Africa’s Growth Remains Low, Region Looks to Tap Resource Wealth for Sustainable Development and Transition to Low-Carbon Economies

5, April 2023

Africa’s Growth Remains Low, Region Looks to Tap Resource Wealth for Sustainable Development and Transition to Low-Carbon Economies 0

Growth across Sub-Saharan Africa remains sluggish, dragged down by uncertainty in the global economy, the underperformance of the continent’s largest economies, high inflation, and a sharp deceleration of investment growth, a World Bank report said Wednesday.  

 In the face of dampened growth prospects and rising debt levels, African governments must sharpen their focus on macroeconomic stability, domestic revenue mobilization, debt reduction, and productive investments to reduce extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity in the medium to long term.

 Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is set to slow from 3.6% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2023, according to the latest Africa’s Pulse, the World Bank’s April 2023 economic update for Sub-Saharan Africa. Economic activity in South Africa is set to weaken further in 2023 (0.5% annual growth) as the energy crisis deepens, while the growth recovery in Nigeria for 2023 (2.8%) is still fragile as oil production remains subdued. The real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of the Western and Central Africa subregion is estimated to decline to 3.4% in 2023 from 3.7% in 2022, while that of Eastern and Southern Africa declines to 3.0% in 2023 from 3.5% in 2022.

 “Weak growth combined with debt vulnerabilities and dismal investment growth risks a lost decade in poverty reduction,” said Andrew Dabalen, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa. “Policy makers need to redouble efforts to curb inflation, boost domestic resource mobilization, and enact pro-growth reforms—while continuing to help the poorest households cope with the rising costs of living.” 

 Debt distress risks remain high with 22 countries in the region at high risk of external debt distress or in debt distress as of December 2022. Unfavorable global financial conditions have increased borrowing costs and debt service costs in Africa, diverting money from badly needed development investments and threatening macro-fiscal stability. 

 Stubbornly high inflation and low investment growth continue to constrain African economies. While headline inflation appears to have peaked in the past year, inflation is set to remain high at 7.5% for 2023, and above central bank target bands for most countries. Investment growth in Sub-Saharan Africa fell from 6.8% in 2010-13 to 1.6% in 2021, with a sharper slowdown in Eastern and Southern Africa than in Western and Central Africa.

 Despite these challenges, many countries in the region are showing resilience amidst multiple crises. These include Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who grew at 5.2%, 6.7%, and 8.6% respectively in 2022. In the DRC, the mining sector was the main driver of growth due to an expansion in capacity and recovery in global demand. Harnessing natural resource wealth provides an opportunity to improve fiscal and debt sustainability of African countries, but the report cautions that this can only happen if countries get policies right and learn the lessons from the past boom and bust cycles. 

 “Rapid global decarbonization will bring significant economic opportunities to Africa,” noted James Cust, World Bank Senior Economist. “Metals and minerals will be needed in larger quantities for low carbon technologies like batteries—and with the right policies—could boost fiscal revenues, increase opportunities for regional value chains that create jobs, and accelerate economic transformation.”

 In a time of energy transition and rising demand for metals and minerals, resource-rich governments have an opportunity to better leverage natural resources to finance their public programs, diversify their economy, and expand energy access. The report finds that countries could potentially more than double the average revenues that they currently collect from natural resources. Tapping these fiscal resources in the form of royalties and taxes while continuing to attract private sector investment requires the right kinds of policies, reforms, and good governance. Maximizing government revenues derived from natural resources would offer a double dividend for people and planet by increasing fiscal space and removing implicit production subsidies. 

Football: Barca fans chant Messi’s name amid PSG exit talk

5, April 2023

Football: Barca fans chant Messi’s name amid PSG exit talk 0

Several thousand Barcelona fans at Camp Nou chanted Lionel Messi’s name in the 10th minute of the Copa del Rey semi-final Clasico on Wednesday.

The Barcelona club legend and all-time top goalscorer, currently at Paris Saint-Germain, is likely to leave the French side at the end of his contract in June, a club source told AFP on Tuesday.

Some fans sung Messi’s name outside the stadium before the clash with Real Madrid and many joined in after 10 minutes of the match, representing the Argentine’s shirt number at Barca.

