PLAGUE SHIP
Covid-hit Australian aid ship to dock in virus-free Tonga despite risk



Members of the Australian Defence Force board the HMAS Adelaide in Brisbane earlier this month, before setting sail for Tonga. (AFP/CPL Robert Whitmore)


Tue, January 25, 2022

A coronavirus-hit Australian warship will dock in Tonga Wednesday, delivering desperately needed aid to the volcano-and-tsunami-struck nation under strict "no-contact" protocols.

Tonga's Health Minister Saia Piukala said the crew of the HMAS Adelaide would follow drastic health rules to ensure the remote Pacific kingdom remains one of the few places on the world still free of coronavirus.

"The ship will berth and no contacts will be made. Australians from the ship will unload their cargoes and sail from port," he told reporters.


The Adelaide was deployed as part of an international aid effort after the January 15 eruption that generated huge tsunami waves and blanketed the island nation in toxic ash.

The warship is carrying about 80 tonnes of relief supplies, including water, medical kits and engineering equipment.

Despite all crew members testing negative before departure from Brisbane, officials in Canberra on Tuesday said 23 Covid-19 cases had been detected on the vessel.

Piukala said the number had increased to 29 by Wednesday.

The ship's 600-plus crew are fully vaccinated and the Australian Defence Force said Tuesday that the initial 23 patients were asymptomatic or only mildly affected.

It said the ship has a 40-bed hospital, including operating theatres and a critical care ward.

Piukala said contactless protocols were being applied to all relief supplies, including the HMAS Adelaide, meaning all goods offloaded from foreign planes or ships were left in isolation for three day before Tongans could handle them.

Tonga closed its borders in early 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe.

Since then, the nation of 100,000 has recorded just one case of Covid-19, a man who returned from New Zealand in October last year and has since fully recovered.

However, the devastating blast from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, which lies about 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of the capital Nuku'alofa, has created what the Tongan government describes as an "unprecedented disaster".

Entire villages were washed away by tsunamis, while ash has poisoned water supplies and destroyed crops.

Remarkably, there have been only three reported fatalities, which the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said was thanks to effective early warnings issued by the Tongan government.

OCHA said communications severed when the volcano blew were slowly being restored and assessment teams were visiting hard-to-reach areas to gauge the full scale of the disaster.

It said 85 percent of Tonga's population had been affected, with access to safe water, ash clearance and food supplies the main priorities.

str-ns/arb/mtp

ECOCIDE

Peru considers imposing sanctions on energy firm Repsol over oil spill
26/01/2022

© Pilar Olivares, Reuters

Peru‘s Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez said on Monday the government was looking at sanctioning a major local refinery owned by Spanish energy firm Repsol after an oil spill last week, and did not rule out suspending operations at the facility.

Vásquez said some political parties were calling for the government to cancel the Pampilla refinery’s contract or even expropriate it over the disaster, but said options were still being looked at.

“We are evaluating the legal aspects, we still cannot say whether a license is going to be suspended or not,” she told local radio station RPP.

“That will depend a lot on the evaluation we make of the legal terms under which the company is operating and what type of sanctions or infractions were committed.”

The oil spill, blamed on unusual waves triggered by a volcanic eruption in Tonga over a week ago, has affected an area of up to 9 million square meters, the government has said. It has been termed an “ecological disaster“.

Repsol’s Pampilla refinery accounts for over half of Peru‘s refining capacity.

Vásquez said that aside from sanctions against Repsol and the demands to restore the affected areas, prosecutors were investigating the case for alleged environmental crimes and the state was evaluating compensation for those affected.

“They cannot argue they are not responsible. They are, and therefore they have to think about the consequences,” she said.

The President of Repsol Peru, Jaime Fernández-Cuesta, said on Sunday night that the refinery could have reacted faster and that only the day after the spill did they learn the full magnitude of the disaster.

Hundreds of people marched on Sunday in protest against Repsol over the spill, reaching the vicinity of the refinery in the Ventanilla district, located north of the city of Lima.

