Burkina Faso, Mali And Niger, three military-led Sahel countries, recently withdrew from the ECOWAS regional bloc and established a new military alliance to tackle jihadist violence in the region. But the new forces’ prospects for success are slim.
Tag: burkina faso
Struggling to find drivers in Germany, the Cologne-based trucking company Emons is now successfully recruiting apprentices in the crisis-hit central African countries of Congo and Burkina Faso. While recruiting skilled workers abroad is a slow process, it is always better than unregulated migration.
A chapter of history is closing: that of the active French military presence on the African continent, which will soon be reduced to a bare minimum after being a central element of France’s presence in its former colonial empire.
Armed conflicts, droughts, floods, poverty… Many factors are pushing some young people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to take uncertain and dangerous migration routes. In the region of Africa just south of the Sahara, unregulated migration is increasing.
Conspiracy theories about France’s involvement in every twist and turn of African politics abound. Yet, writes Adama Wade for Dakar-based Financial Afrik, using leftover grievances of colonial influence is often a way for Africans to make excuses for their political failings.
The next major geopolitical conflict is brewing in the Sahel region, in the north-central stretch of Africa south of the Sahara. Islamists and armed militias are plunging the entire region into chaos, and it is even possible a new jihadist emirate may emerge. Experts are already predicting there will be thousands of new refugees. Their destination: Europe.
Burkina Faso’s production of local chicken, nicknamed “bicycle chicken,” has been declining in recent years, with the traditional delicacy being slowly replaced by a cheaper imported version.
From North America to Africa to Europe, massive teacher shortages are threatening to derail progress on global development goals. The causes vary and sometimes overlap, but the price will be paid in the future.
Seven days a week, the “patchers” of Burkina Faso roam the streets of the country’s capital, looking out for any clothes that might need mending.
While Russia is suffering bitter setbacks in the Ukraine war, it is successfully expanding its influence in Africa. With Burkina Faso, Moscow has succeeded in detaching another country from the French sphere of influence. The Kremlin was not only motivated by security policy, but also by digging into the resources available.
Concrete and glass are often thought of as the only building materials of modern architecture. But Francis Diébédo Kéré, the first African winner of a prestigious Pritzker architecture prize, works with clay, whose sustainability is not the only benefit.
The French military announces the killing of Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahrawi the head of the jihadist group Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISIS-GS). In its long involvement in the northwest African region of the Sahel, France.
The West African country is training and arming everyday citizens to protect remote communities from terrorist groups. But some fear the strategy will lead to even more violence.
GERMAN CABINET BACKS ANTI-ISIS CAMPAIGN After agreeing last week to send 650 soldiers to Mali to support 1,500 French troops deployed to fight Islamist extremists, Germany could be about to launch a military campaign in Syria. The German cabinet voted today to send reconnaissance aircraft, a naval frigate and a 1,200-strong military force to the […]
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré from the Movement of People for Progress was elected Burkina Faso’s new president, winning more than 53% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, according to an official tally late Monday night. It was the country’s first free election in 27 years, after authoritarian President Blaise Compaoré was toppled a year ago […]
MSF DEMANDS KUNDUZ WAR CRIME PROBE Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it will take the unprecedented step of calling on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) to investigate Saturday’s bombing by U.S. forces of its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, swissinfo reports. FIRST SYRIAN AND RUSSIAN JOINT ATTACK Russian […]
EU PUSHES THROUGH REFUGEE QUOTA DEAL The European Union has approved a controversial plan to relocate 120,000 migrants from Italy and Greece over two years. EU governments forced the deal through despite the opposition of four Eastern European states, using a rule that bypasses the usually required unanimity. Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia all […]
More EU Borders Close, Obama And Francis, Invisibility Cloak
The situation in Burkina Faso was still tense Friday morning, after the rebel military installed General Gilbert Diendéré as the country’s new president Thursday, just three weeks before national elections were set to take place. “So It’s Him!” reads the front-page headline of the Burkinabe daily L’Observateur. Ousted interim President Michel Kafando, who had been […]
After Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa want to bury their dictatorships. But it is an arduous and often twisted process of political revolution.
Thomas Sankara, the Marxist icon of the 1980s, was killed in a coup by now ousted Burkina Faso leader Compaore. Today’s youth movement is still inspired by the African revolutionary.
“Our sovereign king is ill, let’s pray for him, tragedy eventually comes knocking on the door of the unknown,” Burkinabe rapper Smarty says in his track “Le Chapeau du Chef” (“The boss’s hat”), which was released back in 2012. The song, which now sounds almost like a prophetic warning to Burkina Faso’s recently ousted President […]
In Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest source of cocoa beans, illegal cultivation has spread into Mont Péko National Park, threatening both wildlife and the well-being of children.
Italians teach locals in Burkina Faso both the recipe for pizza, and the formula for a successful small business. Is this how foreign aid is transformed into sustainable development?