Continued……ADF magazine, an online magazine run by the US military's Africa Command (AFRICOM) also amplified Channels TV's anti-Traoré piece on its social media accounts, highlighting the existence of a combined western campaign to discredit the Burkinabe leader.

The article alleges that Traoré's growing popularity in Nigeria is the fruit of misleading Russian propaganda aimed at casting him as a messianic figure and a viable option compared to Western-aligned African leaders. Nigerian authorities have even gone a step further, arresting activists for planning a rally in solidarity with Traoré's resistance against French neo-colonialism in West Africa.

It's easy to see why Paris is co-opting Abuja to help claw back its diminishing influence in Africa. The Sahel trio of anti-imperialist nations - Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - have kicked out French troops, slashed French media influence, started nationalising their natural resources and formed an alliance to collaborate on defence, the economy and foreign policy.

Nigerian media–and its French overlords, would do well to remind themselves that "nothing can stop an idea whose time has come"–(Victor Hugo).

Sources

https://westafricaweekly.com/nigerian-media-amplifies-french-led-disinformation-campaign-falsely-attributing-traores-popularity-to-russia/

https://www.barrons.com/news/disinformation-fuels-support-for-burkina-junta-leader-in-nigeria-baee68bc?refsec=topics_afp-news

https://adf-magazine.com/2024/02/russia-flooding-burkina-faso-with-disinformation/

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/nigerias-secret-police-clamps-down-on-rally-for-burkina-fasos-traore-arrests/y1ql10z

RYAN HINTON: A FAMILY'S GRIEF

Grief feels so much like fear, to quote author C.S. Lewis.

It's a sickening feeling that is all too familiar to many Black people in the US who contend with and are victims of police brutality. Such is the case of the family of 18-year-old Ryan Hinton, who was fatally shot by Ohio Cincinnati police on 1 May. 2025. The following day, Hinton's father, Rodney Hinton Jr., allegedly struck and killed Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson with his car. Deputy Henderson was directing traffic for a University of Cincinnati graduation ceremony at the time.
Cincinnati Police Chief stated that the two tragic incidents are connected. Rodney Hinton Jr. has been charged with aggravated murder in the death of Deputy Henderson and is currently being held without bond.

Continued…….. His attorney plans to file a motion for a mental competency hearing. The family of Ryan Hinton has launched an independent investigation into his death. They have also offered condolences to the family of Deputy Henderson.
The Cincinnati Police Department released body camera footage of the shooting of Ryan Hinton. The footage shows an officer shooting at Hinton, who appeared to be running away. Police say Hinton was armed and pointed a gun at the officer, but it is unclear from the footage if this is the case, with many who have viewed the footage doubting the police's version of events. 

Data from Mapping Police Violence, a project aimed at delivering precise statistics on police-related fatalities, shows that in 2024, US police killed 1,364 individuals—8 more than in 2023. Even though Black people are 13% of the US population, they accounted for 22.72% of police killings in 2024, highlighting the fact that despite the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, Black people still face systematic discrimination from US law enforcement. Such structural targeting and racial profiling occur at every level of the US justice system, from legislation to policing to biased incarceration.

Video credit: WCPO 9

Sources

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/what-we-know-about-the-deaths-of-18-year-old-ryan-hinton-and-deputy-larry-henderson

https://www.fox19.com/2025/05/05/family-18-year-old-suspect-killed-shooting-with-police-hold-press-conference/

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/05/05/mom-grandmother-of-ryan-hinton-shot-by-cincinnati-police-to-speak/83457769007/

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2025-05-05/family-attorneys-investigation-ryan-hinton-police-shooting-death

https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet#:~:text=A%20Black%20person%20is%20five,targeted%20because%20of%20their%20race

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/08/22/police-are-killing-more-americans-than-ever-wheres-the-outrage

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/01/03/xymt-j03.html

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/us/police-killings-prosecution-charges.html

HAITI: THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE U.S. EMPIRE’S ‘RULE’

Did you notice that the US exempted Haiti from its recent sweeping foreign aid cuts? Alas, no - under Trump, Washington has not suddenly become a fan of the world’s first Black-led republic. On the contrary, it’s funding a so-called ‘security’ mission there that continues a long tradition of US meddling on the Caribbean island - even if, this time round, Washington persuaded countries of the Global South (such as Kenya, Guatemala, Jamaica, Belize and The Bahamas) to front the operation and put their own boots on the ground.

