Author: djadmin

The impoverished Sahel state of Burkina Faso was plunged once more into mourning on Thursday after suspected jihadis killed 49 people in an attack that raised fresh doubts about its armed forces.

The national flag was lowered to half-staff for three days of mourning at the parliament, presidency and government in offices in the capital Ouagadougou, an AFP journalist said.

Several television and radio channels changed their programming, mostly broadcasting songs paying tribute to the defense and security forces.

Newspapers and online media placed a black edging of mourning around their front pages, although some raised pointed questions over the country’s security crisis.

“Over the past five years, the days have come and gone but look the same to the Burkinabe public,” online outlet Wakatsera said.

“The flags are raised and then almost immediately dropped to half-mast to mourn new dead, civilians and/or troops, in attacks by armed individuals who are usually never identified,” it said.

The landlocked country has been battered for the past six years by jihadi attacks from neighboring Mali, epicenter of a brutal insurgency that began in 2012 and has also hit Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the three countries, while according to United Nations figures more than 2 million people have fled their homes.

In Burkina Faso, the toll stands at more than 1,500 dead and 1.3 million displaced.

In Wednesday’s attack, 30 civilians, 15 police and four anti-jihadi defense volunteers were killed and 30 wounded near the town of Gorgadji in Burkina’s Sahel region, a security source and a government source told AFP.

The attack was in the three-border area, where the frontiers of the three countries converge and gunmen linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State roam.

The security forces killed 58 terrorists and the rest fled, according to the government.

It was the third major attack on Burkina troops in the past two weeks. The country’s armed forces are poorly equipped, ill-trained are face a highly mobile foe.

Since the start of August, more than 90 people have died in attacks in the north and northeast of the country.

“With each new attack, we say we’ve hit bottom, but then another one comes along, reminding us that there is always something worse,” said Bassirou Sedogo, a 47-year-old businessman.

“We observe national mourning, but we also wonder how an ambush against a military convoy … can leave so many casualties. If they can kill so many civilians who are under escort, that means no one anywhere in the area is safe from these killings,” he said.

The police and volunteers in the Gorgadji attack had been providing a security escort for civilians who were returning to their homes after earlier attacks, the authorities say.

Source: Voice of America

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok arrived in Juba on Thursday for two days of talks aimed at bolstering peace efforts in South Sudan amid a political crisis that ousted South Sudanese First Vice President Riek Machar as leader of the opposition party.

Officials from Khartoum and Juba are expected to discuss bilateral ties between the two countries and the implementation of the Juba peace deal signed last year between Sudan’s transitional government and several armed groups.

Sudanese Foreign Affairs Minister Mariam al-Mahdi, who accompanied Hamdok, told reporters at Juba International Airport that the Sudan leadership is concerned about the slow implementation of the South Sudan peace deal.

“We are observing the very positive development that is taking place, but there is still very observed slowness,” al-Mahdi said. “People are very concerned to revitalize and to support further the government of South Sudan to implement the agreement.”

Hamdok is scheduled to meet with South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Machar and other political players as well as diplomats from the United States, Britain and Norway.

Hamdok’s visit comes after one by Workneh Gebeyehu, the head of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional group trying to advance the peace process.

During his visit to Juba last week, Workneh said that the internal troubles within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) needed to be resolved quickly.

Fighting broke out within the SPLM/A-IO after Simon Gatwech Dual, Machar’s former chief of general staff, declared on August 4 that Machar was ousted as the party’s leader.

Top members of Machar’s faction, including former deputy Henry Odwar, later switched their allegiance to Gatwech, accusing Machar of single-handedly running all party affairs.

Following a meeting of IGAD ministers last week, the regional body said in a statement that the SPLM/A-IO split is beyond an intraparty crisis and could have significant immediate and long-term implications for the 2018 peace deal.

South Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Beatrice Khamisa, speaking Thursday while standing alongside Hamdok, said officials would discuss the SPLM/A-IO and bilateral issues.

“We have over the years signed cooperation agreements between South Sudan and Sudan,” she said. “I think those will be examined by various ministers in South Sudan and their counterparts.”

Juba and Khartoum have signed cooperation agreements on citizenship, border issues and trade.

Source: Voice of America

Saturday, August 21, is the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, a day that is unfortunately relevant in Burkina Faso which is engaged in fighting Islamist militants. One Burkinabe nonprofit, Go Paga, is helping widows and orphans grappling with the loss of husbands and fathers to rebuild their lives.

Some 1.3 million people have been displaced in Burkina Faso’s conflict since it began in 2015, and more than 6,000 killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Burkinabe military personnel are among the dead, killed fighting terror groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Loretta Ilboudou is the widow of a soldier killed in that fight. She says it was on December 24, 2019. She and her family were preparing for Christmas. Her husband’s uncles arrived in the morning, but she wasn’t informed of his death until that evening. She said she suspected something but wasn’t told anything to begin with.

Her husband died during a terrorist attack on the town of Arbinda. The couple had a daughter who was just a few months old at the time.

Her husband was a nice person, she says, a bit shy, and very serious about his work. He spent a lot of time with his family. They used to go on outings on his days off.

A nonprofit called Go Paga is helping widows like Ilboudou. Its pilot project, launched in February, provides them with support so they can make a living.

Fadima Kambou, the founder of Go Paga, says the program is about teaching the women to fish, not giving them the fish. It’s about empowering themselves and their children afterward. The aim is for Burkina Faso to have a system of care that supports what the state already provides for these widows, Kambou adds.

Terrorism victims like Ilboudou face complex issues, says Fionnuala Ni Aolain, United Nations special rapporteur for protecting the human rights of terrorism victims.

“So, we get a lot of good wishes for victims of terrorism, and we get a lot of expressions of great sorrow for their sorrow. But in many ways — and I think both speak directly about widows — the reality is that victims of terrorism, particularly women who have been victims, need concrete and practical support,” she said.

Today, IIboudou is an intern at an insurance company. She hopes to be fully employed so she can support her daughter.

Now, she says she feels ready to move forward and she says she wishes other women had this chance.

Beginning in September, Go Paga plans to roll out its program to support all military widows in the country.

Source: Voice of America