{"id":60711,"date":"2020-02-03T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T07:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60711"},"modified":"2020-02-03T15:30:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T07:30:22","slug":"update-burkina-faso-to-arm-civilians-against-militants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60711","title":{"rendered":"Update: Burkina Faso to arm civilians against militants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/Burkina-Faso-to-arm-civilians-against-militants-854974?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/169\/16963970.295.jpg\" alt=\"Remote villages like this one in northern Burkina Faso are under threat from violence\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>A remote village in northern Burkina Faso under threat from violence<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <br>OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The authorities in Burkina Faso, struggling to grapple with a growing wave of Islamist militant attacks that is affecting the region, are planning to give weapons to civilians.<br><br>In January alone, at least 60 people were killed in four separate attacks in the north of the country.<br><br>Members of parliament recently unanimously voted in favour of arming civilians in a move they said would help combat armed groups. It is due to be signed into law.<br><br>Any national aged 18 and over who has a &#8220;spirit of sacrifice&#8221; can be considered for recruitment and there is no maximum age. But recruits cannot be part of any political group or party.<br><br>The attacks by militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Daesh group have significantly increased in the past year, causing more than half a million people to flee their homes.<br><br>Critics have questioned whether the new measure will make people safer, but the government insists that armed volunteers are necessary to stem the spread of violence. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A remote village in northern Burkina Faso under threat from violence OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The authorities in Burkina Faso, struggling to grapple with a growing wave of Islamist militant attacks that is affecting the region, are planning to give weapons to civilians. In January alone, at least 60 people were killed in four [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60711"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}