Burkina Faso: Forces Armees E.M.G.A. – Communique de Presse (24.04.2022)

Burkina Faso: Ministere des Mines et des Carrieres – Communqiue (19.04.2022)

Burkina Faso: Direction Generale de la Police Nationale – Communique No. 00110 – Attaques d’une equipe CRS a l’IED (17.04.2022)

Burkina Faso: Somita SA – Nordgold – Communique (09.04.2022)

World Food Programme: Hunger in West Africa reaches record high in a decade as the region faces an unprecedented crisis exacerbated by Russia-Ukraine conflict (08.04.2022)

Needs are escalating much faster than we are currently able to respond – this in an immensely complex and volatile operational environment.

DAKAR, Senegal, April 8, 2022 – The number of women, men and children affected by a food and nutrition crisis in West and Central Africa is expected to reach a new record high in June 2022 – quadrupling in just three years from 10.7 million in 2019 to 41 million in 2022 – unless appropriate measures are urgently taken, reveals the Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis released in March 2022.

Following the high-level conference in Paris on food security and nutrition situation in West Africa, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are calling for longer-term political and financial commitments to address the worst food security and nutrition crisis to strike the region in ten years.

“The situation is spiralling out of control. Needs are escalating much faster than we are currently able to respond – this in an immensely complex and volatile operational environment,” said Chris Nikoi, WFP’s Regional Director for West Africa.

“Both governments and partners need a step-change in tackling the underlying drivers of hunger and malnutrition. Bold and rigorous political actions are needed now, including lifting barriers to the regional trade and ensuring the most acute needs are met during a lean season that is projected to be extremely challenging in the region” Nikoi added.

There is a high risk that the food and nutrition crisis will be further aggravated due to persistent insecurity that continues to trigger massive population displacement, the impact of the climate crisis, disrupted food systems, limited food production, barriers to regional trade and the socioeconomic fallout from the pandemic which has devastated national economies. Furthermore, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is violently disrupting the global trade of food, fertilisers and oil products, with the already high prices of agricultural products reaching record highs not seen in the region since 2011.

While the increase in staple food prices has been steady in all countries in the region, a staggering 40 percent jump from the 5-year average has been witnessed in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger, Mali and Mauritania – pushing basic meals out of reach for millions of women, men and children.

“This unprecedented food crisis the region is facing offers an opportunity for us to address the root causes of food insecurity in the sub-region by developing food and agricultural systems that are less dependent on external shocks, and a more productive and efficient local agriculture with a particular emphasis on the consumption of local food products” said Dr Gouantoueu Robert Guei, Sub-Regional Coordinator for West Africa and FAO representative in Senegal.

The nutritional situation also remains a grave concern in the region, particularly in the Sahelian countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad where an estimated six million children under five are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022. Nutritional analyses conducted across the Sahel and in Nigeria point to a crisis or emergency situation in several locations in Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria.

“Africa has the largest untapped potential of arable land, yet most of these countries import food. Governments need to support long-term agriculture plans for the next generation, including investments in developing agriculture, livestock and fisheries to achieve food security”, said Benoit Thierry, IFAD Regional representative in West Africa.

The March 2022 Cadre Harmonisé projections suggest that in coastal countries, the number of food insecure people has doubled since 2020, rising from 3 million people in the June-August 2020 period to over 6 million in June-August 2022. This includes nearly 110,000 people facing Emergency (Phase 4) levels of food insecurity. The coastal region is likely to experience further increases in food prices and disruptions in the supply of agricultural products (especially fertilizers), due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

“Acute food insecurity is no longer restricted to the Sahel; it is expanding into Costal countries. We need to respond in a way that is sustainable, at the right scale, and that tackles the multifaceted socio-political and socio-economic elements of the crises the region faces. This will only be achieved through enhanced collaboration, coordination mechanisms at national and regional levels, and leadership at all levels, including from governments, donors, and UN agencies” Nikoi added.

Burkina Faso: Forces Armees E.M.G.A. – Communique de Presse (08.04.2022)

Sahel: Conférence régionale sur les changements climatiques, la paix et la sécurité en Afrique de l’Ouest et au Sahel (07.04.2022)

Burkina Faso: Porte-Parole du Gouvernement – Communique (06.04.2022)

Burkina Faso: The ones behind Sankara’s demise is finally sentenced to life in prison…

Opened on October 11, 2021, the trial on the assassination of Captain Thomas Sankara and his 12 companions reached its verdict on April 6, 2022 at the Military Court of Ouagadougou relocated to the Salle des Banquets” (…) “The Court sentenced Blaise Compaoré, Hyacinthe Kafando and Gilbert Diendéré to life imprisonment. The prosecution had however requested, on February 8, 2022, 30 years in prison against Blaise Compaoré and Hyacinthe Kafando, 20 years in prison against Gilbert Diendéré. The public prosecutor had also requested a warrant of committal for all those who were accused and requested the maintenance of the arrest warrant against Blaise Compaoré and Hyacinthe Kafando, still absent since the opening of the investigation” (Akim Ky – ‘Sankara trial: Compaoré, Kafando and Diendéré sentenced to life imprisonment’ 06.04.2022, Burkina24).

Justice is finally served for the revolutionary and inspirational leader Thomas Sankara. President Sankara who died in an assassination in October 1987. Now decades later the former friend and ally is now sentenced to life in prions in absentia. Blaise Compaoré used his leverage and power to kill his friend. Just so he could be a friend of Paris and the imperial powers who wanted to further it’s control in Burkina Faso.

Sankara will forever be written in history, because of how he valued life, dogma and political framework. That will be inspirational … and his ideas will forever lives on. While Blaise Compaoré and his allies will be remembered as traitors and people who sold out to France.

This is justice served and it’s still better than how Blaise Compaoré did after the coup d’etat in 1987 to the ones who was associated with Sankara.

As the Amnesty International Report of 1991 states:

Nineteen people arrested in December 1989 in connection with an alleged conspiracy against the government were detained throughout the year without being brought to trial. In all, 31 people had been arrested, most of them associates of former President Thomas Sankara, who was killed in a coup in October 1987 which brought President Compaoré to power. They included Raymond Train Poda, a former minister of justice, Guillaume Sessouma, a university lecturer, and Moumoni Traoré, an economist, all members of the Union de lutte communist-reconstruite (ULC-R). Union of Communist Struggle-Reconstructed, which had supported the Sankara government. The 31 also included former soldiers, some of whom had previously been detained without trial for almost two years following the 1987 coup. Four of the 31, including Guillaume Sessouma, were said by the government in January to have escaped from detention. However, there were persistence reports suggesting that Guillaume Sessouma had died under torture: later in the year. Amnesty International received information which confirmed this, although the government continued to maintain that he had escaped” (Amnesty International – Amnesty International Report – 1991, P: 51, 1991).

That the Military Court of Ouagadougou did today sentence the people who was in-connection with the murder of Sankara is about time. This has taken over 30 years and the Burkinabe can be proud of their system, which has answered it. The ones that betrayed the nation and the ideals of it. They now have await to spending time behind bars. That’s if they ever are to enter or return to Burkina Faso. As they are in exile…

What this shows… no matter how injustice is served and in interests of others. At one point or another… you could face justice for your actions. Compaoré and his allies now will have to face justice. Eventually, if they are ever to return or be repatriated to Burkina Faso. Peace.

Burkina Faso: Direction Generale de la Police Nationale – Attaque d’un Poste de controle de Polce a Kongoussi (04.04.2022)