Burkina Faso authorities arrest four French officials accused of espionage

 

The Burkina Faso authorities have arrested four French officials accused of espionage and carrying valid diplomatic passports, diplomatic sources have told Radio France International (RFI).

These officers, who were on a computer maintenance mission at the French Embassy in Ougadaougou, the country’s capital, were arrested in the same city on 1December.

However, it was two weeks before they were charged with espionage and imprisoned at the Maco remand centre in the capital. According to sources in the magazine Jeune Afrique, these officials would belong to the General Directorate of Foreign Security (DGSE).

The Burnkinese military junta, headed by Ibrahim Traoré since September 2022, has taken a very critical stance with Western partners, especially with France. In fact, the French military operation officially ended in February following the termination of an agreement signed between the two countries for the fight against jihadism in the Sahel, while Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyelem of Tambela called French President Emmanuel Macro “war lord”.

Burkina Faso has generally experienced a significant increase in security since 2015, with attacks by both the Al Qaeda affiliate and the Islamic State affiliate, causing a wave of internally displaced person and refugees to other countries in the region.

The EU agrees on the Migration and Asylum Pact with greater border control and on-demand solidarity

 

The negotiators of the European Parliament and the Council reached an agreement on Wednesday on the Migration and Asylum Pact that will reform the common policy with greater control of the external borders of the European Union and offer governments an ‘on-demand solidarity’ to be avoided by the reception of some of the relocated migrants with alternatives such as the payment of rejected transfer compensation.

“Successful. After years of political stagnation, we have reached an agreement”, announced one of the MEPs of the negotiating team, the Dutch Christian Democrat Jeroen Lenaers, early this Wednesday, after an early morning of negotiation on the nine dossiers that make up the Pact and covering the whole process, including the strengthening of border control and identification of migrants until each file is resolved with the granting of asylum or the expulsion decision.

The presidents of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed to point out the “historic” moment of the agreement that puts an end to years of tensions between the EU countries themselves -since the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015- and arrives in the time to complete its processing before the June European elections, a deadline that was on negotiators to prevent its development from being affected by the electoral campaign and the advance of the far right.

“It is a human approach, just with those seeking protection, firm with those who are not eligible and firm with those who exploit the most vulnerable”, Metsola said at a press conference at the end of the negotiations, accompanied by the Euro MPs.

The Commissioner for the interior, the socialist Ylva Johansson, and the community vice president in charge of migration, the ‘popular’ Margaritis Schinas, architects of the proposal presented in 2020 as the basis for negotiation, have also applauded the milestone achieved. “We have agreed on a comprehensive pact with better protection of he external border, more solidarity and better protection of the vulnerable, based on EU values”, Johansson said.

The new rules, which still need the approval of the plenary of the Eurocamera and the 27 to be formally adopted, put an end to years of hard negotiations between the Member States themselves to agree on a balance between “solidarity” with frontline countries, such as Spain and Italy, and the “responsibility” they call on these other partners in fear of secondary movements.

Finally, the solution is a mechanism of “flexible solidarity” that will force the 27 to respond to a partner overwhelmed with the arrival of migrants, or by relocating in their territory some of the people arriving, either paying compensation valued for each migrant who rejects.

The aim is to transfer at least 30,00 migrants each year, but countries will be able to refuse to receive some of those in return for compensation 20,000 euros for each rejected transfer or of means or funds of equivalent value.

Save the Children warns that the EU plans to lower the age of deportation of migrant minors to 6

 

Save the Children has expressed concern about the forthcoming adoption of the European Union Migration and Asylum Pact, which could lower the detention age to as little as 6. According to the organization, these children would be “locked up in centers while waiting for the outcome of their asylum procedure”.

“On the same day as the International Migrants Day is being celebrated, the European Union is considering arresting young children. Europe should be a refuge and protect children rather than detain and deport them. We defend a migration pact that guarantees, and does not threaten, the rights and protection of children”, said Andrés Conde this morning at an event with the CEOs of Save the Children Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

The director of Save the Children in Brussels, Willy Bergogné, expressed his concern about this pact: “All the information makes us think it will be a deterioration in child protection. Not only does the age of detention be reduced, but also that it is proposed to lengthen that detention time with the negative impact that this would entail”.

Bergogne added that the detention is never in the best interests of the child. Children, families and other vulnerable groups “must be accommodated in an appropriate space immediately after arrival and have priority in selection procedures”.

The mental health of migrant children is another concern of the organization, which works in both countries of origin, transit and destination. “Reciting the mental health of the boys and girls who will be integrated into our societies is a matter of self-interest”, said Pim Kraan, director of Save the Children Holland.

“Since 1 in 4 people arriving in Europe is a child, their vulnerability and urgent needs must be at the centre of the final negotiations. It is inconceivable that it is considering not to consider siblings as part of the family for the purpose of family reunification”, added Florian Westphal, director of Save the Children Germany.

For the director of Save the Children Italy, Daniela Fatarella, it is essential that “every child who reaches European borders must be treated as what he is, a child, regardless of his nationality or any other condition”. Fatarella has recalled that the organization’s  teams are witnesses on a daily basis of cases such as that of the 3-year-old who arrived in Lampedusa under the care of an 18-year-old who found him in the desert and took care of him during the journey.

