OUAGADOUGOU: Authorities in Burkina Faso were on Saturday hunting for clues about the masterminds behind Friday’s deadly twin attacks on the French embassy and the country’s military HQ.
The coordinated attacks in Ouagadougou, which coincided with a meeting of regional anti-extremist forces, underlined the struggle the fragile West African nation faces in containing a bloody and growing terrorist insurgency.
Eight armed forces personnel were killed, the government said, while a French security source said 12 more were seriously injured. Earlier security sources had reported a higher toll.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and while a terrorist plot is the most likely, the government was not ruling out the involvement of plotters behind a failed coup in 2015.
“This is a terrorist attack, linked to a current or another terrorist movement in the Sahel... or to others who want to destabilize or block our democratic progress,” said communication minister Remis Fulgance Dandjinou on Saturday morning.
Two people were arrested near the headquarters, a security source told AFP.
The government said the attack on the military HQ was a suicide car bombing and that the G5 Sahel regional anti-terrorism force may have been the target.
“The vehicle was packed with explosives” and caused “huge damage,” Security Minister Clement Sawadogo said.
Prime minister Paul Kaba Thieba described “truly apocalyptic scenes” in the aftermath of the attack.
He said the terrorists had targeted both France and Burkina Faso in an attempt to divide the two countries.
“Obviously that will not happen.”
Officials from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had gathered for a G5 Sahel meeting, an anti-terrorist group designed to combat extremists on the southern rim of the Sahara.
The location of the meeting was changed at the last moment, Sawadogo said, adding the room they had been due to use at the military HQ was blown up.
“Perhaps it was the target. We do not know at the moment. In any case the room was literally destroyed by the explosion,” the minister added
The violence began mid-morning when heavy gunfire broke out in the center of the Burkinabe capital.
Witnesses said five men armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles got out of a car and opened fire on passersby before heading toward the French embassy.
They were “dressed in civilian clothes” with their faces uncovered, witnesses said.
At the same time, the bomb went off near the headquarters of the Burkinabe armed forces and the French cultural center, about a kilometer (half a mile) from the site of the first attack.
A gunman who attacked the military HQ was wearing the uniform of the national army, according to a security source.
Four attackers were shot outside the French embassy and another four at the military HQ, another security source told AFP.
“After soft targets, such as hotels and restaurants, this attack aimed at hard targets, strong symbols,” Paul Koalaga, a security consultant in Burkina Faso said, adding there appeared to be “a problem at the intelligence level.”
The G5 Sahel force aims to train 5,000 troops and to be fully operational by the end of the month.
It has already carried out operations against terrorist fighters with help from the French army.
Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger’s president and the current chair of the group, said Friday’s attacks “will only strengthen the resolve of the G5-Sahel and its allies in the fight against terrorism.”
French President Emmanuel Macron offered his condolences, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a visit to neighboring Mali, “strongly condemned” the attack while UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an “urgent and concerted effort” to improve stability in the Sahel.
The insurgency in the region has caused thousands of deaths, prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes and dealt crippling blows to economies that are already among the poorest in the world.
Burkina Faso has been the target of extremist attacks since 2015, and this is the third time in two years that Ouagadougou is the target of terrorist attacks targeting places frequented by Westerners.
On Aug. 13 last year, two assailants opened fire on a restaurant on the capital’s main avenue, killing 19 people and wounding 21. No one has so far claimed responsibility for it.
On Jan. 15, 2016, 30 people — including six Canadians and five Europeans — were killed in an extremist attack on a hotel and restaurant in the city center.
That attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Murabitoun group, which was led by the one-eyed Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
A group called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also said some of its militants were involved.
Investigators probe deadly twin attacks in Burkina Faso
Investigators probe deadly twin attacks in Burkina Faso
2024 was the hottest year on record, scientists say
- C3S confirms first year above 1.5C since pre-industrial times
- Climate change impacts, severe weather visible globally
- Political will to curb emissions wanes despite rising climate disasters
BRUSSELS, Belgium: Global temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5 Celsius above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, scientists said on Friday.
The World Meteorological Organization confirmed the 1.5C breach, after reviewing data from US, UK, Japan and EU scientists.
“Global heating is a cold, hard fact,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act – now.”
The bleak assessment came as wildfires charged by fierce winds swept through Los Angeles, with 10 people dead and nearly 10,000 structures destroyed so far. Wildfires are among the many disasters that climate change is making more frequent and severe.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said climate change was pushing the planet’s temperature to levels never before experienced by modern humans. Scientists have linked climate change to greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
The planet’s average temperature in 2024 was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, C3S said. The last 10 years are the 10 hottest years on record, the WMO said.