(REUTERS)

93 potential graves found at Canada school site


Demonstrators honor Canada's missing Indigenous children during the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Parliament Hill in September 2021 (AFP/Lars Hagberg) (Lars Hagberg)

Tue, January 25, 2022, 11:30 PM·2 min read

An Indigenous community in Canada has identified nearly 100 "potential" graves at a residential school site, months after the discovery of hundreds of children's remains at former boarding schools rocked the country.

The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) community said on Tuesday that a geophysical survey revealed "93 reflections" with characteristics "indicative of potential human burials" at the former St. Joseph's Mission residential school in British Columbia.

Investigators "surveyed approximately 14 hectares of the broader 480-hectare site", which is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Kamloops -- where the remains of 215 children were found in May.

Since May, more than 1,000 anonymous graves have been found near former "Indian residential schools" run by religious groups, shedding light on a dark chapter in Canadian history and its policy of forced assimilation of First Nations people.

Thousands of Indigenous children attended St. Joseph's Mission between 1886 and 1981 when it operated as a residential school run by various religious sects as part of a Canadian government system, according to WLFN, a community of around 800 people.

"There is much more work to do on the St. Joseph's site, and we have every intention of continuing with this work," WLFN Chief Willie Sellars said in a statement.

In early January, Ottawa announced $1.9 million Canadian dollars ($1.5 million) in funding for the investigation at St. Joseph's mission.

"To date, $116.8 million has been committed to support First Nation, Inuit and Metis Survivors, their families and communities and go toward locating and commemorating missing children who attended residential schools," the government said in a statement at the time.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that the news of the potential graves "brings a lot of distressing emotions to the surface."

"My heart breaks for the members of the community, and for those whose loved ones never came home."

Numerous investigations into former residential schools are underway across the country, with between 4,000 and 6,000 children believed to be missing, according to authorities.

In total, about 150,000 Indigenous children were enrolled from the late 1800s to the 1990s in 139 of the residential schools across Canada, spending months or years isolated from their families, language and culture.

A truth and reconciliation commission concluded in 2015 the failed government policy amounted to "cultural genocide."

ast/dax/sw/dva

Rio Tinto begins underground work at vast Mongolia copper mine: state media

Rio Tinto begins underground work at vast Mongolia copper mine: state mediaThe massive Oyu Tolgoi gold-copper mine has been mired in controversy for years and disrupted by protests (AFP/BYAMBASUREN BYAMBA-OCHIR)

Tue, January 25, 2022, 

Underground operations have finally begun at a copper mine in Mongolia, official media has reported, ending years of delays for Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto.

The massive Oyu Tolgoi gold-copper mine has been mired in controversy for years and disrupted by protests from locals worried about environmental damage and foreign influence.

While it started production from an open-pit mine several years after Mongolian authorities inked a deal in 2009, Rio Tinto secured a multi-billion agreement in 2015 paving the way for a second and more valuable phase underground.


Some 80 percent of the mine's reserves are believed to lie underground.

"The commencement of Oyu Tolgoi underground mining operations demonstrates to the world that Mongolia can work together with investors in a sustainable manner and become a trusted partner," Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene said Tuesday in a ceremony marking the start of operations, according to official news agency Montsame.

The report added that both sides reached an agreement on controversial issues following constructive talks.

Oyun-Erdene said he expected the underground mine to be fully operational within its agreed period or in the first quarter next year, without incurring extra debts for Mongolia.

The mega-project has been expected to contribute up to one-third of Mongolia's gross domestic product once fully operational.

Rio Tinto and subsidiary Turquoise Hill Resources are to be responsible for added financing until the first half of 2023, when sustainable underground production is achieved, said Montsame.

Oyu Tolgoi is 66 percent owned by Turquoise Hill Resources and 34 percent by the Mongolian government.

Turquoise Hill said in a news release that it "expects to begin caving operations in the coming days".

