 China opens embassy after Burkina switches from Taiwan Abidjan (AFP) July 12, 2018 - China opened its new embassy in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou on Thursday after the impoverished Sahel state stunned Taiwan by switching diplomatic ties to Beijing. The official opening comprised the unveiling of a plaque in an upmarket hotel where the embassy is being housed temporarily while a new building for it is constructed. "Today is a historic day," declared Vice Prime Minister Hu Chunhua, who led a major delegation to Ouagadougou to oversee the event. "As of today, the embassy of the People's Republic of China in Burkina Faso is open," Hu said, describing the mission as the "driver of Chinese-Burkinabe friendship." "Burkina Faso is honoured to welcome you on its soil... after a break of 24 years," Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba, said in reply. The opening of the embassy "is a strong signal of the importance that the highest authorities in Burkina Faso and China attach to relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries." With the exception of eSwatini -- the new name for Swaziland -- Burkina Faso had been the last African state to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Taipei has been competing with Beijing for international recognition since the People's Republic was founded in 1949. China deems Taiwan, to where the defeated Nationalists retreated, to be a renegade province, and isolating it internationally is a key objective. On May 24, Burkina Faso announced it was breaking ties with Taiwan because of "changes in the world (and) the current socio-economic challenges facing our country." The move came as a shock to Taiwan, prompting the immediate resignation of its foreign minister, Joseph Wu. The island is now left with only 18 diplomatic allies around the world. China's diplomatic offensive south of the Sahara has gone hand-in-hand with lavish infrastructure projects and huge contracts to purchase resources. Chinese teams have already arrived in Burkina Faso to work on cooperation schemes, including the building of a large hospital in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country's second largest city. Before leaving on Friday, Hu is expected to meet President Roch Christian Kabore and invite him to make his first official visit to China in September, when Beijing hosts a China-Africa summit. A landlocked country of 18 million people on the southern rim of the Sahara, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest nations of the world. It ranked 185th out of 188 states in the UN's Human Development Index for 2016.
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Fifteen people were killed during five days of clashes between armed militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive east, before the army intervened, local officials said on Wednesday.
"Five civilians and two members of the 'Guidon' group were killed Monday in clashes in Kamiro," said Cosmas Kangakolo, administrator of the Masisi territory in the North Kivu province.
A further eight civilians were killed and others were injured between Friday and Tuesday in clashes between Lukweti and Nyabiondo, he told AFP.
North Kivu has served as a base for Hutu rebels since the genocide of Tutsis by majority Hutus in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994.
The region has long been at the centre of conflict in DR Congo and of tensions in the wider African Great Lakes region.
The fighting was between members of the Alliance of Patriots for a free and sovereign Congo and the Rwandan Hutu rebels against the Mai Mai Nduma Defence of Congo, Kangakolo said.
"Our troops have today taken back control of the localities of Kahira and Kamior. We've dislodged all the militia from there," said army spokesman, Guillaume Ndjike.
More than 70 armed groups were identified in December 2017 in eastern DRC. The eastern part of the country has been torn apart by armed conflict for more than two decades.
'Credible evidence' of killings by Cameroon soldiers: Amnesty
Libreville (AFP) July 12, 2018 -
Rights group Amnesty International said Thursday it had "credible evidence" that Cameroonian soldiers carried out the extrajudicial killings of two women and two children, demanding the servicemen be brought to justice.
The watchdog said it had analysed a video purporting to show soldiers in military fatigues shooting dead the civilians -- footage that a government spokesman dismissed as "fake news".
"The evidence we have provided forms a firm basis for strongly suggesting that the individuals committing these atrocities are members of Cameroon's armed forces," said Samira Daoud, deputy director of Amnesty's West Africa office.
"Some individuals are clearly identifiable and cannot be allowed to get away with such a heinous act with impunity."
The video, posted on social media on Tuesday, shows men wearing uniforms similar to those used by some units in the Cameroonian army forcing two women and their two children to their knees and shooting them.
Before the killings, men speaking in French identified the victims as "BH" for Boko Haram and said they had been captured during an assault against the jihadists, who have mounted operations in several of Nigeria's neighbours since 2015, including suicide bombings.
It has not been possible independently to authenticate or date the video.
But Amnesty said it had studied the footage and matched the military fatigues worn by figures in the video to units in the Cameroon military.
In addition, it said the weapons used in the killing -- Galil rifles -- are comparatively rare in West Africa and are known to be used by the Cameroonian army.
After his government initially dismissed the video as a fake, President Paul Biya on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into the alleged killings.
"It is imperative that a proper, impartial investigation is undertaken and those responsible for these abhorrent acts are brought to justice," said Daoud.
Several NGOs have periodically accused the army in Cameroon of serious atrocities against civilians suspected of having ties with Boko Haram fighters. The military have always denied the allegations.
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