Climate change is worsening storms and torrential rainfall, because a hotter atmosphere can hold more water, leading to intense downpours. Atmospheric water vapor reached a record high in 2024, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was the third-wettest year on record.
In 2024, Bolivia and Venezuela suffered disastrous fires, while torrential floods hit Nepal, Sudan and Spain, and heat waves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia killed thousands. While climate change now affects people from the richest to the poorest on Earth, political will to address it has waned in some countries.
Governments promised under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent the average global temperature rise from exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called climate change a hoax, dismissing the global scientific consensus. During his first term in office he withdrew Washington from the Paris Agreement, and he has vowed to push greater fossil fuel production and roll back President Joe Biden’s push toward alternative energy.
Recent European elections have shifted political priorities toward industrial competitiveness, with some European Union governments seeking to weaken climate policies they say hurt business.
Matthew Jones, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in Britain, said climate-linked disasters will grow more common “so long as progress on tackling the root causes of climate change remains sluggish.”
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the 1.5C breach last year showed climate action must be prioritized.
“It is extremely complicated, in a very difficult geopolitical setting, but we don’t have an alternative,” he told Reuters.
The 1.5C milestone should serve as “a rude awakening to key political actors to get their act together,” said Chukwumerije Okereke, a professor of climate governance at Britain’s University of Bristol.
Britain’s Met Office confirmed 2024’s likely breach of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, while estimating a slightly lower average temperature of 1.53C for the year.
Buontempo noted that 2024 did not breach that target since it measures the longer-term average temperature, but added that rising greenhouse gas emissions put the world on track to blow past the Paris goal soon.
Countries could still rapidly cut emissions to avoid temperatures from rising further to disastrous levels, he added.
“It’s not a done deal. We have the power to change the trajectory,” Buontempo said.
Concentrations in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, reached a fresh high of 422 parts per million in 2024, C3S said.
Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at US non-profit Berkeley Earth, said he expected 2025 to be among the hottest years on record, but likely not top the rankings. He noted that temperatures in early 2024 got an extra boost from El Niño, a warming weather pattern now trending toward its cooler La Nina counterpart.
“It’s still going to be in the top three warmest years,” he said.
Greenland’s leader says his people don’t want to be Americans as Trump covets territory
- “We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic,” Múte B. Egede tells press conference
- He added, though, that he understands Trump’s interest in the island given its strategic location and he’s open to a dialogue with the US
COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Greenland’s prime minister said Friday that the mineral-rich Arctic territory’s people don’t want to be Americans, but that he understands US President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in the island given its strategic location and he’s open to greater cooperation with Washington.
The comments from the Greenlandic leader, Múte B. Egede, came after Trump said earlier this week that he wouldn’t rule out using force or economic pressure in order to make Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of Denmark — a part of the United States. Trump said that it was a matter of national security for the US
Egede acknowledged that Greenland is part of the North American continent, and “a place that the Americans see as part of their world.” He said he hasn’t spoken to Trump, but that he’s open to discussions about what “unites us.”
“Cooperation is about dialogue. Cooperation means that you will work toward solutions,” he said.
Egede has been calling for independence for Greenland, casting Denmark as a colonial power that hasn’t always treated the Indigenous Inuit population well.
“Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic,” he said at a news conference alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen.
Trump’s desire for Greenland has sparked anxiety in Denmark as well as across Europe. The United States is a strong ally of 27-nation European Union and the leading member of the NATO alliance, and many Europeans were shocked by the suggestion that an incoming US leader could even consider using force against an ally.
But Frederiksen said that she sees a positive aspect in the discussion.
“The debate on Greenlandic independence and the latest announcements from the US show us the large interest in Greenland,” she said. “Events which set in motion a lot of thoughts and feelings with many in Greenland and Denmark.”
“The US is our closest ally, and we will do everything to continue a strong cooperation,” she said.
Frederiksen and Egede spoke to journalists after a biannual assembly of Denmark and two territories of its kingdom, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The meeting had been previously scheduled and wasn’t called in response to Trump’s recent remarks. Trump’s eldest son also made a visit to Greenland on Tuesday, landing in a plane emblazoned with the word TRUMP and handing out Make America Great Again caps to locals.
The Danish public broadcaster, DR, reported Friday that Trump’s team encouraged homeless and socially disadvantaged people in Greenland to appear in a video wearing the MAGA hats after being offered a free meal in a nice restaurant. The report quoted a local resident, Tom Amtof, who recognized some of those in a video broadcast by Trump’s team.
“They are being bribed, and it is deeply distasteful,” he said.
