Why We Wrote This
What costs are acceptable to pay for peace? A handful of local negotiations with insurgents in the Sahel puts a spotlight on a debate about whether to talk with militants.
The Sahel is awash in jihadi insurgencies. From Nigeria to Mali, the stakes are high. About a million people have been displaced by conflict in Burkina Faso alone, where hundreds of people have died.
For months, human traffickers beat and drugged Blessing, hauling the 27-year-old from one gold mine encampment to the next, where each night she was forced to sleep with dozens of men for less than $2 a person.
The madam who lured Blessing to the landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso with promises of a hair salon job, threatened to kill her if she tried to run away.
More than 10,000 Angolans have taken refuge in Namibia due to the drought, an official said Wednesday.
Angola shares a 1,100km border with Namibia in the provinces of Cunene, Namibe and Cuando Cubango.
The border is porous and allows easy illegal crossings.
The U.N. Security Council held an informal meeting Thursday focusing on the repatriation of more than 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya, a demand of the country’s transitional government as it heads toward December elections after a decade of fighting and upheaval.
Vietnam’s U.N. Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, the current council president, told several reporters that members stressed the importance of implementing last October’s cease-fire agreement which included the withdrawal of all foreign fighters and mercenaries within three months. That didn’t happen.
But a summit for heads of state to ratify the plan has been postponed.
Southern African ministers have agreed to deploy a regional force in Mozambique to help that country defeat an Islamic State-linked insurgency.
The ministers, representing the troika of the security organ of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), appear to have accepted a plan proposed by their military officials to send in a 2,916-strong rapid response force.
On March 24, Ansar al-Sunna, a militant group linked to the Islamic State, launched a bloody attack on the coastal town of Palma, in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, leaving at least 61 dead and scores more unaccounted for.
Somalia stepped back from the brink of widespread violence Wednesday, when incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed abandoned his controversial effort to unilaterally extend his term amid months of electoral turmoil. Mohamed’s about-face came after several weeks of escalating conflict, sparked by his decision on April 14 to sign a law extending his mandate and that of federal lawmakers by two years.
L’Union européenne s’apprête à réaffecter 121 millions d’euros d’aide au développement destinés à l’Érythrée en faveur d’autres projets dans la Corne de l’Afrique. Cette volte-face de la Commission de Bruxelles est motivée, selon nos informations, par le blocage par Asmara des chantiers financés, mais aussi par l’engagement des troupes érythréennes dans le Tigré.
Une ONG sensibilise sur les dangers de la migration irrégulière. Le message semble avoir été bien perçu par les jeunes qui sont tentés de quitter le pays.
Depuis quelques mois, une ONG ivoirienne sensibilise les jeunes sur les dangers de la migration irrégulière. Après cinq localités à l’intérieur du pays, Yopougon, commune située dans le nord d’Abidjan, a constitué la sixième étape, ce mercredi (28.04.21).
Au Burkina Faso, plusieurs milliers de personnes sont descendues le week-end dernier dans les rues de Fada, grande ville de l’Est en proie au terrorisme, pour réclamer davantage de sécurité, de meilleures infrastructures routières, des hôpitaux de qualité.
Plusieurs milliers de personnes sont descendues samedi dans les rues à Fada N’Gourma, à plus de 200km de Ouagadougou, dans l’Est du pays. Une région qui souffre depuis des années de la présence de groupes djihadistes. En tête de liste des revendications, l’amélioration de l’état des routes dans la région.