DAKAR: Burkina Faso says it has refused a proposal from the Trump administration to accept deportees from the United States.
The West African country was asked whether it would accept non-citizens expelled by the US, in addition to its own nationals, Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said Thursday on national television.
“Naturally, this proposal, which we deemed indecent at the time, is totally contrary to the value of dignity which is part of the very essence of the vision of Capt. Ibrahim Traoré,” he said, referring to the country’s military ruler.
The remark came only a few hours after the US Embassy in the capital Ouagadougou suspended most visa services for Burkina Faso residents, redirecting applications to its embassy in neighboring Togo. The embassy did not give a reason for the move.
Citing a US diplomatic note accusing Burkinabe nationals of not complying with visa usage rules, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré called the move a possible “pressure tactic” and said, “Burkina Faso is a land of dignity, not deportation.”
The US Embassy in Ouagadougou and Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 40 deportees have been sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five African nations to take migrants under a new third-country deportation program. Rights groups and others have protested the program.
The US has sent deportees to the small African nation of Eswatini, South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana. It also has an agreement with Uganda, though no deportations there have been announced.
Six deportees are still detained in an unspecified facility in South Sudan, while Rwanda hasn’t said where it is holding seven deportees. Eleven of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana last month sued the government there for holding them in what they described as terrible conditions at a military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.
Human Rights Watch said last month the Trump administration offered financial incentives to some African countries to accept deportees. The rights group said it reviewed written agreements showing Eswatini will receive $5.1 million in US funding for migration and border management while Rwanda will receive $7.5 million.
Burkina Faso rejects proposal to accept deportees from the US
https://arab.news/b742a
Burkina Faso rejects proposal to accept deportees from the US
- Citing a US diplomatic note accusing Burkinabe nationals of not complying with visa usage rules, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré called the move a possible “pressure tactic” and said, “Burkina Faso is a land of dignity, not deportation”
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
