Politics

Burundi parliament changes Prime Minister amidst fear of military coup

Published

2 years ago

September 9, 2022

Ifeoluwa Dada

Burundi’s parliament has sworn in a new prime minister, Gervais Ndirakobuca amidst fear of a possible military coup.

President Evariste Ndayishimiye a week ago warned that some unnamed people were plotting to overthrow his government.

The parliament unanimously voted to approve Ndirakobuca, previously minister for security and internal affairs, following his nomination by Ndayishimiye.

Ndirakobuca replaces Alain Guillaume Bunyoni, which is among the four Burundi nationals sanctioned by the European Council with travel restrictions and asset freezes for a violent crackdown on protests and a failed coup attempt.

The four people are said to be “undermining democracy or obstructing efforts to achieve a political solution to the current crisis in Burundi”.

Burundi is a landlocked country in East Africa and a low-income economy where 80% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector. Its politics have over the years been marked by widespread human rights violations including killings, disappearances, torture, and gang rape of alleged government opponents, according to the United Nations.

There have been recent coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea that has led to sanctions from ECOWAS and calls for African leaders to promote good governance in order to subdue disaffection among citizens. Is Burundi likely to join the list?

Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

22 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.