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Burkina expels reporters from French newspapers

Burkina Faso has expelled correspondents from France's Le Monde and Liberation dailies, the newspapers said on Sunday, the latest move the junta running the west African country has taken against French media.

Published: 2 April 2023 09:04 CEST

Burkina expels reporters from French newspapers

A man watches a television showing the cut signal of the France 24 channel, hours after the ruling junta in Burkina Faso decided to suspend the channel. Photo: OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP

“Our correspondent in Burkina Faso, Sophie Douce, has been expelled from the country… at the same time as her colleague from Liberation, Agnes Faivre,” Le Monde said on its website, denouncing the move as “arbitrary” and “unacceptable”.

The two women landed in Paris early on Sunday after being expelled late on Saturday, Le Monde said.

On Monday, the military junta running Burkina suspended all broadcasts by the France 24 news channel, after it interviewed the head of Al-Qaeda North Africa.

Burkina Faso, which witnessed two coups last year, is battling a jihadist insurgency that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

In December, the Burkina junta suspended Radio France Internationale (RFI), which belongs to the same France Medias Monde group as France 24, accusing the radio station of airing a “message of intimidation” attributed to a “terrorist chief”.

Both RFI and France 24, which cover African affairs closely and are popular in African francophone nations, have been suspended in neighbouring Mali, which is also run by a military junta fighting jihadist forces.

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New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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