Burkina News: Rainy Season Links

A few articles to keep you posted on current events in-country.

• Reuters: Burkina sacks hundreds of soldiers over unrest
• Inter Press Service: Burkina Faso launches Operation 100,000 Ploughs in response to demands of small farmers
• Bloomberg: Booming cotton no boon to African farmers (Burkina/U.S. comparison)
• Bloomberg: Burkina is considering changing its constitution after mutinies, protests
• All Africa: Burkina is losing its forests
• Bloomberg: Burkina Faso’s Cotton Planting Plans Face Delay After Inadequate Rainfall (rainy season is off to a slow start)
• Denver Post: US Green Card Lottery results voided

Protests, Continued

Burkina Faso has stayed in the international spotlight these last couple of days with another round military protests erupting in Ouagadougou. Here’s the BBC on the initial protests with its follow-up on the president’s decision to dissolve the government. Reuters has this overview of the situation, and United Press International speculates here.

PM update: Some Ouaga merchants strike back.

I’m back at site in the East, and away from most of the activity.

Civil and Military Unrest: Media Reports

If you haven’t noticed, Burkina Faso has been making the international news lately, sadly not for positive reasons. Three separate incidents over the past six weeks have resulted in civil and military unrest.

First, in late February student protests erupted in many cities over alleged police brutality. Some protests were peaceful, but others involved the destruction of governmental buildings. Schools have been closed for much of the last month. Then, two separate military protests broke out; the first on March 23rd in Ouagadougou, and then the second from March 28th-30th in multiple regional capitals. See a first hand report from an American in Fada N’gourma here. The Burkinabe government has issued a country-wide curfew, and the US embassy has recommended US citizens abide by a dusk-to-dawn curfew. On April 1st, the AFP reported that Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore met armed forces representatives and announced the “crisis is over”.

I am safe, and have come into the capital to wait until things simmer down a bit.

News Flash: Protests

I just wanted to keep everyone in the loop with the current on-goings in Burkina. Students are protesting and have burned down several police stations and other government buildings throughout the country in response to alleged police brutality. I’ll post links to articles and update this post as I find them.  I’ve just learned that text messaging has been turned off.

*Update* Texting is up and running again.

An on the ground report by a former PCV living in Ouagadougou.

1. Global Dashboard
2. RFI
3. Afrik.com
4. NY Times
5. MSNBC
6. DirectScoop.net and this update
7. Washington Post