World News

Burkina Faso sets up local panels to talk to jihadists

Burkina Faso‘s junta leader has announced the setting up of local committees to seek dialogue with armed jihadist groups and help restore peace.
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who seized power on January 24, addressed the Sahel nation late Friday saying the move was intended “to create conditions for the total commitment of all around the key factor which is to recover our territorial integrity”. I have decided to set up local committees for dialogue and the restoration of peace,” he said.

The committees would “make approaches to the members of groups who are no longer in contact with the nation. They would also be tasked with “building bridges for those who … have been drawn into a spiral of extremism.

Damiba also announced a ban on civilians living or working in specific “military operational zones” and restrictions on protests likely to disturb public order or require policing by large numbers of security forces.
The Charter provides for a period of three years before elections are held, with Damiba barred from running.

The coup was widely condemned and a delegation from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS was due in the capital on Saturday with elections and release of the former president from house arrest expected to be on the agenda.

After gripping Mali and Niger, the violence has since 2015 claimed some 2,000 lives and displaced more than 1.7 million people in Burkina over the past seven years.

Source: eNCA

In other news –  ProVerb, Lerato Kganyago and Melanie Bala to host show on Metro FM

ProVerb, Lerato Kganyago and Melanie Bala will be hosting a show on Metro FM. A few days ago, Pro hinted at his return to radio after he thought he’s ended his radio career.

Lerato Kganyago

However, he’s back and will be co-hosting The Midday Link Up with the two other women, Monday to Friday from 12 pm – 3 pm on the aforementioned radio station. Learn more