“Messi is living history at Barcelona, he’s the best player in the history of football,” said sporting director Mateu Alemany before the Clasico on Wednesday.

“He’s at PSG fighting for titles and we are fighting for ours. In the future we’ll see what happens.”

World Cup winner Messi, who will turn 36 in June, joined PSG in 2021 on a two-year deal which expires at the end of this campaign.

The forward has been whistled in recent weeks by some of PSG’s own fans in Paris, frustrated at the club’s Champions League elimination by Bayern Munich.

His form has dipped since he led Argentina to glory at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year, with some seeing him as a symbol of PSG’s mistakes in signing star names at the expense of building a competitive team.

Barcelona have been openly courting Messi, hoping to persuade the forward to return to the Camp Nou two years after he left the club where he won four Champions League titles.

Messi left Barcelona when the club could not afford to renew his contract.

“I would love it if he returned,” Barca vice-president Rafael Yuste said last week as he admitted there had been “contact” with Messi.

Source: AFP

French Cameroun: Traditional leader kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants

5, April 2023

French Cameroun: Traditional leader kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants 0

Suspected members of the terror group Boko Haram have abducted a traditional leader in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to security and local sources.

The traditional leader of Hidjelidje village was abducted after militants of the terror group raided the village late Monday, a military official in the region said.

“They did not shoot. They just came and kidnapped the leader. Obviously, it was a targeted attack. Villagers are progressively fleeing the village,” the official who asked not to be named told Xinhua by phone.

Raids on civilian communities in the region in recent weeks have displaced several families, especially in the Logone and Chari division where the attacks have become frequent, according to security reports by the local police.

The terror group has been active in the region since 2014.

Source: Xinhuanet

Southern Cameroonians to pay final respects to loved ones who died at sea!! Yaoundé won’t talk

5, April 2023

Southern Cameroonians to pay final respects to loved ones who died at sea!! Yaoundé won’t talk 0

Preparations are underway in Cameroon for family members and friends to pay their final respects for some of the African migrants believed to have died in the March 28 boat tragedy.

The family of Mofor Verdo, Observer can confirm, has made arrangements in his homeland to celebrate his life.

His brother Fedelis told our newsroom yesterday that the family had been able to confirm from a survivor of the incident that Verdo was one of those killed.

Verdo was one of 30 Cameroonians who lost his life when La Belle Michelle capsized near the coast of St Kitts and Nevis, after the overcrowded fishing vessel ran into difficulty.

Verdo’s wife, according to his brother, has taken ill since hearing the news.

When Verdo left Cameroon in November, he had promised his wife that once he arrived in the US, where he had intended to end up, life would be better.

Hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians have fled violence in the Central African nation, where Anglophone separatists and government forces have been fighting each other for six years.

Several other distraught relatives are still waiting to confirm the status of loved ones believed to have been on the boat which was heading from Antigua to the US Virgin Islands.

“They are supposed to be sending the list out of both dead and alive. It is not right that we are kept in such suspense. They treat Cameroonians like dogs, locked in a cage without a name. Even dogs have names. This is painful and hurtful,” one Cameroonian here in Antigua told Observer.

Those who arrived in Antigua on charter flights from Nigeria last November and December were promised they would be transported to South America or the United States.

Instead, they were left stranded.

Meanwhile, 16 survivors who include two Antiguans remain in St Kitts and Nevis at a community centre while arrangements are made to return them to Antigua and Barbuda.

The government has been in dialogue with authorities in St Kitts to determine whether they will be transported by sea or air.

Observer can also confirm that no charges have been laid against against those suspected of organising the doomed voyage, St Kitts police confirmed to Observer. However, investigations into the incident continue in Antigua and Barbuda, along with Guadeloupe where La Belle Michelle was registered.

One of the two Antiguans on board has been released to relatives in St Kitts, according to sources.

It’s now been a week since the search for survivors was called off. And while law enforcement officials search for answers, questions linger over what international implications this matter could have on Antigua and Barbuda.

Akaash Maharaj, ambassador-at-large and former CEO of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), weighed in on that discussion earlier this week.

He said while he has not yet had dialogue with other territories, those who offer visa-free travel for Antiguans and Barbudans are likely considering tightening up travel restrictions as the country could now be seen as a nation linked to illegal migration.