Shares of Turquoise Hill Resources rose around 16 percent in New York overnight on the news, and following its announcement that it had reached an agreement to waive $2.4 billion in debt for Mongolia.

bys/jta/jfx

The exiled sculptor of 'all that is no longer there' in Syria


'Here is my heart!' is a massive installation by Syrian artist Khaled Dawwa, 36, 

representing a street in Syria destroyed by Syrian regime forces and their allies (AFP/JOEL SAGET)

Artist Khaled Dawwa, a Syrian exile and prison survivor, now works in France (AFP/JOEL SAGET)

At nearly six metres (nearly 20 feet) long and more than two metres high, the detailed artwork is imposing (AFP/Lucie PEYTERMANN

'Here is my heart!' has been on display in Paris and soon transfers to a big national museum (AFP/JOEL SAGET)


'Standing! (The King of Holes)' is another of Syrian artist Dawwa's massive installations, whose themes often pit people against authority (AFP/JOEL SAGET)

Lucie PEYTERMANN
Tue, 25 January 2022, 

A Syrian neighbourhood targeted by regime bombing lies in ruins, with bodies and broken toys poking out of the rubble; tall, grey buildings are reduced to crumbling, empty shells, their walls blown away or pockmarked by the blast.

The scene, captured in devastating detail, has been created by artist Khaled Dawwa, a Syrian exile and prison survivor who now works in France.

In his colossal work entitled "Here is my heart!", Dawwa is still battling oppression, urging viewers "not to forget the revolution by the Syrian people and all their sacrifices".

"When I'm working on this piece in my studio, I'm in Damascus. I do everything I can here, while not being there...," the 36-year-old tells AFP.

Deeply scarred by the years of repressive rule and violent crackdowns and the loss of friends killed, missing or imprisoned, Dawwa's work is both an act of revolt and memory, targeting "the international community's inaction against dictatorial regimes" in Syria and elsewhere.

"In the face of the disaster that is happening in Syria, I feel a responsibility because I have the tools to express myself," he says.

Among several of his massive installations -- including one in bronze -- being exhibited for the first time this year in France, "Here is my heart!" has been on display in Paris and soon transfers to a big national museum.

- Bearing witness -

Dawwa began the piece in 2018, as regime forces retook the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta, on Damascus' outskirts.

At nearly six metres (nearly 20 feet) long and more than two metres high, it is imposing.

Using polystyrene, earth, glue and wood, covered in clay, he details the destruction inside and out -- the shattered doors, blown-away balconies, right down to the overturned chairs.

In the debris, crunched-up bicycles and the wreckage of a bus can be seen -- but also the bodies of a child lying next to his ball and of an old woman.

"It's totally unique and innovative," says philosopher Guillaume de Vaulx, of the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo) and co-author of "Destructiveness in Works. Essay on Contemporary Syrian Art".

"Artists have shown destroyed things and made it their art, but he shows the process of destruction from within," de Vaulx adds, speaking from Beirut.

"He stops before the form has totally disappeared but the viewer is inevitably led to imagine the moment when everything will crumble..."

- 'Broken memories' -

Themes pitting people against authority dominate the works of Dawwa, who graduated from Damascus' School of Fine Arts.

From the onset, he took part in the nationwide anti-government protests that began in 2011, before joining other artists and activists to set up an independent cultural centre in Damascus, initiated by Syrian actor Fares Helou.

Despite police pressure, Dawwa continued to demonstrate and work at the centre for three years. By 2013, he was practically the only one left there.

"My battle was to not abandon the project, otherwise it was as if we were giving up hope," he says.

It was during that period he came to understand the impact his sculptures could have.

Posting a photo of his work on Facebook, he was surprised to see it shared hundreds of times.

Although risky, he continued to create and post pictures, but then destroyed the sculptures "in order to leave no trace", he says.

Then, in May 2013, he was seriously wounded in his studio by shrapnel and, on leaving hospital, jailed, spending two months in various prisons.

"There were thousands of people. Every day, at least 10 would die," he says.

"Their bodies would stay for two days next to us, no one removed them from the cell... on purpose."

Of the horror of the experience which still gives him nightmares, he says: "They broke the memories in my head."

After his release, he was forced into the army but escaped beforehand, fleeing to Lebanon, then to France in 2014 where he was granted refugee status.

- 'Rebuilt our history' -

His street-scene artwork, he says, is an attempt to convey "all that is no longer there; families, memories".

The Syria conflict, which broke out in 2011, has killed close to half a million people and spurred the largest conflict-induced displacement since World War II.

