Bookmarks (17) clear filters

Human Rights Watch suggests involvement of security forces in deaths over recent monthsAt least 180 civilians have been killed in recent months in a single town in Burkina Faso, with evidence pointing towards the country’s often-accused security forces, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).Between November 2019 and June this year, groups of dozens of dead bodies were found often tied and...

Amnesty records 200 state killings and forced disappearances in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, state members of internationally-backed G5 groupHundreds of civilians have been killed by their own governments in Africa’s Sahel region since countries pledged a surge against militant groups at a regional meeting held by France in January.Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it had documented 200 cases of unlawful state killings...

Covid-19 lockdown made children vulnerable to abuses including FGM and child marriage say NGOs, as schools in England prepare to reopenCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCovid-19 school closures have exposed children around the world to human rights abuses such as forced genital mutilation, early marriage and sexual violence, child protection experts say.Globally, the World Bank estimates that 1.6 billion children were locked...

A campaign of indiscriminate killings has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Now there are fears for the state’s survivalThe road south towards Kaya is no longer safe, but thousands take it every day. They come on foot, piled on to scooters or next to donkeys straining at their carts. They testify to atrocities by masked men that are never claimed and whose...

Thousands are being killed across the Sahel region in what is becoming the new battlefront with militantsImagine the reaction in Britain if armed Islamist jihadists were to burst in on a Sunday church service in a Surrey village, spraying automatic weapon fire at the congregation and killing the vicar and at least 23 worshippers. Horror and fury would be unconfined. The attack would be...

Defence minister hails ‘cooperation’ in fight against militants after Nigerien and French forces’ offensive in restive Tillaberi regionMore than 100 “terrorists” have been killed in south-west Niger by local forces in a joint operation with French troops, the country’s defence ministry said.As of Thursday “120 terrorists have been neutralised” in the operation in the vast Tillaberi region near the border with Mali and Burkina...

Officials say that between 10 and 30 people were killed in the northern Soum provinceDozens of people are feared dead following an attack by Islamic militants on a village in Burkina Faso, the latest bloody incident in an unprecedented surge of violence across the restive Sahel region.Details of the attack, which occurred on Saturday and targeted the village of Silgadji in the northern Soum...

In one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso, a very special school gives new hope to orphaned or disadvantaged girlsIn Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso in west Africa, a school and training programme is combating entrenched attitudes and gender stereotypes that confine women to low-paid unskilled labour, or worse. At the CFIAM, girls and young women, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, can...

More than 4,000 reported dead last year amid fears region may slide into violent chaosThe Sahel is facing an unprecedented wave of violence, with more than 4,000 deaths reported last year, and a bloody start to 2020.The number of attacks have increased fivefold in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger since 2016, United Nations figures have revealed. Continue reading...

Health and climate concerns are behind the growth of plant-based diets which were once prevalent on the continentIn the meat-loving capital of Burkina Faso, customers at a small roadside joint eat bean balls, grilled tofu skewers and peanut butter rice while a report about chickens unfit for consumption being dumped on the street airs on the midday news.A sign above the door proudly welcomes...

Seven members of the security forces died, while 80 insurgents were reported killedJihadists in Burkina Faso have killed 35 civilians, mostly women, after attacking a military outpost in northern Soum province, authorities have said.The violence, which erupted in the town of Arbinda near the country’s border with Mali, lasted for several hours, according to a military statement. Seven members of the security forces who...

Schools targeted by extremist groups as half a million people are driven from their homes by violence and the climate crisisRoukiata Sow looks tired. The mother of five has welcomed 26 people under the roof of her small brick house. “What will those kids become? Some haven’t been to school for more than two years … Are they all going to be bandits?” she...

Children bear the brunt as extremism and climate crisis drive almost 500,000 people from their homesThe UN food agency has warned of an “escalating humanitarian crisis” in Burkina Faso, driven by growing extremist violence and the long-term impact of climate crisis in the arid central Sahel region.A sharp increase in attacks, the result of the west African country becoming embroiled in the jihadist insurgency...

A radical experiment to genetically modify a strain of mosquito in order to stop them breeding malaria-carrying daughters is one of the latest efforts to tackle the deadly scourge of malaria At 6.30am five-year-old Osman Balama and his mother reach the state hospital of Bobo-Dioulasso, the second-largest city in Burkina Faso. He hasn’t been feeling well for a few days and his mother is...

Workers’ buses hit near Semafo’s Boungou mine in Est province, as military struggles to control Islamist violence Thirty-seven civilians were killed and more than 60 wounded when gunmen ambushed a convoy transporting workers of Canadian gold miner Semafo in eastern Burkina Faso, regional authorities have said. The attack on Wednesday is the deadliest in recent years as the military struggles to contain Islamist violence...

Deadly assault on gold mine follows spate of violence in region south of Sahara blamed on Islamist insurgencyAround 20 people have been killed in an attack on a gold mining site in northern Burkina Faso, security sources said, the latest in a spate of violence blamed on a jihadist insurgency across the region.The attack on Friday took place in Soum province not far from...

Unicef report points to three-fold increase in number of schools closed in the region in two years due to intensifying conflictMore than 1.9 million children are forced out of school across west and central Africa due to rising violence and insecurity, putting them at higher risk of recruitment by armed groups, the UN’s children agency has warned.In an urgent report published on Friday, Unicef...