“Now we see a situation where not only has there been a human trafficking situation based out of Antigua and Barbuda but there’s a reason for apprehension. That is one that happened with the knowledge and with the financing of the government.

“The question that the government should be asking themselves and other states would be asking themselves regarding what was a catastrophic error by the government of Antigua and Barbuda is, is it quite likely to repeat itself or is this potentially part of a pattern that they can expect to see happening in the future.

“That is another reason why it is so important that there is a full independent inquiry into these events,” Maharaj said.

Maharaj went on to share suggestions on how the government could help to clean up the country’s image.

“The best way the government of Antigua and Barbuda can reassure the international community that these events will not be repeated and that they need not fear that this is the first in a line of human smuggling activities is for the people within the country who are responsible for complicity to be brought to justice.

“If the international community sees any political actors’ fingerprints who were on this human smuggling operation have been struck from power, have been convicted after an independent, fair and impartial process, and have paid a price before the law enforcement system, then they will feel reassured that this is not going to reoccur, but if the government evades accountability for those who are guilty, inevitably foreign states will ask themselves, well if they got away with it this time, are they not likely to try it again,” he explained.

It is believed that about 30 migrants were smuggled out of Antigua and Barbuda aboard La Belle Michelle.

The 14 migrants who were rescued along with two Antiguans were revealed to have arrived in Antigua and Barbuda between November and December aboard charter flights from Nigeria.

Maharaj referred to last week’s ordeal as a “great tragedy” and a matter that did not need to snowball into such a fiasco.

He said government must take responsibility for it despite claims by government ministers, including Prime Minister Gaston Browne, that they were misled.

He added that the fact that the airline was part-owned by government already implicates them as “they were more than happy to take credit when it was first touted as a great tourist pool for the country”.

Source: Antigua Observer

Global Economy Trends in Nearshoring and Green Industry Can Help Boost Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean

4, April 2023

Global Economy Trends in Nearshoring and Green Industry Can Help Boost Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean 0

Latin America and the Caribbean economies have proven relatively resilient in the wake of increasing debt stress, inflation and rising global uncertainty. But new headwinds in the form of lower commodity prices, higher interest rates in developed countries and China’s unsteady recovery could potentially turn the region’s prospects bleak.

In order to boost much needed growth, countries should preserve their hard-won resilience and seize the unique opportunities global economy trends offer in nearshoring – moving production closer to home markets, and the green industry, according to a new World Bank report, “The Promise of Integration, Opportunities in a Changing Global Economy”.

The report estimates regional GDP will grow by 1.4 percent in 2023, a lower-than-expected rate. Rates of 2.4 percent are expected for 2024 and 2025, too low to make significant progress in poverty reduction.

“The region has largely recovered from the pandemic crisis but unfortunately is back to the low growth levels of the previous decade,” said Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Countries need to urgently accelerate inclusive growth, so that everyone benefits from development, and this will require maintaining macroeconomic stability and taking advantage of the opportunities trade integration offers today.”

After recovering from the pandemic, the region has managed with relative success the multiple crises caused by the Russian war in Ukraine and the uncertainties surrounding the global economy. Both poverty and employment are mostly back to pre-pandemic levels, while average inflation, excluding Argentina, is expected to decline to 5.0 percent in 2023 after reaching 7.9 percent in 2022.

According to the report, the region´s overall resilience is the result of hard-won progress in macroeconomic management over the past two decades. Preserving this progress will be paramount.

However, on average, fiscal imbalances remain high, expected at 2.7 percent of GDP in 2023, further eroding already tight fiscal space, and debt levels are estimated to reach 64.7 percent of GDP this year, slightly down from 66.3 percent in 2022. Furthermore, the recent bank failures in the US and Europe introduce additional uncertainty. Its resonance in LAC´s banking system and capital flows remains to be seen.

“The LAC region remains one of the least integrated, while trade openness and FDI flows have mostly been stagnant or decreasing over the past 20 years; countries should find ways to gain attractiveness and take advantage of the nearshoring trends,” said William Maloney, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank. “In addition, leveraging the region’s extraordinary comparative advantage in sustainable energy production, commodities necessary for emerging green industries, and the region’s unique natural capital offers a new potential source of growth, but will require policies to facilitate access to global markets, capital, and technology.”