Veronique Pieyre de Mandiargues, a founding member of France's Portes Ouvertes Sur l'Art association, which supports artists in exile, said Dawwa "wanted to create a fixed image of what was happening in Syria so that it remains in our memories".

Lifting her hand to her heart, Syrian psychoanalyst Rana Alssayah, 54, also a France-based refugee, expresses her emotions on first seeing the piece.

"The magnitude of the destruction that Khaled has recreated, it's so real... I couldn't look at all the details inside the buildings, it was too hard."

Through this work, "he is saying the sorrow and pain that we can't talk about, he has rebuilt our history."

lp/dp/kjm/ach

Catholic Church in France raises €20 million in compensation for child sex abuse victims

Catholic dioceses in France have raised 20 million euros ($22.6 million) to compensate thousands of victims of historical child sexual abuse by clergy, the fund in charge of raising the money said Tuesday.

© Valentine Chapuis, AFP

Church officials have been under intense pressure to recognise and compensate victims after a landmark French inquiry confirmed widespread abuse of minors by priests, deacons and lay members of the Church dating from the 1950s.

"It's a first step. The Church has followed through on its commitment," the president of the Selam fund, Gilles Vermot-Desroches, told AFP after its board met on Monday.

An initial five million euros will be set aside for compensation claims being studied by an independent panel set up in the wake of the damning abuse report, released in October.

It found that 216,000 minors had been abused by clergy over the past seven decades, a number that climbed to 330,000 when claims against lay members of the Church are included, such as teachers at Catholic schools.

The commission that produced the report denounced the "systemic character" of efforts to shield clergy from prosecution, and urged the Church to pay victims with its own assets, instead of asking parishioners to contribute.

Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, head of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF), has said the Church will sell off real estate and tap its financial holdings, and possibly take out bank loans to raise the money.

But it has also told parishioners they can make donations to the fund.

<< French Catholic Church to sell assets to compensate sex abuse victims

Vermot-Desroches did not provide a detailed breakdown of the source of the initial 20 million euros, but said the CEF, individual bishops and the "vast majority" of dioceses across France contributed.

Victims' associations have demanded compensation payouts that would cost the Church tens of millions of euros.

Widespread cases of sexual abuse in the Church worldwide have become one of the biggest challenges for Pope Francis, who expressed his "shame" after the French inquiry was released.

(AFP)

Germany's Habeck denounces plan to label nuclear energy 'green' in Brussels

Robert Habeck, in his first visit to Brussels since taking office, said Germany would resist an EU attempt to call atomic power "sustainable." He said Europe should instead focus on new sources of clean energy.


German Economic Affairs and Climate Action Minister Robert Habeck on Tuesday called for his government to block EU-level attempts to classify nuclear energy as "green."

"I hope that the Commission will follow our recommendations and remarks that nuclear power is not a sustainable form of energy," Habeck said after talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Unioin is set to classify a number of energy sources as sustainable or not sustainable in the coming weeks. Habeck said his "personal opinion" was that "Germany should vote no" on the proposal, should it remain in the plans "in the form that it is currently included."

In his first visit to Brussels as a Cabinet minister, Habeck said that, instead of promoting atomic power, "we need special technologies that are 'made in the EU,' for example, hydrogen fuel."

Habeck is the deputy chancellor and co-leader of the Greens; his ministerial position received an altered title as part of the coalition deal, with the Economy and Energy Ministry renamed the Economic Affairs and Climate Action Ministry. He announced at the beginning of January that his office was looking into the possibility of clean hydrogen-based energy to lower the country's emissions.

Although Germany represents only about 1% of the world's population, it accounts for over 2% of its carbon emissions. It is in the process of phasing out nuclear power production entirely, with the final plants set to switch off

KAPITALI$M IS KRISIS
IMF slashes global growth outlook amid Omicron hit

IMF economic growth forecasts (AFP/Jonathan WALTER)

Heather SCOTT
Tue, January 25, 2022

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is creating an obstacle course for the global economy, which will slow growth this year, notably in the world's two largest economies, the IMF said Tuesday.

The Washington-based crisis lender cut its world GDP forecast for 2022 to 4.4 percent, half a point lower than the October estimate, due to the "impediments" caused by the latest outbreak, although those are expected to begin to fade in the second quarter of the year.

