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The death toll from a weekend attack on a gendarmerie post in northern Burkina Faso has risen to at least 53, according to officials. The attack, near a gold mine in Inata, killed 49 military police officers and four civilians, government spokesperson Ousseni Tamboura said on Wednesday, updating a previous estimate of 32 killed. Fortunately, we have found 46 gendarmes” alive, Tamboura said after a cabinet meeting. However, there were fears the toll could yet rise further as reports quoted local sources as saying that approximately 150 gendarmes were stationed at the facility. Sunday’s bloodshed in the northern Soum region was one of the deadliest to hit Burkinabe defence and security forces since violence perpetrated by armed groups erupted six years ago. It has provoked protests about the authorities’ failure to curb the years-long conflict that has killed thousands of people and forced more than a million people to flee their homes.... Read more

KAYA, Burkina Faso -- A 20-year-old woman could no longer live in her village amid the rising violence caused by Islamic extremists. But she needed to return and retrieve the family's cows in hopes of selling them. If her husband went, jihadists would almost certainly kill him. She went instead, and was dragged into the bush, beaten and raped at knifepoint.  “I screamed, but I couldn’t overtake him, so I cried,” she recalled in a phone interview from Barsalogho town in the Center North region where she now lives. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual violence. The extremist violence in Burkina Faso linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group is fueling an increase in sexual assaults against women, especially those displaced by attacks. Many are preyed upon as they attempt to collect belongings they left behind. The violence killed more than 2,000 people last year, according to... Read more

Four African nations are target  of a new travel ban by United States president Donald Trump, multiple news sources have reported. An official announcement is expected by next week. Incidentally, only one of the quartets is a Muslim-majority nation i.e. Sudan. The others are Eritrea, Nigeria and Tanzania. During an engagement on the sidelines of the ongoing 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump, told the Wall Street Journal that plans were afoot to upgrade the controversial list. He however remained mute on the affected countries. The measure will largely be affected specific types of visas as and when the list is finalized, sources close to the issue added. Analysts have averred that business or visitor visas could likely be impacted. Barely a year after coming into office, Trump issued his first controversial travel ban which barred people from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Libya and Somalia... Read more

The International Committee of Sankara annual Conference was held in December 8, 2019 in Harlem in New York as participants came  from many States of the United States of America as well as Canada. They came  not only to listen to what five panelists who discussed  the  topic about “Thomas Sankara’s legacy today,” but also to  opine on the matter. Paul Sankara the brother of Thomas Sankara was there too. “Education under Sankara’s revolution,  the role of women under Sankara’s revolution, Sankara ’speech in Harlem, Sankara everywhere, Sankara nowhere, terrorism in Burkina Faso,” were the sub topics, which were at the center of the debate.  Basninwende Isonore Dianda, teacher one of the panelists said that education in Burkina Faso before Sankara was functionalist as it was intended to serve the colonizer. Having a chance to attend school  according to Dianda was a privilege. In fact,  school was for the elite... Read more

NEW YORK — The cutthroat competition among Uber, Lyft, other e-hail car services, livery companies and the Yellow Cab fleet bosses has claimed a seventh suicide victim here. Fausto Luna flung himself in front of an oncoming subway train and died Sept. 26. The 58-year-old Uber driver had told friends he was getting depressed in face of mounting debts and increasing overtime. His situation isn’t unusual. Uber drivers’ incomes fell 53 percent from 2013 to 2017, according to a study released by the J.P. Morgan Chase Institute that same month. “Alongside the rapid growth in the number of drivers has come a steady decline in average monthly earnings,” the report said. Uber disputes the findings, saying declining incomes result from drivers “choosing” to work part time. Today more than 100,000 e-hail cars flood New York City streets, compared to 67,500 in 2016. That’s on top of some 13,500 Yellow Cabs,... Read more