Burkina Faso

Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Burkina Faso, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), claimed on Thursday it was targeting militias allied with the ruling junta, not civilians, when it launched an attack that killed almost 300 people last weekend.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly ambush on a military convoy in Niger, in which 23 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.

ROME — Pope Francis has sent a telegram to the victims of Sunday’s slaughter of 15 Christians during worship services in Burkina Faso, expressing his sorrow over the assault.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced it will lift sanctions against the Niger junta.

The military juntas ruling the nations of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso issued a joint statement on Sunday announcing their exit from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Christians around the world found themselves “easy targets” for both destabilizing terrorist groups and insecure dictators, the head of a global Christian aid organization told Breitbart News this weekend.

Burkina Faso’s junta-led government signed a deal with Russia on Friday for the construction of a nuclear power plant.

Rhissa Ag Boula, a former leader in Niger’s Tuareg uprisings three decades ago, announced on Wednesday he is forming a Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) to oppose the ruling junta and restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power.

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on Tuesday that American troops remain in Niger and have no imminent plan to leave, though they remain in “clearly a not-normal situation” following the head of the presidential guard staging an attempted coup d’etat against President Mohamed Bazoum.

The governments of Burkina Faso and Mali issued statements on Monday defending the military coup in Niger last week, stating that any military intervention by democratic neighbors to oust the coup leaders in Niger would be a “declaration of war” against them, as well.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that thousands of mercenaries from the Wagner Group will remain deployed in Africa, even though Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny against the Russian military over the weekend and then sought refuge in Belarus with some of his forces.

An 88-year-old Australian doctor held captive by Islamic extremists in West Africa for more than seven years has been freed.

Last weekend saw a rash of mass casualty attacks in Africa, with atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burkina Faso, and Nigeria claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist groups.

The human rights organization Freedom House documented the smallest decline in number of countries becoming more authoritarian in 17 years in its 2023 report, a sign to be “optimistic” that a “turning point” has arrived in global liberty, report co-author Yana Gorokhovskaia told Breitbart News.

The 50th edition of the annual global survey by Freedom House found freedom declining again worldwide for the 17th year in a row, driven by events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, coups, and attacks on “democratic institutions.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that he will be reducing the number of French troops stationed in Africa while turning military bases into “academies”.

France has 400 special forces soldiers stationed in junta-ruled Burkina to battle an Islamist insurgency, but relations have deteriorated.

The Bishop of Dori, Burkina Faso, said this week that violent Muslim groups are trying to impose Islam on the whole country, destroying entire villages in the process.

Chinese state media were not much impressed by the Biden administration’s announcement on Monday of $55 billion in economic, health, and security aid for African nations.

Burkina Faso President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba resigned on Sunday, wiping out the government of the West African nation in the second coup of the year and bringing it closer to Russia’s dangerous orbit.

Islamic extremists slaughtered more than 50 people this week in an attack in eastern Burkina Faso, AsiaNews reported this weekend.

Burkina Faso has witnessed a surge in jihadist violence over the past four months since a coup d’état overthrew its government in late January, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Wednesday.

Reporters Without Borders (known by its French initials, RSF) published its annual Press Freedom Index on Tuesday, ranking America at a paltry 42nd place – behind countries like Burkina Faso and East Timor – because of the allegedly negative effect of President Donald Trump’s time in office.

A gang of some 30 Islamic terrorists stormed a Catholic seminary in eastern Burkina Faso the night of February 10, burning two dormitories and destroying a crucifix.

(AFP) — After nine years deployed in Mali, France is organising a drawdown, with troops preparing to leave the last of three bases in the far north of the insurgency-hit and poverty-wracked country.

Child soldiers “between the ages of 12 and 14” perpetrated a massacre in Burkina Faso this month that killed over 130 people, Burkina Faso’s government said on Thursday.

Angelina Jolie made a fly in-fly out visit to a remote camp in Burkina Faso on Sunday to address refugees who have fled Islamic jihadist violence in the region, warning them the threat of climate change is real and could lead millions to a fate like theirs.

Jihadist violence emptied an entire village of nearly 8,000 people in northern Burkina Faso over the weekend, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Wednesday.

Pope Francis offered prayers Sunday for the victims of a presumed Islamist slaughter of some 160 civilians in the west African nation of Burkina Faso.

A plane carrying the bodies of three Europeans killed by jihadists in Burkina Faso this week has landed in an airport in Spain.

Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso called on Christian families this weekend to “rebel” against LGBT lobbies that wish to “impose same-sex marriage” on the world.

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch published a plea to leaders of African countries Monday to stop supporting China’s attempts to avoid accountability for the ongoing genocide of Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims populations in Xinjiang.

The Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for the ambush of a military convoy in Burkina Faso November 11 that killed 14 soldiers.

The U.S. State Department’s launch of a global coalition to defend religious freedom is a “good first step” in countering a mounting wave of repression against both the faithful and those who choose not to worship, David Curry, the CEO of the Christian aid group Open Doors, told Breitbart News.

PAU, France (AP) – France is preparing its military to better target Islamic extremists in a West African region that has seen a surge of deadly violence. But first, French President Emmanuel Macron is asking African heads of state to answer a key question: “Do you want us there?”

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Jihadists attacked a town in northern Burkina Faso and killed 35 civilians, most of them women, and ensuing clashes with security forces left 80 jihadists dead, the West African nation’s president announced late Tuesday.