adjudged the most neglected worldwide. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an international non-governmental organisation, made this observation in a report released on Monday, June 3. Following closely are the crises in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic …
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A video clip showing corpses of slain young men, abandoned motorcycles, and vehicles, including an armoured truck and a large cache of weapons, has been trending on social media, particularly X (previously Twitter), for the last couple of days, gathering mixed reactions among its users. The post claimed that the corpses and vehicles were those …
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Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents of gross human rights violations committed by Burkina Faso armed forces against civilians, raising serious concerns about war crimes and human rights abuses in ongoing counterinsurgency operations in the country. According to the report released by the HRW on Thursday, June 29, the incidents of the violations in …
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All over wartorn parts of Africa, displaced women are often exposed to many kinds of sexual violence. But a particularly patterned form of SGBV is the one done to women when they venture into forests to gather firewood either for domestic use or for sale. Regardless of the varied backgrounds and contexts surrounding the conflicts …
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Since the beginning of the armed insurgencies in May 2012 in what has been described as the central Sahel — Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, there have been a series of attempts to understand the causes of the violence. A crisis of governance, climate change, poor literacy rates, and porous border security are some of …
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A year after Mali banned France 24 from broadcast in the country, the military government of Burkina Faso has followed suit, removing the French state-owned channel from TV screens, citing security reasons. This comes four months after the broadcast license of another French-owned radio station, Radio France Internationale (RFI), was suspended by the government after …
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Over a million children are out of school in Burkina Faso following the closure of thousands of schools and learning facilities across the country in February. This has led to a 40 percent increase in the number of children out of school, since the end of the last year in Dec. 2022, according to the …
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Two employees of the Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) were killed in the early hours of Wednesday, Feb. 8, in northwestern Burkina Faso. According to the organisation, a “clearly identified” MSF vehicle carrying four of its workers was targeted by armed men and shot at, killing two of its employees while another two managed …
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The crisis in Burkina Faso is getting worse, and humanitarian organisations are calling for more money and resources from international donors to cope. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Save the Children International (SCI) amongst other international non-governmental organisations, have called for an urgent increase in funding from governments in donor countries, as nearly two million …
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