This is heating up. A day after a coup staged by remnants of the ancien regime, troops are unleashing violence and all borders have been shuttered. This does not seem to be trending in the right direction. “Heavily armed troops crushed protests in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou after a former spy chief seized power in a military coup on Thursday, derailing a democratic transition that had inspired many in Africa. At least three people were killed and more than 60 injured, according to hospital sources, when members of the presidential guard fired warning shots to disperse crowds and beat back stone-throwing demonstrators with batons. Protesters demanded the release of the interim president and members of his government detained by the presidential guard on Wednesday, and the organization of elections due on Oct. 11.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1UYicDQ)
It’s Official: There’s No Discernable Ceasefire in South Sudan. South Sudan’s army used helicopter gunships to pound rebel positions, military monitors said Thursday, their first report detailing ceasefire violations since a peace deal was signed…Monitors from the regional East Africa bloc IGAD, which led efforts to negotiate the peace deal, said that on September 2, government helicopters attacked rebel positions outside Malakal, capital of the battleground oil-state of Upper Nile. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1gubjMO)
Save the date…The European Union announced an emergency summit in Brussels next Wednesday to tackle the migrant crisis and address sharp differences over plans to relocate 120,000 refugees around the bloc. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Oz4Kq4)
Humanity Affirming News of the Day: Mozambique has removed its last known landmine after two decades of work to get rid of the explosives. Close to 171,000 landmines were removed, according to the Halo Trust, a British charity that led the clearance. (BBC http://bbc.in/1JdmLmQ)
Africa
Cholera has killed 16 people in three camps in Nigeria housing over one million people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Thursday, calling on other aid agencies to help it respond. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Ohd92r)
More than 100 people were killed in South Sudan when an oil truck exploded as a crowd tried to gather fuel from the vehicle after it had veered off the road, a regional official said on Thursday, a day after the incident. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1guc0pj)
Fighting erupted between rival armed groups near Mali’s desert border with Algeria on Thursday, sources from both sides said, in a fresh violation of a U.N.-backed peace deal. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1UYiquN )
Torrential rains in Sierra Leone have caused heavy flooding and extensive damage to homes and property in the capital, Freetown. Telephone communication has been disrupted. (VOA http://bit.ly/1gueNPr)
Police in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Wednesday fired tear gas and rubber bullets to bar opposition protesters from the headquarters of the Electoral Commission to demand a new electoral roll, police sources and eyewitnesses said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1guc0FP)
The European Union aims to agree on $226 million in development aid for Eritrea by year-end to help stem an exodus of people from the poor Horn of Africa nation to Europe, a senior EU official said on Thursday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Ohd9iK)
African negotiators plan to block a global agreement on reducing global warming if the deal is too weak and fails to consider the implications of climate change for the continent’s wellbeing. (SciDevNet http://bit.ly/1JdjNyV)
MENA
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for two suicide bomb attacks in mainly Shi’ite districts in central Baghdad that killed at least 23 people and wounded 68 others. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1JdmNLs)
Sri Lanka will begin talks next month on creating a special court to examine alleged atrocities during the country’s civil war, in which tens of thousands of people died, an official said Thursday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1JdmNLF)
A Saudi Arabian diplomat accused of repeatedly raping and abusing two Nepalese maids has left India under cover of diplomatic immunity, while Nepal on Thursday called for justice for the women. (AP http://yhoo.it/1NzJTSR)
Asia
Bangladesh’s High Court on Thursday decided former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia can stand trial on corruption charges involving a contract for a coal mine with a Chinese company, lawyers said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1OhcDl2)
The illicit timber trade between Myanmar and China is rebounding to near its peak of a decade ago as loggers push deeper into Myanmar to strip its forests, according to a report released Thursday by an environmental group. (AP http://yhoo.it/1OhcCNM)
The Americas
Thousands of residents of this small city in northern Chile were sleeping outside Thursday after a powerful earthquake destroyed their homes, forced more than 1 million to evacuate and killed at least eight people in the quake-prone South American nation. (AP http://yhoo.it/1OyX873)
La Línea, the tax scam that unseated the president and sparked public unrest, could be a fulcrum for action on poverty, inequality and injustice in Guatemala. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1OhcCxt)
…and the rest
The European Union’s migration chief rebuked Hungary on Thursday for its tough handling of a flood of refugees as asylum seekers thwarted by a new Hungarian border fence and repelled by riot police poured into Croatia, spreading the strain. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1OhaS7l)
Paris authorities are evacuating more than 500 Syrian and other migrants from tent camps and moving them to special housing as the country steps up efforts to deal with Europe’s migrant wave. (AP http://yhoo.it/1gubjfO)
While many Germans have welcomed the record numbers of refugees reaching their country, the new arrivals have unleashed fear and fury in small eastern German towns like Riesa, a center of far-right support in a country ashamed of its Nazi past. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1OhcCxo)
New figures due out in early October are expected to show how much funding to help developing states address climate change needs to be drummed up to meet a 2020 pledge of $100 billion a year, dispersing the fog surrounding the numbers. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1gubrMg)
The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage for 2014 on Wednesday. Poverty in the U.S. was unchanged last year, despite more jobs. (NPR http://n.pr/1OhdbYa)
Opinion/Blogs
The World Historic News You Might Have Missed (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1KoS0fJ )
Brazil’s Crisis: A Blessing and a Curse (IPS http://bit.ly/1LAjrEi)
Are women better peacekeepers? (Daily Maverick http://bit.ly/1Ohd6Ue)
Zimbabwe: when ending child labour does not end child exploitation (African Arguments http://bit.ly/1Fj2st4)
How climate change efforts by developed countries are hurting Africa’s rural poor (The Conversation http://bit.ly/1LAmGvu)
Thoughts on the latest coup in Burkina Faso (An Africanist Perspective http://bit.ly/1OhfgTY)
Transforming Humanitarian Aid with Cash Transfers: High Level Panel Report (CGD http://bit.ly/1Ohflqt)
Are Theories of Change living up to their potential? (WhyDev http://bit.ly/1Fj4Sb9)
What are the key principles behind a theory of change approach? Top new ODI paper. (From Poverty to Power http://bit.ly/1gufXue)
New Nigerian President, Same Old Problems (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/1LjlTDg)
What You Need to Know about the Coup in Burkina Faso (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1OyUnCN )