The report suggests a series of integration advancing policies countries should consider to seize these opportunities. This includes long term policies such as reducing systemic risks, boosting traditional and digital infrastructure investments, and improving human capital, as well as short-term options such as preserving macro stability, promoting customs and transport regulatory advances, and improving export and investment promotion agencies.

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Archbishop Nkea says despite escalating violence reconstruction plan is working

4, April 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Archbishop Nkea says despite escalating violence reconstruction plan is working 0

Cameroon’s reconstruction plan for the troubled English-speaking regions is working despite ongoing violence, according Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda.

The plan was established on April 3, 2020, to rebuild infrastructure that have been shattered by a separatist war in the African country’s North West and South West regions.

Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions which constitute 20 percent of the country’s 27 million people has been the center of fighting to create a new country, which separatists call Ambazonia.

The crisis began in 2016, when teachers and lawyers in the two regions took to the streets to protest what they perceived as the over-bearing influence of French in British system schools and common law courts which have existed since the former British Cameroon joined with French Cameroon in 1961. (The two Cameroons had been a single German territory until the end of World War I, when it was divided by the two Allied powers.)

The government responded to the protests by firing on the demonstrations with live ammunition, leading to the separatist rebellion the next year. The separatist war has left at least 6000 people dead and over a million displaced, according to the International Crisis Group.

As of June 2019, at least 80 percent of schools in the two regions were closed, according to UNICEF, affecting over 700,000 children.

The health sector has also been hard hit. In 2020, the then-coordinator of the Presidential Plan for the Development of the two regions, Paul Tasong, told Crux that “in 2016, we had some 170 doctors in the hospitals and health centers. By 2019, that situation fell to 71 doctors, and the specialists became very rare. And we noticed that the rate of women giving birth to children at home in 2016 was slightly above 2 percent in the two regions, but unfortunately by 2019/2020, this situation degraded, and up to 9 percent of women gave birth to children at home. This is catastrophic. The same situation is reflected in the rate of vaccinations in the two regions.”

The Reconstruction Plan calls for the repair or replacement of 350 schools, 90 health centers, and 40 bridges. In addition, over 12,000 homes that have been destroyed will need to be replaced. Some 700 farmers will also have to be recapitalized and 200,000 people who lost official documents – including school certificates, national certificates and civil status documents –will have to be assisted in replacing them.

Speaking March 29 during a visit by Balungeli Confiance Ebune, the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Presidential Plan, to the St. Joseph School in Bamenda, Nkea said the plan was ‘building back better.”

“We [the Catholic Church] have benefitted in a very big way from the renovation of schools, and to ensure that children go back to school in better conditions than before,” the archbishop said.

A typical example was the St. Joseph nursery and primary school in Bamenda’s Old Town. It had been destroyed, but has now been completely reconstructed.

“The reconstruction respects the principle of building back better,” Nkea said.

He noted that it wasn’t only the Catholic Church that has benefitted for the reconstruction plan. Other Christian denominations and religions have benefitted as well, including the city’s Islamic primary school.

The archbishop emphasized that “the plan is working, and those still skeptical should understand.”

He called on all to work together to ensure that “we get back our society in a better way than it was before.”

During an evaluation meeting to assess the level of reconstruction, Ebune called on young people to “continue to join the active forces of the nation for long lasting  peace and development to be achieved.”

But experts have questioned the government’s decision to rebuild in the middle of continued fighting. On the same day the archbishop was making his remarks, the military was engaged in what critics have described as a scorched earth policy in Kumbo, one of the largest towns in Cameroon’s North West region.

A Catholic sister who requested not to be named for security purposes told Crux that “separatist fighters in Kumbo carried out deadly attacks targeting the military on March 29. The fighters detonated an explosive device that hit an armored car, and it was followed by a rocket-propelled grenade that they used on the military unit. The military retaliated by burning homes and property.”

Professor Verkijika Fanso of the University of Yaoundé told Crux that it was practically impossible to effectively carry out reconstruction while the fighting seems to be intensifying.

“Let them first stop the war,” he said. “Just [on March 29], several homes were burnt in Kumbo. How do you reconstruct while destroying at the same time?”

