Burkina Faso
3 coup-hit West African nations exit ECOWAS citing sanctions, no support against terrorism
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have all experienced military coups in the past few years. They say the regional trade organization is not helping them fight terrorism but rather imposing severe sanctions on them. Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman reports from Ghana on the implications of their withdrawals.
Burkina Faso’s protests broke 27 years of fear and silence
Marco Werman, host of PRI’s The World, started his journalism career in Ouagadougou in 1987 just weeks before a bloody coup. The man who took power, Blaise Compaoré, ruled for 27 years before protests forced him out of office last week. Marco remembers the fear and silence that gripped the country then too.
People in Burkina Faso are taking to the streets to protest their ‘president for life’
President Blaise Compoaré has ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years thanks to a series of constitutional changes that let him skirt term limits. Now he wants to do it again and set himself up for another 15 years in office, but huge protests are calling for him to finally step down.
Report: U.S. has established extensive covert surveillance operation in sub-Saharan Africa
A new report from the Washington Post revealed this week that the U.S. military has opened a new front, a surveillance front, in Africa against al-Qaeda. Small planes are being used extensive to gather intelligence on Qaeda operations all around Africa’s embattled states.
Children treated like slaves to produce supposedly ‘fair-trade’ cotton for Victoria’s Secret
Many of the products sold at Victoria’s Secret are said to contain ‘fair-trade’ cotton. But a new report from Bloomberg News found that that cotton is often planted and picked by children 13 and younger, who are forced to work like slaves.
