Mexico has a 15 percent positivity rate, followed by West Africa's Burkina Faso at 12 percent, Ethiopia at 10 percent, and both Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan at 7.5 percent.

Earlier this year, Burkina Faso expelled the French troops, choosing Wagner instead. The junta in Niger is now demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops.

“Dengue fever is also present in Burkina Faso and Senegal, and we need to raise public awareness," Dr. Traore said. The virus typically emerges in more tropical environments but was first detected in comparatively arid Mali in 2008.

Countering Terrorism The Trump administration views coastal West Africa—bordering the Sahel region—as a strategic priority because of the rising threat of terrorism emanating from countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and Nigeria, Walsh said.

Mali and Burkina Faso have both previously accused ECOWAS of serving a Western agenda.

Other African countries where the use of drones has been particularly deadly include Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan.

"When the Biden administration took a moral position condemning the coup in Niger, the military leaders obviously didn’t like it and they forced the U.S. military out of the country, and Mali and Burkina Faso did the same.”

Most of those rescued were from Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, and Mali and had departed from Sfax, in Tunisia. Survivors told rescuers that at least eight people who were aboard were missing, including two children.

Niger, alongside neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso are struggling to quell terrorists linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups who carry out raids, and control swathes of territories in the vast Sahel region.

Its forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso after coups there in the last two years.

But the terrorists have regrouped and waged a new campaign that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, a band of countries on the edge of the Sahara.

In June, the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) released a report detailing how foreign nationals, particularly from China and Burkina Faso, have introduced new technologies and machinery to Ghana that are increasing

Imagine saying to your next-door neighbor, "I would like to take you to the hospital, but unfortunately I would do more good if I donated the cost of the fuel that I would use in taking you to help the children of Burkina Faso"!

Separately, armed men killed at least 100 civilians in a rural district of northern Burkina Faso close to the border with Niger over the weekend, a security source said.

Niger, like its neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, is battling groups linked to al Qaeda and ISIS which have killed thousands and displaced millions across West Africa's Sahel region.

France's forces have been kicked out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso since coups in those countries, which has reduced its role in the fight against Islamist insurgencies. France isn't the only country to express concerns.

Three West African junta-led nations of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have officially withdrawn from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Faso, Mali and Niger officially left the Economic Community of West African States.

In December two Benin soldiers were killed by jihadis near the border with Burkina Faso.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso—The United States is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that could lead to the capture of Congo's leading terrorist, who leads an affiliate of the ISIS group.

Burkina Faso flags during a rally in support of Traore at the Place de la Nation in Ouagadougou on April 30, 2025.

This week, Russia’s state-run railway authority RZD said it was mulling plans to extend the north–south corridor into several African countries, including Libya, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and South Africa.

It spans nine countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Sudan.

Mali is facing a worsening insurgency by Islamist armed groups, some linked to al Qaeda and ISIS, which has expanded to its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger. The army said it killed at least seven on the enemy side.

Fernandez also asserted that the United States rewarding the Ivory Coast with increased aid is also a message to its authoritarian (pro-Russian) coup neighbors in Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

“Whether in Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, or Kenya, I pass clusters of homes and see women cooking amidst harmful smoke from open fires fuelled by wood or cow dung. How is this acceptable in the year 2024?”

Its forces have been kicked out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso since coups in those countries, reducing its role in a region-wide fight against deadly Islamist insurgencies.

Coups have occurred in Burkina Faso to the north and Mali to the north of that.

“The same thing happened a few months later in Burkina Faso. "In both cases, Russian influence—primarily through the Wagner Group—likely contributed to the pressure on France.

Ivory Coast's borderlands with Burkina Faso have emerged as hotspots of insecurity in the past year following several attacks by Islamist militants believed to be linked to al-Qaeda.