In Case You Missed It: 12/7/15 — 12/13/15

The most impor­tant in this week’s head­lines out of and con­cern­ing Africa, for those who need help catch­ing up.

In this week’s news, farm­ers in Burk­i­na Faso take a risk, South Africa appoints a new Min­is­ter of Finance, and Burundi’s cri­sis continues.

Arwa Aburawa/Al Jazeera

A female farmer in her fields.

1. Farm­ers In Burk­i­na Faso Reject Indus­tri­al Farming

Farm­ers in Burk­i­na Faso are tak­ing what they call a “risk worth tak­ing” on agro-ecol­o­gy.  Although large-scale indus­tri­al farm­ing is the most pro­duc­tive form of farm­ing, it can be destruc­tive and the food pro­duced does not always end up in the hands of those who need it the most.

The farm­ers in Burk­i­na Faso believe that agro-ecol­o­gy is a solu­tion that will ben­e­fit them. It focus­es on small-scale, local farms that will pro­vide for a fam­i­ly or com­mu­ni­ty and com­bat mal­nu­tri­tion. The tech­niques used not only pro­vide food, they also improve the qual­i­ty of the farm­ing land with­out the use of expen­sive fer­til­iz­ers by col­lect­ing rain water and irri­gat­ing the fields. They are are sim­ple, inex­pen­sive, and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friendly.

2. South Africa (Re)-appoints Min­is­ter of Finance

Pres­i­dent Jacob Zuma of South Africa has re-appoint­ed for­mer Min­is­ter of Finance Pravin Gord­han.  He is replac­ing David van Rooyen, who was min­is­ter for only four days, and whose appoint­ment caused the val­ue of the rand to drop dra­mat­i­cal­ly. Gord­han was pre­vi­ous­ly Min­is­ter of Finance in South Africa from 2009 — 2014. He was serv­ing as Min­is­ter of Coop­er­a­tive Gov­er­nance and Tra­di­tion­al Affairs from 2014 until this week.

The Pres­i­dent announced that Gord­han and van Rooyen would sim­ply switch their posi­tions in gov­ern­ment. The val­ue of the rand imme­di­ate­ly went back up when the switch was announced.

3. Vio­lence in Burun­di Continues

The U.S. State Depart­ment has urged US cit­i­zens in Burun­di to leave the coun­try fol­low­ing a series of attacks that left 87 peo­ple dead this week. Burun­di has been in cri­sis since April, when Pres­i­dent Pierre Nku­run­z­iza announced he would seek a third term, lead­ing to wide­spread protests.

Accord­ing to the UN, more than 240 peo­ple have been killed and 20,000 peo­ple have left the coun­try as refugees since the start of the conflict.