In this article published by a Burkinabe online platform, Newton Ahmend Barry, president of the country’s independent National Electoral Commission, analyses the double attack that took place on 2 March in Ouagadougou. “We are wrong to believe that France or the G5 Sahel will solve our problems. No people in the world has ever been rescued by another people,” Barry wrote. Read on

On 16 February 2014, the heads of state of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger met in Nouakchott to create the G5 Sahel, a regional body designed to co-ordinate strategies and policies on defence, security, governance, infrastructure and resilience in the Sahel. The G5 Sahel officially launched its joint force at an extraordinary summit on 2 July 2017. There is still a significant budget shortfall to make the force fully operational. Mobilising the necessary troops that will make up the joint force battalions is yet another challenge. Read on

Burkina Faso ratified all regional and international conventions on gender equality, adopted a national gender policy in 2009, established a dedicated ministry for the promotion of women and gender issues and developed a large number of action plans and gender programmes. However, gender inequalities therefore persist and national averages often mask strong regional disparities. Read on

On the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, France hosted a meeting in support of the G5 Sahel where he met with his counterparts from the G5 countries and other partner countries and organisations. The objective of the meeting was to speed up the structuring of the G5 Sahel at the military, political and financial levels, and make it operational. Read on