The African Tribune

Burkina Faso has added the Chinese-made Sky Dragon 30 to its arsenal, and the facts are plain: this is a medium-range surface-to-air missile system designed to destroy aircraft, not to fight an insurgency. In a country where armed men on motorcycles empty entire villages, spending millions of dollars to intercept targets in the clouds is a question of priorities, not of technology. What Burkina Faso has bought The system, built by the Chinese state defence group NORINCO and also designated DK-10A, was rolled out with the usual choreography: high-definition cameras, tight shots of polished armoured vehicles and martial speeches about the rising strength of the national armed forces. The hardware itself tells a different story, because its design brief has nothing to do with counter-insurge...

The attack that hit the Abala-Filingué department this morning has landed another crushing blow on Niger. A patrol of the Rapid Action Surveillance and Intervention Group (GARSI) came under fire in an assault of extreme violence, and the provisional toll is heavy: around fifteen soldiers killed on the spot, among them Captain Hassoumie and Warrant Officer Djindagarey. For the country's elite units, this is far more than a single bad day. It stands as the starkest illustration of a nation drifting deeper into chaos since General Abdourahamane Tiani took power by force. The gap between Niamey's narrative and the battlefield When the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) removed elected president Mohamed Bazoum from office on 26 July 2023, it presented the restoration of ...

The case against Salomay Bafoh Awiti started with a late-night knock and has grown into one of the sharpest tests of Ghana's rule-of-law credentials in years. The nurse, attached to the hospital at Abetifi in Techiman, was taken from her own home in an operation her counsel, Enoch Afoakwa, says breached several constitutional guarantees at once. Ghana's night raid: how the arrest unfolded Shortly before 11 pm on Saturday, heavily armed security personnel turned up at Awiti's residence. She was handcuffed in front of her family and driven away to a location that was never disclosed. The grounds given were opaque: suspected irregular Mobile Money transactions and the circulation of videos described as offensive. Three minors left behind without care The raid left a second, quieter emergency ...