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Burkina Faso junta chief, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba declared president

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Burkina Faso’s new military strongman, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has been declared president by the country’s top constitutional body after a coup last month, legal sources said Thursday.

They said the Constitutional Council on Wednesday determined that “Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, lieutenant-colonel in the national armed forces, president of the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (the official name of the junta), is the president” of Burkina Faso.

Damiba is also head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces, it added.

The move confirmed an announcement by the junta on January 31 that said Damiba would be appointed to those roles for a transitional period, and would be assisted by two vice presidents.

In a statement issued later Thursday, the Constitutional Council said that Damiba’s formal swearing-in would take place on February 16 in the capital Ouagadougou.

On January 24, disgruntled officers led by Damiba forced out the country’s elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had faced a wave of public anger over his handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Facing pressure from Burkina Faso’s partners in West Africa, the junta last week reversed its suspension of the constitution and scrapped an overnight curfew.

But the key issue of a date for elections remains unsettled.

On January 24, the junta vowed to re-establish “constitutional order” within a “reasonable time”.

On Saturday, it announced that a 15-member commission would be set up with the goal of “drawing up a draft charter and agenda, together with a proposal for the duration of the transition period.”

The panel will be given two weeks in which to report back.

One of the world’s poorest and most volatile countries, Burkina Faso is struggling with a jihadist campaign that has claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced around 1.5 million to flee their homes.

The country has been suspended from the West African bloc ECOWAS, although it escaped sanctions following last week’s restoration of the constitution.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council expressed “serious concern” over Burkina Faso’s “unconstitutional change of government,” but chose not to describe it as a military coup or even condemn it outright.

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Joe Biden Grants Posthumous Pardon to Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey

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January 20, 2025

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On Sunday, President Joe Biden made a powerful move by posthumously pardoning Marcus Garvey, the Black nationalist who left a lasting mark on figures like Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders.

Back in the 1920s, Garvey was hit with a mail fraud conviction that many believe was just a way to silence his growing voice in the fight for racial pride. Alongside Garvey, Biden also granted pardons to a prominent Virginia lawmaker and advocates pushing for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform, and gun violence prevention.

Congressional leaders had been calling on Biden to clear Garvey’s name, arguing that his conviction was more about politics than justice. After his conviction, Garvey was sent back to his native Jamaica, where he lived until his passing in 1940. This pardon is a nod to recognizing the legacy of a man who inspired countless others and fought fiercely for his people.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said of Garvey: “He was the first man, on a mass scale and level” to give millions of Black people “a sense of dignity and destiny.”

As President Biden wraps up his term on Monday, it’s still up in the air whether he’ll issue pardons for those who’ve faced criticism or threats from President-elect Donald Trump. Granting preemptive pardons for anyone who might be investigated or prosecuted by the incoming administration would push the limits of presidential power into uncharted territory.

Biden has already made history by issuing the most pardons and commutations in a single presidency. Just last Friday, he announced that he’s commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 folks locked up for nonviolent drug offenses. He also gave a blanket pardon to his son Hunter, who faced charges related to gun and tax issues.

Additionally, Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of the 40 individuals on federal death row, swapping their death sentences for life in prison—this move comes right as Trump, who has been vocal about his support for capital punishment, is stepping into office. During his first term, Trump oversaw an unprecedented wave of executions, with 13 carried out even amid the pandemic.

It’s important to note that a pardon wipes the slate clean, lifting guilt and punishment, while a commutation simply lightens or eliminates the sentence without clearing the wrongdoing.

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At least seven people killed by army at Ghana’s AngloGold Ashanti mine

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January 20, 2025

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ACCRA (Reuters) -A Ghanaian small-scale miners’ association on Sunday said soldiers killed nine unarmed people at an AngloGold Ashanti mine on Saturday night, while the army said seven illegal miners had been killed in a firefight.

Kofi Adams, local chairman of the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, told Reuters that nine people had been killed and fourteen severely injured in the incident at the Obuasi gold mining site in the West African country’s Ashanti Region.

He said the people had not been armed.

Earlier, Ghana’s armed forces said that about 60 illegal miners carrying locally manufactured rifles and other weapons breached the mine’s security fence at around 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Saturday and fired on a military patrol deployed there, leading to a shootout.

“This is unprecedented (and) it’s difficult to understand why this happened,” Adams said, noting that in the past, trespassers on the site had been scared off with warning shots.

Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama ordered an immediate investigation into the incident, the presidency said in a statement on Sunday, calling it “tragic”.

The government has asked AngloGold Ashanti to cover the medical expenses of the injured and the cost of burials, the presidency’s statement said.

AngloGold Ashanti could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Johannesburg-listed miner owns the Iduapriem and Obuasi mines in southern Ghana. The two mines produced more than 490,000 ounces of gold last year.

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Thousands attend funeral of Liberian ex-warlord Prince Johnson

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January 20, 2025

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Thousands gathered in northern Liberia on Saturday for the funeral of warlord-turned-politician Prince Johnson, a notorious face of the country’s brutal civil wars who died without facing trial.

Back-to-back conflicts devastated the small west African country from 1989 until 2003, claiming around 250,000 lives and resulting in massacres, mutilation, rape, cannibalism and the widespread use of child soldiers.

Johnson became infamous in 1990 after appearing in a video sipping beer as he calmly watched his fighters mutilate and torture president Samuel Doe to death.

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