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Burkina Faso's National Reconciliation No Easy Path

Henry Wilkins

   OUAGADOUGOU - Burkina Faso's reelected President Roch Kabore has
   appointed a minister for national reconciliation as part of a vow to
   end the country's ethnic and political conflicts that are fueling
   terrorism.'¯However, resolving deep-rooted tensions over land and power
   between the ruling ethnic Mossi and the ethnic Fulani, who are often
   labeled as terrorists, will not be easy.'¯

   The Fulani are semi-nomadic herders living across Africa's Sahel region
   -- including Burkina Faso's north, where Islamist terrorists gained a
   foothold in the last decade.'¯

   Daouda Dialo heads the Burkinabe rights group Collective Against
   Impunity and the Stigmatization of Communities.'¯'¯He says the country
   is in a situation today where some people think they are more Burkinabe
   than others. Dialo adds they go about killing their neighbors with
   impunity.'¯

   The U.S. State Department last year issued a report implicating the
   government in abuses, including extrajudicial killings and violence
   against ethnic minorities.'¯'¯

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