"The global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected," the International Monetary Fund said in the quarterly update to its World Economic Outlook (WEO), adding that "the emergence of the Omicron variant in late November threatens to set back this tentative path to recovery."


The outlook remains beset by risks, including geopolitical tensions and a wave of price increases hitting consumers and businesses that is expected to last longer than previously expected.

After the solid recovery last year when the global economy grew an estimated 5.9 percent, the IMF cut projections for nearly every country -- with India a notable exception -- but it was the downgrades to the United States and China that had the biggest impact.

"These impediments are expected to weigh on growth in the first quarter of 2022," the report said.

"The negative impact is expected to fade starting in the second quarter, assuming that the global surge in Omicron infections abates and the virus does not mutate into new variants that require further mobility restrictions."

The fund once again stressed that controlling the pandemic is critical to the economic outlook and urged widespread vaccinations in developing nations, which have fallen short even as advanced economies have moved to deploying booster shots among their already highly-vaccinated populations.

"Bold and effective international cooperation should ensure that this is the year the world escapes the grip of the pandemic," Gita Gopinath, the fund's newly-installed first deputy managing director, told reporters.

She said the cumulative economic losses inflicted by the pandemic over the five years through 2024 are expected to total nearly $14 trillion, compared to the pre-pandemic forecasts.

- US, China slowdown -

The biggest drag on the global outlook is the sharp slowing in the United States and China, including factors beyond the impact of the virus.

With US President Joe Biden's massive social spending plan stalled in Congress, the IMF subtracted the expected growth impact the program would have had on the economy.

Together with the supply chain snarls that have beset American businesses and manufacturing, these factors slashed 1.2 percentage points off GDP, which is now expected to expand four percent this year, the IMF said.

While that is a historically high rate for the world's largest economy, it is far slower than the 5.6 percent expansion in 2021.

Meanwhile, China's "zero-tolerance Covid-19 policy" has contributed to a slowdown in the Asian power, and the fund cut 0.8 points off expected growth for this year to 4.8 percent, the report said.

"China's downgrade reflects continued retrenchment of the real estate sector and weaker than expected recovery in private consumption," Gopinath said.

In an interview with AFP, Gopinath said it might be time for Beijing to "recalibrate" its strict stance, which "has an effect on economic activity, especially private consumption."

Other major economies suffered sharp downgrades amid the ongoing pandemic disruptions, including a 0.8-point cut for Germany, and 1.2-point deductions for Brazil and Mexico.

India, however, saw a 0.5-point upgrade to nine percent, and Japan saw a more modest improvement for growth of 3.3 percent, the IMF said.

The global outlook for 2023 is somewhat improved, "However not enough to make up ground lost due to the downgrade to 2022."

- Inflation flares, rates rise -

A key challenge facing the global economy is the surge in prices, especially energy and food.

But even excluding those items, so-called core inflation in the United States is still projected to finish 2022 around 3.4 percent, well above the Federal Reserve's two percent target, Gopinath said.

Supply chain issues caused by the pandemic should begin to ease in the second half of the year, but "inflation, even though it's declining, it will be high," she said in the interview.

The phenomenon is expected to bring more aggressive action by key central banks like the US Federal Reserve, which will raise borrowing costs worldwide, hindering recovery efforts, particularly in indebted developing nations.

The WEO baseline assumes the Fed will hike the benchmark interest rate three times this year and three in 2023.

But Gopinath cautioned that "higher inflation surprises in the US could elicit aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve and sharply tightening global financial conditions."

Inflation is expected to average 3.9 percent in advanced economies and 5.9 percent in emerging market and developing economies in 2022, before subsiding in 2023.

hs/cs

Burkina Faso: A history of destabilisation by jihadist insurgencies

Tue, 25 January 2022, 



Attacks by jihadists linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group have killed thousands and displaced an estimated 1.5 million people in Burkina Faso since 2015. Members of the army, critical of the government's strategy for battling Islamist terrorism, detained the president and seized power on January 23. FRANCE 24 takes a look at how the security crisis unfolded.

