Civilian to head one-year transition in Burkina Faso

Three West African Presidents brokered an agreement on a one-year political transition in Burkina Faso leading up to elections in Nov. 2015, local media reported on Thursday.According to the agreement, the military would hand power over to an eminent civilian personality to lead the transition.

The reports said political parties and civil society groups would be able to propose candidates for the post.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall, Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan and Ghana’s John Mahama arrived on Wednesday in Ouagadougou.

It said that they met new military leader Isaac Zida, diplomats, representatives of political parties and civil society as well as religious and traditional leaders.

Zida took power after Compaore resigned on Friday, following massive demonstrations demanding an end to his 27-year rule.

“Burkina Faso should overcome the pain as quickly as possible, so that all parts of society can participate in decisions making it possible to create a stable democracy,’’ Mahama said.

 

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Civilian to head one-year transition in Burkina Faso

West Africa in crisis talks as Ebola spreads

Health ministers from across western Africa gathered on Wednesday to plan “drastic action” against the world’s deadliest-ever Ebola epidemic as dozens of new cases continued to emerge

There have been 759 confirmed or suspected cases of the haemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, with 467 people dead.

The new death toll represented a rise of 129 — or 38 percent — since the UN agency’s last bulletin given just a week ago.

“This makes the ongoing Ebola outbreak the largest in terms of the number of cases and deaths as well as geographical spread,” the WHO said in a statement announcing a two-day conference in Ghana to be attended by 11 West African health ministers.

“Decisions taken at this meeting will be critical in addressing the current and future outbreaks,” it said.

Since west Africa’s first ever epidemic of the deadly and highly contagious fever broke out in Guinea in January, the WHO has sent in more than 150 experts to help tackle the regional crisis.

Despite the efforts of the UN agency and other health workers, there has been a “significant increase” in the rate of new cases and deaths in recent weeks, the WHO said.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said last week that the spread of the virus, which has had a mortality rate of up to 90 percent in previous outbreaks, was “out of control”, with more than 60 outbreak hotspots.

The agency has warned that Ebola could spread to other countries, warning those hardest hit could struggle to contain the disease.

The agency’s top Ebola specialist Pierre Formenti told AFP last month that the recent surge in cases had come in part because efforts to contain the virus had been relaxed too quickly after the outbreak appeared to slow down in April.

“One case can restart an entire epidemic,” he warned, justifying the dramatic measures taken to contain Ebola, which is spread via bodily fluids including sweat, meaning just touching an infected person is enough to spread the virus.

- Unstoppable bleeding -

Ministers from Guinea, where 413 confirmed, suspected and probable cases have surfaced so far including 303 deaths, and Liberia, which has seen 107 cases and 65 deaths, will take part in the meeting.

Sierra Leone, which has recorded 239 cases and 99 deaths, will also be represented at the conference.

In addition, officials from Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, along with Ghana and countries as far afield as Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been invited, the WHO said.

They will be joined by a host of UN agencies and other aid organisations including MSF and the Red Cross, as well as personnel from disease control centres in western Africa, the United States, Britain and the European Union.

The WHO has described the current Ebola epidemic as one of the most challenging since the virus was first identified in 1976 in what is now DR Congo.

That outbreak, the deadliest until this year, killed 280 people, according to WHO figures.

Ebola can fell its victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea — in some cases shutting down organs and causing unstoppable bleeding.

No specific medicine or vaccine exists for the virus, which is named after a small river in the DR Congo.

“So far we are free from Ebola but we cannot rest on our laurels,” a spokesman for Ghana’s health ministry told AFP.

“We can’t afford to have Ebola in Ghana and we also need to stop this from spreading in the other west African nations.”

 

West Africa in crisis talks as Ebola spreads

Nigerian Muslim clerics recruiting Boko Haram members – Cameroon Govt

LAGOS—Nigerian Muslim clerics living in the border towns of Cameroon and Nigeria are recruiting Boko Haram members in their mosques, the government of Cameroon has alleged. Worse still, government officials in the North East states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa collaborate with the terrorists and take bribes from them, thereby, hindering the fight against the terrorists. Governors of these states also capitalise on their civilian fears to berate the army and the federal government.

These allegations were published in a report, yesterday, by US-based online military news agency, StrategyPage. The magazine explains that the army wants governors in the affected states removed because “many officials in those states are cooperating with Boko Haram (to avoid attack) and are taking bribes from the Islamic terrorists.

“Some of these officials are covering themselves in case Boko Haram should gain power and the governors are often just responding to civilian fears of army misconduct,” it noted.

The magazine said: “Cameroon is also concerned about pro-Boko Haram clerics from Nigeria quietly preaching and recruiting for Boko Haram in Cameroon mosques.

“Islamic conservative clergy are not unusual on either side of the border, but those who do not denounce Boko Haram are suspected of quietly recruiting young men to join the “jihad” (struggle) and fight (and often die) in Nigeria. These preachers have to recruit quietly because otherwise police in Cameroon will arrest and deport them, sometimes after a vigorous interrogation. Evidence of this recruiting is showing up when some of the recruits return from Nigeria with tales of disillusionment and adversity while with Boko Haram,” the report said.

The magazine said that the Cameroonian government is “being criticized because recent claims of large (over 5,000 weapons) arms seizures near the Nigerian border could not be verified by reporters. Civilians living in villages near where the government said the seizures took place said they saw nothing. The government responded that the smugglers operated in remote areas and avoided civilians as well as security forces. There are also concerns that even if weapons were seized they would, as often happens, be sold back to black market arms dealers so that government officials could keep the cash.”

On the military, the report said: “Residents of those three states have justifiable complaints about the army, in particular the casual attitude of the military towards the safety of civilians and their property.

“The army is also unreliable when it comes to sharing information on casualties. Thus Boko Haram related deaths so far this year are believed to be (based on local reports) at least 1,500, which is 50 per cent more than what the army reports. Boko Haram related deaths from 2010 to 2013 were about 3,600, so the violence is not declining.

“The government has been saying, for several years, that Boko Haram would be crushed within a year and never happens. More insightful observers point out that the problem is mainly one of corruption and poverty, as well as the appeal of Islamic radicalism as a magical cure. All of Nigeria suffers from corruption.

“Poverty is more prevalent in the Muslim north, in part because of climate. That’s because the semi-desert Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert is found in the north. Another problem is the more conservative nature of Islamic populations and the lower education levels.”

 

Nigerian Muslim clerics recruiting Boko Haram members – Cameroon Govt