Source: Crux

US: Trump pleads not guilty to criminal charges

4, April 2023

US: Trump pleads not guilty to criminal charges 0

As expected, the former US president has entered a “not guilty” plea, Reuters reports.

Wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, Trump, 76, pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Trump has entered the courtroom on the 15th floor of the Manhattan Criminal Courts building, where his arraignment will begin shortly.

The former US president did not address the media as he entered the room.

Jail time?

While the criminal charges remain sealed, it is difficult to predict whether a potential conviction could see the unprecedented situation of a former US president being sentenced to prison.

The charges against Trump are believed to involve business fraud and campaign-finance violations, but whether they rise to the level of felonies – which carry potential jail time – is unknown for now.

Trump has no criminal record and whether he would be sentenced to prison in the event of a conviction remains to be seen.

Source: France 24

French Cameroun: Three Wounded In Boko Haram Attack

4, April 2023

French Cameroun: Three Wounded In Boko Haram Attack 0

Suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked Amchide and Kolofata in Cameroon during the early hours of Saturday, leaving three persons wounded.

Two of those wounded were shot, while the third person suffered a machete attack. Sources say they also made away with kitchen utensils, clothes, and three telephones, amongst other items in the Yaboga neighbourhood.

This is the third attack within two weeks in the locality. On March 21, at least one member of the Cameroonian forces died, and several others got injured in a landmine explosion between Amchide and Kolofata. Another attack occurred on March 18.

Since Boko Haram entered  Cameroon in 2011, it only started attacks in March 2014. The attacks had prompted President Paul Biya to join other neighbouring Presidents at a May 2014 Paris Summit to say, “We are here to declare war on Boko Haram.” Out of all border villages, Kolofata has remained one of the most hit.

Boko Haram has been trying hard to build an Islamic State in Northeast Nigeria. They easily extended attacks to the Far North of Cameroon in 2014, made easy by the region’s proximity to Nigeria.

With rising attacks this year in the Far North, other regional divisional officers are making dispositions to protect their communities from attacks.

Authorities in the Logone and Chari divisions have raised alerts on a possible infiltration of insurgents in their community. The Divisional Officer, Fombele Mathias, issued a letter to all subordinates, urging them to instantly hold sensitisation meetings, rebuild vigilante groups, engage the population and collaborate with church and traditional authorities.

Crisis Group says the Boko Haram crisis in Cameroon has caused over 1500 deaths, 155,000 displaced persons, and 73,000 refugees.

Source: Humanglemedia

US: Trump leaves Florida home to face criminal charges in New York

3, April 2023

US: Trump leaves Florida home to face criminal charges in New York 0

Donald Trump left his Florida home Monday bound for New York where he will surrender to criminal charges, taking the United States into uncharted and potentially volatile territory.

The 76-year-old Republican, the first American president ever to be criminally indicted, will be formally charged Tuesday over hush money paid to a porn star during the 2016 election campaign.

TV footage showed a motorcade departing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home at 12:20 pm (1620 GMT) to head to the city where he made his name, and where he hopes to use his appearance before a judge to rouse support for his 2024 White House bid.

“The Corrupt D.A. has no case,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social, of the Manhattan district attorney prosecuting the case. “What he does have is a venue where it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a Fair Trial.”

New York police were on high alert ahead of Trump’s arrival, with security cordons and Secret Service agents outside Trump Tower and the criminal court where he will appear before a judge Tuesday afternoon.

Police guard the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York City, where Donald Trump is expected to surrender to charges on Tuesday.

Police guard the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York City, where Donald Trump is expected to surrender to charges on Tuesday. © Leonardo Munoz, AFP file photo

New York Mayor Eric Adams warned that anyone protesting violently during Trump’s historic arraignment will be “arrested and held accountable, no matter who you are.”

“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear, is simple: ‘control yourselves’,” the mayor told a press conference.

As part of his arraignment, Trump will undergo the standard booking procedure of being fingerprinted and photographed, likely to result in one of the most famous mugshots of the modern era.

‘Up in the air’

There is no roadmap for a former president’s surrender to court authorities, and it remains to be seen whether the famously unpredictable Trump will follow the script, or find a way to upend events.

“It’s all up in the air,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said on CNN Sunday.

But a “perp walk” – in which a defendant is escorted in handcuffs past media cameras – is unlikely for an ex-president under US Secret Service protection, Tacopina said.