Continued……. Since the 1804 revolution, Haiti has faced continuous interference from the US and other foreign powers. This has prevented it from flourishing and exercising sovereignty. If it wasn't invasions, it was coups and puppet leaders installed by Washington, or economic sabotage. And the US isn’t going to let a grandstanding policy like ending foreign aid get in the way of the kind of control that enables, as African Stream’s @Sannario_ explains in our latest video.

Sources

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-removes-dei-from-the-foreign-service

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/reparations-bill-hr40-returns-congress-trump-dei-government-rcna191564

https://www.coface.com.cn/news-economy-and-insights/sub-saharan-africa-the-first-victim-of-the-usaid-reduction

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/usaid-cuts-new-estimates-country-level

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20250204-us-freezes-funding-contributions-to-haiti-multinational-security-force-un

https://haitiantimes.com/2025/04/08/haiti-border-weakness-us-weapons-un-report-2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly15pp707go

https://eji.org/news/haitis-forced-payments-to-enslavers-cost-economy-21-billion-the-new-york-times-found

https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1184&context=historical-perspectives

https://haitisolidarity.net/in-the-news/the-first-us-occupation-of-haiti-1915-1934

Continued….. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-accuses-rsf-of-sudan-genocide-and-sanctions-its-leader/ar-AA1x9ZAb

https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/sudan/humanitarian-crisis-sudan-statement-humanitarian-coordination-forum-hcf

https://dtm.iom.int/reports/two-years-conflict-sudan-visualizing-worlds-largest-displacement-crisis

NIGERIA BANS BURKINA RALLY

It appears that the 2 years Burkina Faso has spent under revolutionary leadership has sent jitters down the spines of Nigeria's leadership. Pan-Africanism is apparently now banned in Nigeria.

Or at least that's what Nigerian activist Kola Edokpayi discovered when he organised a Pan-African solidarity rally in support of Burkina Faso. The rally was to be held in the spirit of countless other rallies around the world that took place on the same day in defence of Burkina Faso and its leader Ibrahim Traore against attacks from the US. He immediately received a cease-and-desist order from the Edo State Commissioner of Police.

And cease he did, but that was just the start. The Department of State Services and the police stormed his office, detained about six individuals, and later released four, keeping Edokpayi and another associate in custody. The act has been condemned by the Edo State chapter of the Take It Back Movement, calling it a violation of constitutional rights.

Continued………President Bola Tinubu's government has maintained a position of hostility against the Alliance of Sahel States, which Burkina Faso is a member of. Following the popular revolutionary coup against Western favourite Mohamed Bazoum in Niger, Tinubu, who then chaired ECOWAS, pushed firmly for an ECOWAS invasion to reinstate Bazoum. Solidarity from Mali and Burkina Faso with Niger is credited with eventually giving ECOWAS cold feet. Since then, there have been no conciliatory moves from Abuja.

Let us know what you think. Why did Nigeria ban rallies in support of Burkina Faso?

Sources
https://westafricaweekly.com/dss-arrests-nigerian-activist-kola-edokpayi-over-proposed-rally-supporting-burkina-fasos-fight-against-foreign-interference/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/6/niger-coup-divisions-as-ecowas-military-threat-fails-to-play-out

YEMENI CHILD TO PALESTINE: WE WILL NOT BETRAY YOU

In a world where global powers feign neutrality while funding a 'plausible' g*nocide, a Yemeni child sends a powerful message to the people of Palestine. Speaking directly to the children of Gaza, he pledges unwavering solidarity, promising to never betray the Palestinian liberation struggle against almost 77 years of Israel’s violent settler-colonial occupation and apartheid.

Gaza has been under siege by Israel's forces since 7 October 2023. By early July 2024, the Lancet medical journal estimated the onslaught could have k*lled as many as 186,000 people. According to a November 2024 UN report, Israel had displaced at least 1.9 million people—or about 90 per cent of the population—across the Gaza Strip. Plus, Israel's airstrikes have destroyed over 90 per cent of homes.

