As the United Nations Human Rights Council holds its annual meeting in Geneva, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet of OHCHR, the UN human rights agency, provided an overview on Thursday of concerns in various African nations beginning with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bachelet, a former president of Chile who was…
Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), has completed a three-nation tour of the Sahel, meeting with heads of state and other leaders focused on the security and humanitarian crises. Grandi wrapped up his mission in Burkina Faso, meeting with President Roch Marc Kaboré after stops in…
France plans to send additional troops to the Sahel and appealed for more international support for counterterrorism efforts, following a summit in the French city of Pau attended by leaders of the G5 Sahel nations on Monday. President Emmanuel Macron said 220 soldiers will reinforce the 4,500 Operation Barkhane troops…
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria are among the world’s top five countries facing humanitarian crisis in 2020, with Burkina Faso, Burundi and Chad added to the list compiled each year by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The NGO said Yemen remains the greatest concern, followed by DR Congo…
Christmas Eve in Burkina Faso has been marred by a terrorist attack that has claimed 42 lives, with President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré declaring a two-day period of national mourning that begins at midnight. The attack happened Tuesday morning in the village of Arbinda, in the northeast Soum territory along…
Leaders of the G5 Sahel nations meeting in Niamey this weekend vowed to continue their fight against extremists, while appealing to the international community for financing and support in the effort. The extraordinary summit was hosted by President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, who welcomed his counterpart Roch Marc Christian Kaboré…
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda pointed to a new partnership with Volkswagen and Siemens, one that makes his nation Africa’s first to have an electric vehicle pilot program, as evidence of what can be achieved through the G20 Compact with Africa initiative launched in 2017. His brief remarks came during…
The Global Coalition Against ISIS, meeting in the United States, said its focus is shifting to West Africa now that Islamic State – according to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – has been “defeated” in Syria and Iraq. “We agreed at the working level that West Africa and the…
The head of the United Nations rights agency, speaking ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in two weeks, says climate change is a rapidly growing and global threat to human rights. “The human implications of currently projected levels of global heating are catastrophic. Storms are rising…
The nation of Chad began a 21-day state of emergency period on Tuesday in the provinces of Ouaddaï, Sila and Tibesti, after at least 50 people have died in recently escalating communal conflict. The time period announced by senior official Kalzeubé Payimi Deubet is shorter than a three-month state of…
The threat of crop-destroying locust swarms remains for the Horn of Africa and some North African nations, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and its new Early Warning Early Action report. The United Nations agency has been monitoring the threat following “unprecedented spring breeding” that happened earlier this…
Eighteen members of the Islamic State affiliate active in Niger have been killed in a 10-day operation completed by the Nigerien military in partnership with France, Mali and the United States. That’s according to defense minister Kalla Moutari in Niamey, who announced the results of the ACONIT operation in a…
MINUSMA, the United Nations mission in Mali, has confirmed that some 100 civilians including women and children were killed in the village of Sobanou-Kou in the Mopti region during an attack by armed men on Sunday night. Witnesses and local officials say there are many wounded as well in this…
Villagers in Burkina Faso say they’re caught between the demands of armed extremists and the violence of their own security forces, in a northern Sahel region where more than 150 people have been killed and thousands forced to flee in the past year. That’s according to a Human Rights Watch…
A new report presented to the United Nations Security Council on Monday details the threat that Islamic State continues to present to the African continent, from Libya and Somalia across the Sahel and into West Africa. These fighters – whether in small clusters of a few dozen in the mountains…