Members of the armed forces ousted the Burkinabe government on Sunday, accusing it of failure in the fight against terrorism. For months a rebellion had been brewing in the army that was supported by many civilians, with anti-government protests in several cities often banned and dispersed by anti-riot police.

Anger over the deteriorating security situation and the government's inability to stem the jihadist violence boiled over on Sunday, with several rebellions erupting across the west African country. Mutinous soldiers demanded the resignation of army leaders and greater resources for the fight against jihadists while protesters set fire to the ruling party’s headquarters in the capital Ouagadougou.

The government announced a curfew on Sunday and uncertainty remained around the fate of President Roch Koboré, who is believed to have been detained by members of the military. In power since 2015, he was re-elected in 2020 on a pledge to make the fight against jihadists a priority. Kaboré had vowed to put an end to “dysfunction” in the army after a series of attacks on security forces and to introduce anti-corruption measures.

But the north and east of Burkina Faso, in the volatile region near Niger and Mali, remain prone to terrorist attacks by Nusrat al-Islam (an off-shoot of al Qaeda) and the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara.

Between 2015 and 2018, terrorist attacks targeted the capital Ouagadougou and other centres of power. Since 2019, attacks by mobile combat units targeted mostly rural zones in the north and east of the country, fuelling displacements en masse and intercommunal violence. Some 2,000 people were killed, among them civilians and members of the armed forces or the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland, a civilian auxiliary group of the army created in 2020.

Islamist militants now move freely across entire swaths of the country and have forced inhabitants of some regions to conform to a strict version of Islamic law. Meanwhile, the army’s continuing fight against the Islamists has depleted the country’s already meagre resources.
A timeline of jihadist violence in Burkina Faso


On January 15, 2016, 30 people were killed in a double terrorist attack perpetrated by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant in Ouagadougou. Many of the victims were Western expatriates.


On March 2, 2018, eight deaths among the security forces were reported after attacks targeting the French embassy and the Burkinabe Armed Forces.


On January 1, 2019, the Fulani ethnic group, accused of collaborating with jihadist groups, was targeted by the Mossi, another ethnic group, in an attack that left 72 people dead, according to official estimates. Another 6,000 were forced to flee.


On August 19, 2019, 24 soldiers were killed in an attack on an army base in Koutougou in the north of the country. The army was targeted again in December in a new attack by heavily armed jihadists on and around Arabinda, a city near the border with Mali.


On January 25, 2020, 39 civilians were massacred in the village market of Silgadji in the north of the country. Around 40 civilians were killed the week before in villages close to Nagraogo and Alamou.


From March to June 2021, a series of mutinies shook the Burkinabe capital: 566 soldiers were decommissioned and a new army chief was nominated by the president.


On June 5, 2021, at least 160 people were killed in a new massacre. Many victims were members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland army auxiliary group.


On November 14, 2021, 57 people were killed in an attack on the police station in Inata, 54 of whom were police officers. They had alerted authorities about a lack of resources two weeks before the attack.


On December 10, 2021, Lassina Zerbo was nominated prime minister after the resignation of his predecessor following criticism that he had been incapable of stopping terrorist violence.


On January 11, 2022, eight soldiers accused of planning “a project to destabilise the institutions of the republic” were arrested.

This article was translated from the original in French.

Burkina Faso: from popular uprising to military coup


 (AFP/Sophie RAMIS)

Mon, January 24, 2022

As Burkina Faso's junta consolidates its position after seizing power in a coup, we look at the recent history of the troubled West African country.

- 2014: Fall of Compaore -

Blaise Compaore takes power in a 1987 coup and cements his position four years later with the first of four election victories. But his 2010 win is contested, as is his attempt to amend the constitution to extend his rule. After being forced out by street protests in 2014, he flees to Ivory Coast. On November 29, 2015, former prime minister Roch Marc Christian Kabore is elected president.

- 2015: Jihadist attacks -

From 2015, the north of the country, the capital Ouagadougou and the east begin to suffer attacks and kidnappings by jihadists affiliated to Al-Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State.

On January 15, 2016, an attack on the Splendid hotel and a restaurant in Ouagadougou leave 30 dead, most of them Westerners, shocking the country.

