Bamako, Mali | AFP | If military operations depend on winning hearts and minds, the thousands of foreign troops deployed to the Sahel to combat jihadism seem to be on losing ground. At first welcomed, these troops find themselves today in the crosshairs as a growing number of locals in this …
Read More »Inside Burkina Faso’s failing fight against jihadism
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | The expert cups his hands, with the ball-like space between them representing Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. He then slowly squeezes his palms together: “The vice is tightening,” he says. The movement is a distressing, yet truthful, statement of where Burkina Faso stands in …
Read More »Flee or die: The cruel choice in jihad-hit Burkina Faso
Yagma, Burkina Faso | AFP | “We have nothing,” says Belen Boureima, a 74-year-old farmer, as his weathered face contemplates the scrap of land in the remote village he and his family must now call home. “But it’s better to be alive here than to stay in Djibo and die.” …
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