“Hopefully this will be as painless and classy as possible for a situation like this.”

But Trump, who has denounced the legal proceedings as a “witch hunt” and “political persecution, is girding for battle, Tacopina added.

A grand jury indicted Trump last week in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.

The specific charges will be revealed during Tuesday’s hearing. They revolve around the investigation of $130,000 paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels just days before Trump’s election win.

Trump’s former lawyer and aide Michael Cohen, who has since turned against his ex-boss, says he arranged the payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about a tryst she says she had with Trump in 2006.

Trump, who was already married to his wife Melania at the time, denies the affair.

Legal experts have suggested that if not properly accounted for, the payment could result in misdemeanor charges for falsifying business records that could be raised to felonies if it was intended to cover up a campaign finance violation.

The Daniels case is only one of several investigations threatening Trump.

Republicans unite?

An independent prosecutor is looking into any potential role Trump played in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, as well as his handling and keeping of classified documents after he left the White House.

In the swing state of Georgia, Trump is under investigation for pressuring officials to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory there – including a taped phone call in which he asked the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse the result.

Biden, knowing anything he might say could fuel Trump’s complaints of a politically “weaponized” judicial system, is one of the few Democrats maintaining silence over the indictment of his political rival.

Republicans have largely rallied around Trump, including his rival in the party’s presidential primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the indictment “un-American.”

But some Republicans bristled at the prospect of a twice-impeached president facing multiple legal probes seeking the party’s nomination.

Some observers believe the indictment bodes ill for Trump’s 2024 chances, while others say it could boost his support.

A CNN poll Monday found that 94 percent of Democrats surveyed approved of the grand jury’s decision to indict Trump while 79 percent of Republicans disapproved. Some 62 percent of independents

Source: AFP

Burkina Faso expels reporters from French newspapers

2, April 2023

Burkina Faso expels reporters from French newspapers 0

Foreign reporters working for France’s ‘Le Monde’ and ‘Libération’ dailies have been expelled from Burkina Faso as part of measures the West African country has taken against French media.

French newspaper Le Monde reported the expulsion on Sunday, saying Burkina had told French correspondents to leave.

“Our correspondent in Burkina Faso, Sophie Douce, has been expelled from the country… at the same time as her colleague from Libération, Agnes Faivre,” Le Monde announced, condemning the move as “arbitrary” and “unacceptable”.

“Libération” also said it “vigorously protests these absolutely unjustified expulsions” and suggested they were linked to an investigation it published earlier in the week.

“The March 27 publication of a Libération investigation into the circumstances in which a video was filmed showing children and adolescents being executed in a military barracks by at least one soldier evidently strongly displeased the junta in power in Burkina Faso,” the paper said.

The Burkina government spokesman said after the piece was published that “the government strongly condemns these manipulations disguised as journalism to tarnish the image of the country”.

The two reporters arrived in Paris early on Sunday after being expelled late on Saturday, Le Monde added.

Also on Monday, Burkina’s ruling junta suspended all broadcasts by the France 24 news channel, after it interviewed the head of Al-Qaeda North Africa.

In December, the Burkina junta suspended Radio France Internationale (RFI), which belongs to the same France Medias Monde group as France 24, accusing the radio station of airing a “message of intimidation” attributed to a “terrorist chief”.

Burkina Faso, which scrapped a 1961 agreement on military assistance with France only weeks after it told the French ambassador and troops to quit the country, is battling extremist militants.

This week we are focusing on the move by Burkina Faso to eject the ambassador of France from the country in response to demands by the masses who believe France is the source of insecurity in this West African country.

Bilateral ties between Burkina Faso and its former colonizer France have been strained following two military coups last year fueled in part by the failure of the government in protecting civilians from terrorist organizations in the Sahel region.

The decade-long militancy has caused significant instability not only in Burkina Faso, but also in neighboring Niger and Mali, the original epicenter of the insurgents.

Both France 24 and RFI, which cover African affairs and broadcast news in former French colonies in Africa, referred to as Françafrique, have been also suspended in Mali.

The militancy has taken on even greater proportions with the spillover effects of the crisis reaching neighboring West African littoral states such as Ivory Coast and Benin.

Source: Presstv

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