In November 2017, the French-backed G5 anti-jihadist force starts joint cross-border operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

- 2018: Attacks intensify

On March 2, 2018, simultaneous attacks target French forces and the former colonial power's embassy, leaving eight soldiers dead and 85 people injured.

The end of that year sees a state of emergency declared in several provinces.

From 2019, the attacks become almost daily, prompting the sacking of the head of the armed forces and formation of a new government.

On December 24, 42 people die in an attack by 200 jihadists on a military base in Arbinda, near the border with Mali.

- 2020: Kabore re-elected -

Kabore is re-elected on November 22, 2020, but insecurity means hundreds of thousands of people are unable to vote.

The opposition accuse the president of election fraud and refuse to recognise the result.

- 2021: Death toll soars -

Between 132 and 160 people are killed in a June 2021 raid on the northeastern village of Solhan in the worst attack in six years.

The killings spark demonstrations against insecurity and the ministers of defence and security are both fired.

On August 18, an attack in the north leaves 65 civilians and 15 police dead.

In October the president replaces the military chief of staff. A trial also begins into the killing 34 years earlier of charismatic former president Thomas Sankara, the "African Che Guevara". Compaore, the main accused, is not present.

On November 14, at least 57 people, 53 of them gendarmes, are massacred in an assault on a police station at Inata in the north, sparking further protests.

Burkinabe and Niger military say they eliminated around 100 "terrorists" during an operation on their common border between November 25 and December 9.

- Government reshuffle -

December 8, the prime minister resigns and hands the reins to Lassina Zerbo, who urges national unity.

On December 23, 41 people are killed in yet another jihadist attack in the north.

The past month sees n a further spate of attacks and rumblings of discontent in the ranks of the armed forces echoing those in the wider population.

- 2022: Military takeover -

On January 22, police in Ouagadougou clash with demonstrators at a banned protest over the government's handling of the jihadist threat.

The following day soldiers at several army barracks stage a revolt but the government denies a coup is under way.

On Monday, Kabore is arrested by mutinous soldiers after gunshots are heard near his private residence.

A group of officers later go on television to announce that the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR) -- the name of a junta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba -- is in control.

The United Nations, France and regional bloc ECOWAS all condemn the coup.

acm-ang-jba-fg/pvh/ri

Chief of Israeli spyware firm NSO Group quits job

The NSO Group group has been under fire since media reports that its Pegasus software was used to spy on journalists and political figures around the world.

The chairman of Israeli spyware company NSO Group, Asher Levy, confirmed on Tuesday that he had left the company at the end of 2021. He denied that his departure had any connection to current lawsuits and media coverage of the company's Pegasus hacking software.

Levy had been NSO chairman since April 2020. He came on as an appointee of UK-based private equity firm Novalpina Capital, which had bought NSO in 2019. 

Finbarr O'Connor will now head the company. He is current managing director of BRG Asset Management, which took over management of Novalpina in July of last year and subsequently NSO.

Upon his departure, Levy said he remained "full of appreciation to NSO, the lifesaving technology it develops ... and the unprecedented ethical policies the company has adopted."

NSO has faced global scrutiny over its Pegasus software, which can easily infiltrate mobile phones and allow its operators to gain access to the device's contents and location history. 

Investigations into the software and media reports confirmed that Mexican and Saudi journalists, British attorneys, Palestinian human rights activists and Uganda-based US diplomats, had all been targeted using the Pegasus.

"I can understand why people are making the connection,'' Levy told AP. "In reality it has nothing to do with the breaking news, so to speak, around NSO."

Mounting lawsuits

Pressure on the company has increased since the end of 2021. NSO has been blacklisted by the US Commerce Department since November 2021, saying that the firm sold spyware to foreign governments which then used the equipment to target government officials, journalists and others.

NSO has additionally faced either legal action or criticism from Microsoft Corp., Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Tech giant Apple has also sued NSO, saying it had violated US laws by breaking into the software installed on iPhones.

Last week, the Israeli attorney general ordered an investigation into domestic police surveillance following reports that Pegasus had been used improperly.

The company and the Israeli government say NSO products are only sold to trusted international governments for legitimate security purposes such as monitoring suspected terrorists.

jcg/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)