OUAGADOUGOU: Suspected militants in northern Burkina Faso have killed three soldiers and nine civilian auxiliaries, local and security sources said on Friday.
The twin attacks were carried out on Thursday in Bourzanga district, a security source and an official with the VDP auxiliary force said.
The landlocked Sahel state is wrestling with a seven-year-old militant insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven some two million people from their homes.
More than 40 percent of the country is no longer under government control, according to official figures.
Colonels staged a coup in January and have vowed to restore security.
But after a lull, attacks resumed and have escalated in recent months.
On June 11, 86 people were massacred at Seytenga in the northwest, in one of the bloodiest acts of the long-running insurgency.
Thirty-four villagers were killed on July 2 and 3 in the north and northwest.
The VDP — Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland — has borne the brunt of attacks on the security forces.
The force, set up in December 2019, comprises civilian volunteers who are given two weeks’ military training and then work alongside the army, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.
The VDP source said that in the latest attack, six militiamen were killed at the village of Alga and three at Boulounga, adding that “several attackers were also killed.”
The Seytenga attack prompted the authorities to set up two “zones of military interest” in the worst-hit regions of the north and east.
The idea is to have zones that are banned for civilians, giving the armed forces freer range to attack militants.
But on Wednesday, the army admitted that civilians had killed during an air strike in the east.
It gave no toll, but local inhabitants said that about 30 people, most of them women who had gone to attend ceremonies to inaugurate a mill, had died.
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Burkina Faso attacks kill 12 security personnel
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Burkina Faso attacks kill 12 security personnel
- Landlocked Sahel state is wrestling with a seven-year-old militant insurgency
- Conflict has claimed thousands of lives and driven some two million people from their homes
First climate migrants arrive in Australia from sinking Tuvalu in South Pacific
SYDNEY: The first climate migrants to leave the remote Pacific island nation of Tuvalu have arrived in Australia, hoping to preserve links to their sinking island home, foreign affairs officials said on Thursday.
More than one-third of Tuvalu’s 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.
The intake is capped at 280 visas annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.
Among the islanders selected in the initial intake of climate migrants is Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, a dentist, and a pastor focused on preserving their spiritual life thousands of kilometers (miles) from home, Australian government officials said.
Tuvalu, one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change because of rising sea levels, is a group of low-lying atolls scattered across the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Manipua Puafolau, from Tuvalu’s main island of Funafuti, arrived in Australia a fortnight ago. A trainee pastor with the most prominent church in Tuvalu, he plans to live in the small town of Naracoorte in the state of South Australia, where several hundred Pacific Islanders work in seasonal agriculture and meat processing jobs.
“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he said in a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo visited the Tuvaluan community in Melton, Melbourne, last month to emphasize the importance of maintaining strong ties and cultural bonds across borders as citizens migrate, Tuvalu officials said.
On Tuvalu’s main atoll of Funafuti, the land is barely wider than the road in many stretches. Families live under thatched roofs, and children play football on the airport runway due to space constraints.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides will submerge half of Funafuti atoll, home to 60 percent of Tuvalu’s residents, where villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 20 meters (65 feet). The forecast assumes a one-meter rise in sea levels, while the worst case, double that, would put 90 percent of the country’s main atoll under water.
CLIMATE VISAS OFFER ‘MOBILITY WITH DIGNITY’
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the climate migrants would contribute to Australian society.
The visa offered “mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Wong said in a statement to Reuters.
Support services are being established by Australia to help Tuvaluan families set up in the east coast city of Melbourne, Adelaide in South Australia and in the northern state of Queensland.
Kitai Haulapi, the first female forklift driver in Tuvalu, recently married and will relocate to Melbourne, population five million. In a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department she says that she hopes to find a job in Australia and continue to contribute to Tuvalu by sending money back to her family.
Dentist Masina Matolu, who has three school-aged children and a seafarer husband, will move with her family to the northern Australian city of Darwin. She plans to work with indigenous communities.
“I can always bring whatever I learn new from Australia back to my home culture, just to help,” she said in a video statement.
More than one-third of Tuvalu’s 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.
The intake is capped at 280 visas annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.
Among the islanders selected in the initial intake of climate migrants is Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, a dentist, and a pastor focused on preserving their spiritual life thousands of kilometers (miles) from home, Australian government officials said.
Tuvalu, one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change because of rising sea levels, is a group of low-lying atolls scattered across the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Manipua Puafolau, from Tuvalu’s main island of Funafuti, arrived in Australia a fortnight ago. A trainee pastor with the most prominent church in Tuvalu, he plans to live in the small town of Naracoorte in the state of South Australia, where several hundred Pacific Islanders work in seasonal agriculture and meat processing jobs.
“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he said in a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo visited the Tuvaluan community in Melton, Melbourne, last month to emphasize the importance of maintaining strong ties and cultural bonds across borders as citizens migrate, Tuvalu officials said.
On Tuvalu’s main atoll of Funafuti, the land is barely wider than the road in many stretches. Families live under thatched roofs, and children play football on the airport runway due to space constraints.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides will submerge half of Funafuti atoll, home to 60 percent of Tuvalu’s residents, where villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 20 meters (65 feet). The forecast assumes a one-meter rise in sea levels, while the worst case, double that, would put 90 percent of the country’s main atoll under water.
CLIMATE VISAS OFFER ‘MOBILITY WITH DIGNITY’
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the climate migrants would contribute to Australian society.
The visa offered “mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Wong said in a statement to Reuters.
Support services are being established by Australia to help Tuvaluan families set up in the east coast city of Melbourne, Adelaide in South Australia and in the northern state of Queensland.
Kitai Haulapi, the first female forklift driver in Tuvalu, recently married and will relocate to Melbourne, population five million. In a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department she says that she hopes to find a job in Australia and continue to contribute to Tuvalu by sending money back to her family.
Dentist Masina Matolu, who has three school-aged children and a seafarer husband, will move with her family to the northern Australian city of Darwin. She plans to work with indigenous communities.
“I can always bring whatever I learn new from Australia back to my home culture, just to help,” she said in a video statement.
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