LAGOS APRIL 9TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Lawyers for the family of ex-Burkina Faso leader Thomas Sankara on Thursday demanded former president Blaise Compaore be extradited after he received a life term in absentia over the revolutionary icon’s 1987 assassination. A military court on Wednesday sentenced Compaore — who seized power in a 1987 coup coinciding with Sankara’s death…
LAGOS APRIL 6TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Armed men have kidnapped an 83-year-old American nun in northern Burkina Faso, the bishop of the local diocese said on Tuesday. The bishop did not know the identity of the kidnappers. Militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, have taken over large swathes of territory in Burkina Faso…
LAGOS FEBRUARY 11TH (NEWSRANGERS)-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…
LAGOS FEBRUARY 2ND (NEWSRANGERS)-The long-awaited trial on the killing of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s influential leftist leader killed more than three decades ago, has been suspended as a result of the West African country’s recent coup. The trial has been paused until the constitution is reestablished, a lawyer for the prosecution said Monday. The suspension…
LAGOS JANUARY 24TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore was detained by mutinying soldiers, security officials said, with troops leading the apparent coup saying his government failed to support them during the country’s years-long conflict with armed groups. The news reports on Monday came a day after soldiers staged mutinies at several army barracks,…
LAGOS JANUARY 17TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Cameroon captain Vincent Aboubakar scored his fifth goal of the Africa Cup of Nations as his already qualified side were joined by Burkina Faso on Monday in the second round. The Saudi Arabia-based forward, who turns 30 on Saturday, put Cameroon ahead and substitute Garry Rodrigues equalised for Cape Verde after half-time…
LAGOS JANUARY 10TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Vincent Aboubakar scored a brace of penalties to give hosts Cameroon a 2-1 win over Burkina Faso on Sunday in Yaounde as the Africa Cup of Nations finally got under way after a build-up troubled by the coronavirus. A raft of positive Covid-19 cases among competing teams has marked the days leading…
LAGOS NOVEMBER 10TH (NEWSRANGERS)-General Gilbert Diendere, a key defendant in a trial over the 1987 assassination of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, pleaded not guilty at the landmark proceedings on Tuesday. The trial, unfolding in a military court in the capital Ouagadougou, is being avidly followed in a country where Sankara’s brutal death 34…