In Case You Missed It 9/14/15 — 9/19/15

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

Drisa Dao/VOA News

Wash­ing­ton-based Burk­i­na Faso cit­i­zens and friends of Burk­i­na Faso demon­strate in front of the White House, Sept. 20, 2015.

1. Pro­test­ers demand end to mil­i­tary rule In Burk­i­na Faso

At least three peo­ple are report­ed killed and more than 60 injured by troops in the African nation of Burk­i­na Faso, accord­ing to the Reuters News Agency. This hap­pened fol­low­ing demon­stra­tions after a tran­si­tion­al gov­ern­ment and its lead­ers were removed from office just weeks before sched­uled elec­tions on Octo­ber 11.

“The pro­test­ers were demand­ing the release of the inter­im pres­i­dent and mem­bers of his gov­ern­ment detained by the pres­i­den­tial guard…,” Reuters tells us.

The African Union(AU) has placed sanc­tions on Burk­i­na Faso, ban­ning trav­el for coup lead­ers. The AU has giv­en the coup lead­ers until Sep­tem­ber 22 to restore the gov­ern­ment or face the penal­ty of trav­el bans and assets freezes.

The coun­try is cur­rent­ly in a fren­zy as region­al lead­ers work to resolve the situation.

2. A tanker explo­sion injures 170 in South Susan

South Sudan is deal­ing with the dev­as­ta­tion caused after an oil tanker explo­sion which killed 170 peo­ple. Accord­ing to the BBC, the tanker had devi­at­ed off the road in the town of Madiri in the West­ern Equa­to­r­i­al state.

As local cit­i­zens were help­ing to clean up the mess, the explo­sion hap­pened. An over­whelm­ing ordeal, state offi­cials have asked for help from the Red Cross and the Unit­ed Nations.

There is still no clear idea as to why there the explo­sion hap­pened. Inter­na­tion­al aid and sup­port from doc­tors and oth­er med­ical staff has been called in to deal with the situation.

3.  U.S. ends Ebo­la screen­ing of pas­sen­gers from Liberia

Start­ing Sep­tem­ber 20 the Unit­ed States will stop Ebo­la screen­ing for trav­el­ers from Liberia, accord­ing to Time mag­a­zine. The spe­cial mea­sure was insti­tut­ed when the dead­ly virus began to spread across inter­na­tion­al bor­ders in 2014. This would be the sec­ond time that Liberia has been declared Ebo­la-free, after a re-occur­rence this summer.

On Sep­tem­ber 3 the World Health Organization(WHO) declared Liberia an Ebo­la free coun­try. How­ev­er, screen­ing will still con­tin­ue for coun­tries Sier­ra Leone and Guinea who are still fac­ing chal­lengers posed by the epidemic.