Why Washington is Worried About Burkina Faso’s Young Revolutionary Leader

Why Washington is Worried About Burkina Faso’s Young Revolutionary Leader


Related Videos:

Source (Full video) / Stenographic Transcript Before the Subcommittee on Seapower (p.96)

HRW accused Burkina Faso of war crimes

Ibrahim Traoré on NGOs (HRW)

Related Articles:

The US/EU/NATO’s Regime Change Playbook for Burkina Faso and Captain Ibrahim Traoré

The Rising Star of Cpt. Ibrahim Traore – Burkina Faso’s Spirit of Sankara

In February 2024, Traoré ordered the suspension of the issuance of export permits for small-scale private gold production, a move aimed at tackling illegal trade. According to the World Gold Council’s 2023 figures, Burkina Faso is the 13th-largest gold producer in the world, producing about 100 tonnes, equivalent to about US$6 billion in value, each year.

Document: Burkina Faso

Niger Military Coup | What They Are Not Telling You

On the 10th of April 2022, the former president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum posted on Twitter, that “about 30 senior state officials are guilty of embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds. One of them is Niger’s communications minister who had been detained in a high-profile embezzlement case dating from when he ran a state corporation that manages Niger’s mining sector. The 2 social activists that raised the corruption alarm, Abdoulaye Seydou and Adamou Idrissa, were later arrested and transferred to the high security prison according to their coalition.

Meanwhile, French Energy giant Orano announced that it was shutting down its second largest mine in Niger after 50 years of exploitation. Their reason was the uranium deposits at the sites have been depleted.

So in Niger, you have a country with its natural resources being depleted while senior officials in government are notorious and robbing the country. But there is more. According to a publication by Reuters, An audit by the Nigerien Budgetary Transparency Agency, reported a lack of documents to back several government spending and justify the cost of infrastructure projects. The report also noted fake public tenders, and the “granting of undue advantages to certain companies. However the former president Mohamed Bazoum maintained a clean posture that endeared him to the US and ECOWAS leaders.

The former president may not be the problem, but clearly his government was riddled with corruption.

In the morning July 26 2023, the Niger presidential palace and adjacent ministries were blocked off by military vehicles and palace staff were prevented from accessing their offices. The President Mohammed Bazoum had just been removed from office. Some civilian supporters of Bazoum tried to approach the palace, but were dispersed by the Presidential Guard with gunfire, leaving one injured. Elsewhere in Niamey, the situation was described as calm.

Later In the evening, Air Force Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane went on state television to confirm that Bazoum had been removed from power and announced the formation of a National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.

He also announced the suspension of all activities by political parties in the country until further notice.

Alarmed by the recurrence of military coup in the region, ECOWAS leaders swiftly responded and gave Niger’s coup leaders a one-week deadline to hand power back to Bazoum or face international sanctions and the region’s military intervention. However the defence minister of Neighbouring Nigeria, maintained the need for diplomacy. Present at the meeting to echo the fears of ECOWAS leaders that are grappling with similar corruption in their governments was Ghana defence minister.

Niger Military Coup | What They Are Not Telling You via Africa Views

Related:

Read More »

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger + More

Let us travel back in time to April 9, 1999. It was the middle of hot season in the West African country of Niger and 120 degrees in the shade. Jocelyn, one of the authors, was a newly minted Peace Corps volunteer and had recently arrived in a rural community 60 miles south of Niamey, the capital, where she would spend the next two years. That day, President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara and five other people were shot dead at the airport, a mutiny by his presidential guard. But there was no international outcry, no evacuation of Americans and Europeans. Jocelyn was told to stay put in the small community where she was living. Life went on as usual.

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger | Opinion

Related:

“Divide and Rule”: Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni Is Biden’s “Political Asset”. U.S. Behind Niger Coup d’Etat. America’s Hegemonic Wars Against Europe and Africa

Why might Africa want France gone? + ECOWAS Activates Standby Force for Potential Niger Intervention

Let’s continue to follow the post-coup situation in Niger. We had Victoria Nuland travel to Niger, presumably to help organize the overthrow of the government since 1- that’s usually what a visit from Nuland portends and 2 – a “rebel movement” called the Council of Resistance for the Republic under the leadership of someone named Rhissa Ag Boula started just after her visit. If there is going to be a Western war over this coup, it is likely that Nigeria – the giant country in West Africa with 224M people, much bigger than all other countries in the region combined – will be a part of the intervention, as would France and presumably the US. Other countries of the region are lining up on one or the other side, with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Algeria all lining up with the post-coup Niger government, so we are in a scary situation.

Why might Africa want France gone?

Related:

ECOWAS Activates Standby Force for Potential Niger Intervention

Sudan’s warring sides send envoys for talks in Saudi Arabia

ASWAN, Egypt (AP) — Sudan’s two warring generals sent their envoys on Friday to Saudi Arabia for talks aimed at firming up a shaky cease-fire after three weeks of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds and pushed the African country to the brink of collapse, three Sudanese officials said.

Sudan’s warring sides send envoys for talks in Saudi Arabia

Related:

Role of US troops in Sudan to shift as Biden administration sees no quick end to fighting

H/T: Emil Cosman

German ambassador expelled from Chad

German ambassador expelled from Chad

But a Chadian government official told AFP anonymously that N’Djamena blamed the diplomat for “interfering too much” in the “governance of the country”, as well as “remarks tending to divide the Chadians“.

The main opposition leaders have been in exile or in hiding since the bloody repression of a demonstration against the government on 20 October 2022, which officially left 73 people dead, but many more according to NGOs, which also mention “forced disappearances” and “extrajudicial executions”.

Related:

2022 Chadian protests:

Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo called the protests an “armed insurrection”. He also personally ordered the ban on several opposition parties, claiming they had “led a rebellion in the south and killed people”.