Sahel-Based Extremist Groups Shatter the Calm of Burkina Faso ADF STAFF Burkina Faso’s Splendid Hotel promotes itself to international visitors by listing the amenities many have come to expect. Room service. A front desk staffed 24 hours a day. Proximity to restaurants and local attractions. Free Wifi. Business travelers, diplomats and vacationers all have made the Splendid their temporary home when visiting the capital, Ouagadougou. Its rooms offered a natural sense of calm and safety. That was the feeling that a half-dozen al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb militants sought to shatter in January 2016 when they laid siege to the…
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ADF STAFF Sometimes, scenes of serenity and calm can be found close to anxiety and unrest. This young Congolese boy would seem to have found just such a spot. He rested along a road connecting the small town of Rudaya, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the bustling city of Goma, the capital of the troubled North Kivu province, in August 2019. That same month, the Ebola virus, long the scourge of the region, had been contained in Goma, according to NPR.org. Just more than a month since the deadly hemorrhagic fever spread to Goma, national and international health…
After Five Years, France’s Operation Barkhane Sees Progress Toward Peace in the Sahel ADF STAFF | Photos By Reuters Operation Serval marked a high point for France’s military in the modern era. The 18-month mission began in January 2013 at the request of Mali’s government as extremist groups pushed south and threatened to overrun the capital, Bamako. The 4,000-person French effort used a combination of ground forces, aerial bombardments, armored divisions and special operators to halt the advance, liberate all major cities in Mali’s north, and decimate the extremist leadership. Three of the five top terror leaders in Mali were…
Extremism in Mali has Shifted to the Central Region, Where One Group Feeds on Ethnic and Cultural Tensions ADF STAFF Mali has been a cauldron of violence since early 2012, when a Tuareg rebellion and military coup threw the nation into sustained chaos. Unrest that began in the north prompted an intervention by French and Chadian forces, as well as a huge United Nations peacekeeping operation that continues today. These forces reversed or halted rebel advances into major cities and toward the capital, Bamako. Since 2015, however, violence has intensified and shifted its center of gravity to central Mali, primarily…
Radio shows, WhatsApp groups, after-school programs and even comic books take aim at radical groups ADF STAFF The social media app TikTok is aimed at teenagers, who create and share 15-second videos. It has 500 million users globally, making it one of the world’s most popular apps. ISIS sees its possibilities as a propaganda tool. In October 2019, TikTok began taking down accounts that the extremist group was using to recruit followers. The Wall Street Journal reported that the videos featured corpses being paraded down streets, along with ISIS fighters carrying guns. TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, said it permanently…
The Sahel’s Harsh Terrain Is Fertile Ground for Recruiting Youths. Groups and Governments Must Offer Alternatives. ADF STAFF Life in much of the Sahel is hard. The United Nations estimates that roughly 80% of the Sahel’s farmland is degraded. Droughts and floods are growing longer and more frequent, undermining food production. It’s one of the poorest regions on Earth, with 44% of its children lacking access to primary education. Only a third of the population can read and write. Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for the Sahel, said the region’s governments must spend a significant amount on their growing…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Kenyan distance runner Eliud Kipchoge made history by completing a marathon in under two hours. His feat was greeted with joy and pride in his home country. “I am happy today because he has won in Kenya and in the world. I thank him so much for this, for me, for Kenya and the world,” said Kipchoge’s mother, Janet Rotich, who watched in her home village, Kapsisiywa. Kipchoge’s run in Vienna, Austria, was broadcast live on all of Kenya’s television stations. The run is not an official world record because of the use of runners who helped pace…
BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS “Painting is for lazy people,” Ajarb Bernard Ategwa’s father would tell him as a child. Daydreaming and doodling in his schoolbooks would often get him scolded. But the Cameroonian artist, now 30, got the last laugh. Ategwa says his vivid paintings of life in Cameroon’s biggest city, Douala, sell for up to $26,000. “It’s the only thing I know how to do,” he said. “So painting is my life. At times when I’m angry, painting calms me down.” He never formally trained as an artist and says he has used the same bold approach to color…
VOICE OF AMERICA Bayern Munich, the champion of Germany’s Bundesliga, the top tier of the nation’s football league system, has signed an agreement to open its first football school in Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Bayern Munich representatives said they were inspired by the young football players and fans in Ethiopia, which is ranked 150th worldwide, according to the international soccer governing body, FIFA. “Two-thirds of the Ethiopian population is younger than 25 years. We will support the Ethiopian Football Federation in terms of young development and coaches’ education programs,” said Holger Quest, team leader of media operations at Bayern…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE After two decades without a national airline, Uganda commemorated the return of Uganda Airlines with a flight from Entebbe to Nairobi, Kenya. The airline initially will fly to seven destinations, including Nairobi; Mogadishu, Somalia; Juba, South Sudan; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; said Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda during a ceremony at Entebbe International Airport. The country has acquired two new Bombardier CRJ 900 jets and is expected to receive another two in 2019. It will add two Airbus A330-800 planes in 2020 for long-haul flights. Uganda Airlines is launching into increasingly crowded East African skies. Rwanda and Tanzania…