Conflict in Burkina Faso: Islamist extremist groups expand control to new fronts
SAM MEDNICK, of Associated Press, reports on the expanding conflict in the West African nation…
France ends West African Barkhane military operation
Paris, FranceReuters President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France’s operation battling Islamist militants in the Sahel region of West Africa would come to an end with troops now operating as part of broader international efforts in the region. France, the former colonial power, has hailed some success against Sahel militants in recent months but the […]
Food prices soar in West Africa amid conflicts and COVID, WFP says
Dakar, Senegal/Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Food prices in West Africa have jumped more than 30 per cent since last year to their highest levels in nearly a decade due to coronavirus lockdowns and a decline in cereal production, the World Food Programme said Friday. More than 31 million people are expected to become food insecure between June […]
Burkina Faso: Fulani pastor brings hope to stigmatised communities
World Watch Monitor The disproportionate presence of ethnic Fulani among Islamist militants wreaking havoc in the Sahel and West Africa has led to a stigmatisation of the Fulani generally, says a Protestant pastor from Burkina Faso. In April security forces went into Djibo, a town in the northern part of Burkina Faso and killed 31 […]
Inequality seen as a root cause of West Africa’s Sahel crisis
Dakar, SenegalThomson Reuters Foundation Unequal access to wealth is one of the main causes of worsening violence in West Africa’s Sahel, which has forced millions to flee their homes, conflict analysts said on Thursday. While Islamist groups are active in the troubled region, just south of the Sahara desert, the unrest is driven more by […]
With climate change, conflict and COVID, stresses grow for Malian villagers
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Nearly four decades ago, farmers in the small central Malian village of Dlonguebougou grew their millet crops with little more than hoes, and local mud-hut shops sold just the basics: salt, sugar, tea, cola nuts, kerosene and cigarettes. The vast empty reaches of the Sahel, stretching north into the Sahara Desert, […]
UN says coronavirus pandemic compounding “dire” situations in Mali and Sahel; Brazil death toll grows
AP The United Nations chief says the coronavirus pandemic has compounded “the dire humanitarian and security situations” in Mali and Africa’s Sahel region. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in a report to the Security Council obtained Thursday by The Associated Press that the deteriorating security situation “remains of grave concern with terrorist groups allied with al-Qaida […]
Burkina Faso attacks a reminder that conflict and violence a “daily reality” for many, says WCC head
Simultaneous attacks on a military base and town in Burkina Faso in which at least 35 civilians died along with seven soldiers are a reminder that “conflict and violence remain the daily reality for many communities”, according to Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Almost all of the civilians killed […]
Satellite data shows hunger looming in Senegal, Mauritania
Dakar, SenegalThomson Reuters Foundation Hundreds of thousands of people in Senegal and Mauritania are at risk of going hungry in the coming year because not enough grass has grown to feed the region’s cattle, analysts said on Friday. Satellite maps show barren pastures across large swaths of the two West African countries, which means animals will die, […]
Violence affects more people than ever before in Africa’s Sahel
Dakar, SenegalThomson Reuters Foundation Violence in West Africa’s Sahel region has never spread so fast nor affected so many people, the United Nations said on Thursday, warning of an “unprecedented” humanitarian crisis. The number of people uprooted in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger has increased five-fold since last year, said the UN humanitarian agency […]