Burkina Faso’s mining minister said any artisanal gold site where a child is found will be shut and those responsible punished, after children appeared among miners sent back from Guinea. He urged miners to form cooperatives or move into farming, and said the children belong in classrooms or training.
Mali’s treasury accepted CFA49.5 billion (about €75 million) at a regional bond auction on Wednesday, above its CFA45 billion target, a financial-news report says. Most went to three-year bonds at a 7.59% average yield, slightly below two weeks earlier. Mali continues to borrow in its regional market at about 7.6%.
A senior official of a party in Chad’s presidential camp has urged civilians to lead the provinces, alleging that some military administrators have interests in the disputes they judge. He backs the president’s security tour while linking the handling of communal violence to a change in who administers the provinces.
Ministers from Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger opened a two-day review in Ouagadougou on Wednesday of their alliance’s security, diplomacy and development plans. The meeting prepares recommendations for the three heads of state, bringing military coordination and easier trade onto the same regional agenda.
UNICEF warns that Sudan’s cereal crop has little time to recover from poor rains while drone strikes disrupt power and water. Earlier food-security assessments forecast weak harvests across much of Darfur and Kordofan; local farming groups now describe reduced ambitions, poor germination and families leaving in search of food.
Mali’s foreign minister says the military-led government wants technology transfer to build its own defence capacity, naming Russia, China, Türkiye and the US among exhibition participants. A Malian daily reports President Goïta also met the head of US military operations in Africa, who said Washington wants to help.
The European Commission says it was not intending to ask Algeria or Niger for clarification of their bilateral commitments, after Niger summoned an EU representative. The exchange puts Niamey’s sovereignty objection alongside Brussels’ public account of its intentions over a neighbouring country’s military deployment in the Sahel.
In Chad, a self-described opposition leader backed removing the presidential term limit, arguing that repeated elections had delivered no alternation and another senior office could broaden representation. The office was filled in April, but appointments remained centrally controlled—revealing a split between seeking influence inside government and preserving a route to replace its head.
In Sudan, unexploded weapons can leave people living at home but unable to earn safely. An injured labourer’s account, Sudanese deminers’ changing work and the restoration of aid flights show why warnings, clearance and recovered livelihoods are different achievements—and why a reopened service does not mean civilian life is fully restored.
Mali’s striking university teachers can interrupt teaching, but extracting a payment commitment is harder. An earlier confrontation exposed the choice now hanging over their campaign: keep withholding work while risking salary deductions, or resume classes for negotiations whose final outcome the government still controls.