Continued…….More than 39,000 children are now reported to be orphaned, according to a 5 April statement by Dr Ola Awad, president of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Awad also called it ‘the largest orphan crisis in modern history,’ with over 43 per cent of orphaned children losing both parents.

Ansar Allah, the Yemeni political movement better known as the Houthis that governs parts of Yemen where the majority lives, has become one of the most consistent voices in the Global South standing with Palestine. Recently, on 7 March, it warned Israel it would resume naval operations against Tel Aviv if it did not immediately end a humanitarian aid block in Gaza.

Yemen's solidarity actions have led the US and Israel to strike Yemeni targets, including a cancer hospital in March, according to Yemen-based Saba news agency. While the US presents its airstrikes on Yemen as a response to Yemen’s blockade of ships that has interrupted and slowed down global shipping, many see the strikes as a guise for their continued protection for Israel and against the Houthis’ open support for Palestine.

In a heartwarming show of solidarity, the young boy in this clip says the foreign fleets in the Red Sea will not scare them into submission and silence as Israel's massacres continue in Gaza.

Video credit: english.masirahtv.net

Sources

https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-148-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem

https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/over-90-of-homes-in-gaza-destroyed-by-israel-un

https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_ChildDay05042025E.pdf

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2585353/middle-east

https://www.unicef.org/sop/stories/without-immediate-food-and-aid-lives-gazas-children-hang-balance

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-strip-ipc-report-sep24-apr25

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/houthi-united-states-strikes-gaza-blockade-israel-shipping

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250428-houthis-attack-israel-airbase-for-second-time-in-24-hours

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162696

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/8/yemens-houthis-threaten-israel-over-gaza-aid-blockade

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-lancet-and-genocide-by-slow-death-in-gaza/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTwjgcetyWk

https://qodsna.com/en/402972/Yemen:-Massive-rallies-in-solidarity-with-Gaza-in-Sana-%EF%BF%BDa-and-Saada

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3456056.htm

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/3/gaza-faces-largest-orphan-crisis-in-modern-history-report-says

CRIMES OF APARTHEID: SOWETO STUDENT MASSACRE

Today marks 100 years since Afrikaans was recognised as an official language of South Africa - on 8 May 1925.

The Afrikaans language began developing around 1616-52, when ships bearing European settlers, mainly Dutch, arrived at the Cape. Their interactions with the indigenous African people in South Africa gradually led to the development of what became known as the language of the oppressor: it was the colonial Afrikaner White community that would introduce apartheid, a system of segregation based on race that marginalised Black people.

In 1976, an attempt by apartheid authorities to make Afrikaans the medium of instruction in Black schools sparked student protests, which led to the Soweto Massacre. Police officers fired live ammunition at the peacefully marching students.

Continued……A government commission in 1980 concluded that 575 people had been k*lled and 3,907 wounded, but the official count still stands at 176 massacred.

Afrikaans is spoken by 6.5-million South Africans, 40% of whom are White, according to a 2011 census. However, language is not the only visible impact of settler colonialism on the country. South Africa has the dubious distinction of being the world’s most unequal country, with 5% of (mainly White) South Africans owning 85% of the country’s wealth, while over 50% (most of whom are Black) own less than 1% of the wealth.

One still painful aspect of the Soweto massacre is that, like many other apartheid-era atrocities, the perpetrators were never brought to justice.

As the centennial remembrance occurs, we salute our brave heroes who fell for the right to a better education within a racist settler colonial system.

Sources

https://iol.co.za/news/politics/2025-05-08-100-years-of-afrikaans-a-language-of-diversity-and-complexity/

https://archive.ph/yucaM

https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/afrikaans-is-officially-a-gogo-now-a-full100-years/

https://www.fairplanet.org/story/anger-as-south-african-court-restores-language-of-the-oppressor-at-largest-university/

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/soweto-uprising/

https://time.com/6087699/south-africa-wealth-gap-unchanged-since-apartheid/

https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/51977/south-africas-unanswered-land-question

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/soweto-riots-the-day-our-children-lost-faith-africa-media-online/rgXRWni4ZpOiLA?hl=en

https://www.britannica.com/event/Soweto-uprising

https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/afrikaans-celebrates-100-years-as-official-language-346950?srsltid=AfmBOopZaWld7y2Wgs9dfH-GfdBqlccc3vwdFH9HwQkW-nHArDdfZF8E

Continued………. An autopsy revealed Nichols died three days later from blunt-force trauma to the head.

