LAGOS MAY 19TH (NEWSRANGERS)-An 88-year-old Australian doctor held captive by Islamic extremists in West Africa for more than seven years has been freed and has returned to Australia. Ken Elliott was safe and well and was reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. “I’m very pleased to…
LAGOS MAY 12TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Five-time winners of the FIFA U17 World Cup, Nigeria has failed to qualify for the competition for the second time in a row after losing 2-1 to Burkina Faso today. Before the AFCON U17 tournament started, the Golden Eaglets were seen as one of the huge favorites that will grab a ticket…
LAGOS FEBRUARY 24TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Burkina Faso’s most famous revolutionary Thomas Sankara has been reburied in the capital by the military junta – despite his widow and children boycotting the funeral. Sankara was laid to rest at the spot where he was assassinated in 1987. His immediate family wanted the reburial at a site that would “appease…
LAGOS FEBRUARY 7TH (NEWSRANGERS)-No fewer than 15 Nigerian Muslim pilgrims on their way to Senegal were killed when gunmen in Burkina Faso attacked the buses transporting them, Nigeria’s presidency said on Monday. “President Muhammadu Buhari has received the tragic news of the murder,” the State House said in a statement without providing a number of…
LAGOS FEBRUARY 4TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The body of Burkina Faso’s revered revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara is to be buried alongside 12 comrades at the spot where in 1987 they were assassinated, the country’s ruling junta said on Friday. The ceremony will take place “in February” at the site of a memorial that already marks the location, the…
LAGOS SEPTEMBER 29TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A Burkina Faso army captain on Friday announced the ouster of military leader Paul-Henri Damiba and the suspension of the country’s constitution and transitional charter in a statement read on national television. Army Captain Ibrahim Traoré said a group of officers had decided to remove Damiba due to his inability to deal with a…
LAGOS JULY 31ST (NEWSRANGERS)-Widespread anger at chronic insecurity in the West African countries of Mali and Burkina Faso paved the way for military men to kick out failing governments over the past two years. “There’s no more room for mistakes,” said Mali’s coup leader as he seized power in August 2020. “We have more than…
LAGOS JULY 27TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaore, sentenced in absentia to life in jail for the 1987 assassination of revolutionary icon Thomas Sankara, apologised to the ex-leader’s family on Tuesday. “I ask the Burkinabe people for forgiveness for all the acts I may have committed during my tenure, and especially the family of…