Sahel Edition

Niger crisis: Burkina Faso sides with Niger junta, suspends media for anti-Niger stanceF

Posted On 12 August 2023

Number of times this article was read : 1456

Burkina Faso’s junta-led government has suspended one of the country’s most popular radio stations after it broadcast an interview deemed “insulting” to Niger’s new military leaders. Radio Omega was immediately suspended on Thursday “until further notice,” Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a statement. He said the measure was “in the higher interests of the Nation.” The station, part of the Omega media group owned by journalist and former foreign minister Alpha Barry, ceased broadcasting after the statement was issued late Thursday.

The channel had run an interview with Ousmane Abdoul Moumouni, the spokesman of a newly-established Nigerien group campaigning to return President Mohamed Bazoum to power. The country’s elected leader was overthrown on July 26 by members of the Presidential Guard.

Moumouni made “insulting comments with regard to the new Nigerien authorities,” said Ouedraogo, who is also government spokesman. His organisation “is clearly campaigning for violence and war against the sovereign people of Niger” and seeks to restore Bazoum “by every means,” he charged. Radio Omega on Friday said it would turn to “every means of recourse” to fight the suspension.

The decision is a “blatant violation of current laws and an unacceptable attack on freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” it said. The order, it added, came after “numerous death threats” had been made against the station’s managers and journalists “from people  describing themselves as supporters of the government.”

Burkina Faso underwent two military coups last year, each triggered in part — as in Mali and Niger — by discontent at failures to stem a raging jihadist insurgency. It swiftly declared solidarity with Niger’s new leaders and joined Mali in warning that any military intervention to restore Bazoum would be considered a “declaration of war” against them.

The Burkinabe authorities in recent months have suspended the French TV outlets LCI and France24 as well as Radio France Internationale (RFI) and expelled the correspondents of the French newspapers Liberation and Le Monde.

AFP

More on the Sahel

West Africa: Jihadist Attacks Intensify in Northern Benin Amid Cross-Border Insurgency Pressure$

Jihadist attacks in northern Benin have intensified in recent weeks, with militants linked to JNIM claiming a deadly assault on a military position near the Niger border and carrying out additional raids on security posts along the country’s volatile frontiers with Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The violence underscores how northern Benin has become part of a wider cross-border insurgency spilling south from the central Sahel, even as authorities bolster Operation Mirador and try to prevent armed groups from entrenching themselves on Beninese soil.

Desert Locusts Stir Fresh Worries in North-West Africa$

Small desert locust swarms recently detected along the western Sahara corridor have prompted stepped-up monitoring across parts of North and West Africa, where shifting rainfall can quickly turn quiet desert areas into launchpads for wider infestations.

Mali Army, Russian Allies Accused of Executing Civilians Near Mauritania Border$

Seven Malian refugees traveling from Mauritania were allegedly executed by Malian soldiers and Russian Africa Corps personnel near Ahl El Kory, close to the Mauritanian border, after their vehicles were stopped on March 6. Local sources say the unarmed Fulani civilians were shot or had their throats cut, while other passengers were beaten, questioned as suspected jihadists, then released.