That the officers were Black has ignited painful discussions. Some see them not as protectors, but as enforcers of an imperial system that uses Black faces to uphold white supremacy. But, this is not simply about the identity of the officers. It is about the design of the institution itself. Young, unarmed, nonsuicidal Black men are 13 times more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts, according to a 2020 study. In a society that offers few real economic alternatives, joining the police can feel like the only survival strategy for many working-class Black people. According to Data USA, 13.6 per cent of U.S. police officers are Black, a reflection of the desperation the system creates. When the empire strips a people of opportunity, it often recruits them into the very machinery that subjugates their own communities.

Even though Black people make up 13 per cent of the US population, they accounted for 21 per cent of police killings in 2024, highlighting that despite the abolition of slavery and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Black people continue to face systemic discrimination.

Two of the officers who k*lled Nichols have already pleaded guilty in federal and state courts. The others walk free.

As the tragic experiences of Nichols and other victims of police brutality show, the US system will not be reformed until an authentic decolonial revolution occurs.

Sources

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/nx-s1-5388488/three-memphis-police-officers-found-not-guilty-in-the-death-of-tyre-nichols

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/7/us-jury-acquits-three-memphis-police-officers-in-tyre-nichols-beating-death#:~:text=On%20Wednesday%2C%20former%20officers%20Tadarrius,official%20misconduct%20and%20official%20oppression.

https://www.ebony.com/3-former-memphis-police-officers-found-not-guilty-of-state-charges-in-tyre-nichols-death/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/1/activists-link-death-of-tyre-nichols-to-cowboy-police-culture

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/tyre-nichols-officers-acquitted

https://alccourtwatch.org/the-violent-evolution-of-police-and-imperialist-militarized-tactics-on-community-members/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/civil-rights-leaders-acquittals-tyre-nichols-death-highlight-121585767

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/22/black-or-blue-the-complex-double-lives-of-oaklands-black-police-officers

https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/aclu_the_other_epidemic_fatal_police_shootings_2020.pdf

https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet#:~:text=A%20Black%20person%20is%20five,targeted%20because%20of%20their%20race

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/08/22/police-are-killing-more-americans-than-ever-wheres-the-outrage

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/01/03/xymt-j03.html

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/us/police-killings-prosecution-charges.html

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/memphiscitytennessee/HSG445223

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6983397

https://datausa.io/profile/soc/police-officers#ethnicity

RSF LASHES OUT: PORT SUDAN
NO LONGER SAFE?

Drones recently rained down on Port Sudan - revealing that the Rapid Support Forces are still going to continue the fight as long as the United Arab Emirates continues to back them, despite being on the back foot in Sudan’s proxy war. The UAE sponsors the paramilitary, and Khartoum has now slashed diplomatic ties with the Gulf state in response to the attack. Port Sudan was once considered Sudan’s safest city. Not anymore, as our video explains.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx20x8g2nego?at_bbc_team=editorial&at_format=image

Continued……https://sudantribune.com/article300578/

https://archive.ph/OkgaW

https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-resources/how-the-rsf-got-their-4x4-technicals-the-open-source-intelligence-techniques-behind-our-sudan-expose/

https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/sudan/humanitarian-crisis-sudan-statement-humanitarian-coordination-forum-hcf

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-accuses-rsf-of-sudan-genocide-and-sanctions-its-leader/ar-AA1x9ZAb

https://dtm.iom.int/reports/two-years-conflict-sudan-visualizing-worlds-largest-displacement-crisis

Here is an uplifting example of ‘Ubuntu,’ the African philosophy of shared humanity that translates to ‘I am because we are.’

Recently, 26 Palestinian medical students graduated from the University of Cape Town (@UCT_news on X) in South Africa. They relocated there in July 2024 after Israel’s military onslaught destroyed their universities in Gaza.

The Gift of the Givers (@GiftoftheGivers on X, @gift.of.the.givers on IG), a South Africa-based group that brands itself as the ‘largest disaster response NGO in Africa,’ facilitated their move from Gaza to ensure they could continue their education. The university’s Faculty of Health Sciences welcomed them, offering both academic and emotional support.