Save the Childres also called on Europe to solidarity with the countries of the south, such as Spain and Italy, which receive the arrival of migrant children the most, and calls for urgent action to address the “heartbreaking situation” of refugee and migrant children.

Burkina Faso’s leader conducts a partial restructuring of his cabinet

 

The head of Burkina Faso’s military junta, Ibrahim Traoré, on Sunday carried out a partial restructuring of his cabinet, including the Foreign and Mines Ministers, after his government revised the mining code following  the fall in gold production.

Traore has appointed Yacouba Zabré Gouba in the portfolio of Minas, which replaces Simon Pierre Busim; while Karamoko Jean Marie Traore -so far in Reginal Cooperation- replaces Olivia Rouamba in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to decrees collected by the burkiniese news agency AIB.

The move comes as the country’s gold production, one of Africa’s largest producers, fell 13 percent in 2022, so at least five mines have closed amid deteriorating security conditions reports the Bloomberg news agency.

In addition, Mathias Traoré will be the secretary general of the government, since the one who was in this position so far, Jacques Sosthéne Dingara, moves to National Education. The Minister of Communication and Tourism, Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, has become Minister of State. Stella Kabré will occupy Regional Cooperation.

Burkina Faso, ruled by a military junta since the January 2022 coup against then-president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, has experienced an increase in insecurity since 2015. The board is now headed by Ibrahim Traoré, who starred in September 2022 in a raid that was considered a ‘learfriend coup’ against the until then leader, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

Climate summit reaches transition agreement to “abandon” fossil fuels

 

The countries meeting at the climate summit reached a “transition agreement to abandon all fossil fuels” early this Wednesday, as announced by the COP 28 presidency through its profile on the social network which has highlighted the “consensus to generate a paradigm shift” that has the “potential to redefine the economy”.

The text of the COP28 declaration was published by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) conference presidency and adopted in plenary a few hours later. The 21-page document urges countries to abandon fossil fuels in their energy systems. However, it does not require a specific elimination of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, according to Dpa.

COP 28 President Sultan al Jaber has referred to the agreement as a “historic package”. “Future generations may not know your names, but they will owe each of you a debt of gratitude”, Al Jaber said

Ten people, including eight students, were kille in an attack on separatist in western Cameroon

 At least 10 peopled, including eight students, were kidnapped on Tuesday by suspected separatist militiamen in the Northwest Region, on of Cameroon’s two English-speaking majorities, in a conflict since 2011.

The perfect of the department of Menchum, Abdoullahi Aliou, has indicated in statement that “armed terrorists” attacked an institute in Esu, where they “nevade the students, tortured them and set them of fire two classroom” before fleeing the site with two workers at the center and eight students.

Ten people, including eight students, were killed in an attack on separatists in western Cameroon
At least 10 people, including eight high school students, were kidnapped on Tuesday by suspected separatist militiamen in the Northwest Region, one of Cameroon's two English-speaking majorities, in a conflict since 2017.

The Spanish guru who left Silicon Valley to become a “servant of God” as an Augustinian nun

 

Montserrat Medina left her successful career as a Deloitte executive to “invest in her future for eternal life”

 

“I don’t know the reason why the Lord has noticed me. The only thing I know for sure is that I have found ‘the treasure’”. This is how Montserrat Medina (Valencia, 37 years old) said goodbye on her LinkedIn account a year ago from her successful life in the Olympus of technology -Silicon Valley- to enroll in a new project, not business, but spiritual: becoming a “servant of God” as a contemplative nun in the Augustinian Order.

She left everything “with great regret” to “heed God’s call to follow him more closely”. While he delayed the true answer, “that which compromises life”, he used all his talents that “the infinite goodness of the Lord” granted him to “accumulate riches in this world”. Among them, being awarded a scholarship for a doctorate in mathematical and computational engineering at the prestigious Stanford University (USA) or being part of the renowned Deloitte audit in its area of Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence.

After a journey between ‘briefings’ and ‘Big Date’, he now dedicates his time to preparing pasta, sweet potato sweets and praying in silence at the Monastery of Santa Ana, located in the Castellon town of Sant Mateu. A temple focused on the contemplative life with a business in hand: the online store ‘El horno de las Monjas’. There he performed spiritual exercises periodically during his aspirant period until he made the decision to definitively enter this totally cloistered convent.

In her written goodbye, Montse recounted the “deep knowledge of the dirt” of her soul as she misunderstood the “desired perfection” to achieve “thing in this world” instead of “doing the will of God”. “I have lived twelve years ‘succeding’ according to the world’s parameters: I have university degrees, I have founded a ‘startup’ that has acquired a Fortune 100 and at only 34 years old I have become a partner at Deloitte”, said the now Augustinian nun.

The company that she created in 2011 in California and later sold in Silicon Valley, called Jetlore, pivoted around digital marketing and managed to build bridges and business relationships with exclusive clients such as LG, Inditex or eBay Such was the success that the online payment giant PayPal ended up buying it for several million dollars. “You never know where you are going to be in five years”, Montse commented in an interview with a YouTube channel in 2016, although she certainly did not imagine being one of the thirteen nuns who make up the community of the Monastery of Sant Mateu.

The Spanish guru received recognition from the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, an international competition for entrepreneurs and executives, and her name was included in the list of 21 young Spanish women under 35 years who have revolutionized the world of startups. However, her existential emptiness increased at the same rate as her trophy case.