Greenland has a population of 57,000. But it’s a vast territory possessing natural resources that include oil, gas, and rare earth elements, which are expected to become more accessible as ice melts because of climate change. It also has a key strategic location in the Arctic, where Russia, China and others are seeking to expand their footprint.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, lies closer to the North American mainland than to Denmark. While Copenhagen is responsible for its foreign affairs and defense, the US also shares responsibility for Greenland’s defense and operates an air force base there based on a 1951 treaty.
Guinea suspends ‘unauthorized’ political movements
- Government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said earlier that the West African nation could hold elections by the end of 2025 after a constitutional referendum “probably in May”
CONAKRY: Guinea’s government has demanded the suspension of all political movements it deemed “without authorization,” as the country’s military leaders hinted at possible elections this year.
In a statement read by a presenter on state television, the minister for territorial administration and decentralization, Ibrahima Kalil Conde, “noted with regret the proliferation of political movements without prior administrative authorization.”
“Consequently, all these political movements are asked to cease their activities immediately and to submit an application for administrative authorization to our ministry for their legal existence,” the statement added.
The junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, has, in recent days, hinted at the possibility of elections by the end of the year.
Under international pressure, the military leaders had initially pledged to hold a constitutional referendum and hand power to elected civilians by the end of 2024 — but neither has happened.
Junta chief Gen. Mamady Doumbouya said in a New Year’s speech that 2025 will be “a crucial electoral year to complete the return to constitutional order.”
Government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said earlier that the West African nation could hold elections by the end of 2025 after a constitutional referendum “probably in May.”
Since taking power, the junta has cracked down on dissent, with many opposition leaders detained, brought before the courts, or forced into exile.
In October, the junta placed the three main political parties under observation and dissolved 53 others in what it termed a major political “cleanup.”
It suspended another 54 for three months.
In Thursday’s statement, Conde said that national and international institutions and partners should “cease all collaboration with the 54 suspended political parties until 31 January 2025.”
S. Africa police rescue 26 Ethiopians from captivity
- According to preliminary information from the rescued men, the group was held in the Sandringham suburb in northern Johannesburg without clothes or documents, Col. Philani Nkwalase said
JOHANNESBURG: South African police said on Friday that they had rescued 26 undocumented Ethiopian nationals who were being held captive in a suburban house in Johannesburg by suspected human traffickers.
Up to 30 other men may have already escaped through a smashed window before police swooped in on the house late on Thursday and could be hiding in the area, the police priority crimes unit said.
According to preliminary information from the rescued men, the group was held in the Sandringham suburb in northern Johannesburg without clothes or documents, Col. Philani Nkwalase said.
Eleven men were taken to hospital with injuries apparently caused when they tried to escape, including deep cuts.
Three other Ethiopian nationals were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
Algeria ‘seeking to humiliate France,’ interior minister says
- Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a ferocious seven-year war that is still the subject of trauma for both sides
NANTES, France: Algeria is trying to humiliate France, France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Friday, after several Algerian influencers were arrested for inciting violence in a growing crisis between Paris and its former colony.
Four Algerian influencers supportive of Algerian authorities have been arrested in recent days over videos that are suspected of calling for violent acts in France.
Meanwhile, Algeria has also been holding on national security charges French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, a major figure in modern francophone literature, who was arrested at Algiers airport in November.
“Algeria is seeking to humiliate France,” Retailleau said on a visit to the western city of Nantes.
“Algeria is currently holding a great writer — Boualem Sansal — who is not only Algerian but also French. Can a great country, a great people, allow itself to keep in detention for the wrong reasons, someone who is old and sick?“
Turning to the influencers, he said it was “out of the question to give a free pass to these individuals who spread hatred and anti-Semitism.”
“I think we have reached an extremely worrying threshold with Algeria,” he said, adding France “cannot tolerate” an “unacceptable situation.”
“While keeping our cool ... we must now consider all the means we have at our disposal regarding Algeria,” he added.
One of those arrested is “Doualemn,” a 59-year-old influencer detained in the southern city of Montpellier after a video posted on TikTok.
He was deported on a plane to Algeria on Thursday afternoon, according to his lawyer, but was sent back to France the same evening as Algeria had banned him from its territory.
On Thursday, Lyon prosecutors said Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her 50s, was also arrested.
Followed by more than 300,000 people, she is accused of spreading hate messages and threats against Internet users and opponents of the Algerian authorities, as well as insulting statements about France.
Arrested in Brest on Jan. 3, Youcef A., 25, known as “Zazou Youssef” on TikTok, will be tried on Feb. 24 on charges of justifying terrorism.
Placed in pretrial detention, he faces seven years in prison if convicted.
And “Imad Tintin,” 31, was taken into police custody on Saturday in Grenoble for a video, since removed, in which he called for “burning alive, killing and raping on French soil.”
He will be tried on March 5 for incitement to acts of terrorism.
Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a ferocious seven-year war that is still the subject of trauma for both sides.
