Opposition members of parliament in Burkina Faso have called on France to open its archives to look for evidence of involvement of the French secret services in the 1987 death of Thomas Sankara. The call is the latest effort in a long-running struggle to force a full and open inquiry into the assassination which brought Burkina Faso's current president, Blaise Compaoré, to power. 'Evidence presented in other countries indicates that France was involved in the death of Thomas Sankara,' said MP and lawyer Stanislas Benewindé Sankara - no relation to the former president - at a 16 July press conference in Ouagadougou, the Burkinabè capital.

The government of Burkina Faso has responded to long-standing demands of farmers for greater support for small family producers with the launch of 'Operation 100,000 Ploughs'. Smallholder farmers say this will strengthen the country’s food security. The operation, launched in June, will make 20,000 ploughs available to the poorest rural households in each of the next five years, half of them to be given to women. According to Dao, the ploughs will be made affordable thanks to an 80 per cent subsidy from the government.

Cotton production resumed quietly in the small town of Sara after farmers won a victory in their fight with SOFITEX, the leading company in Burkina Faso which buys and processes cotton, reports Farm Radio Weekly. The renewed interest in cotton contrasts with the violent protests in June. Some farmers threatened not to produce the valuable fibre this year. But others had already planted and did not support abandoning the crop. Angry farmers destroyed some of the newly-planted fields. Police intervened to prevent them from pulling up all the young cotton plants.

The recent political upheaval in Burkina Faso demonstrates the fragility of peace, writes Paul Kéré, with the country facing numerous challenges around ensuring affordable staple foods, public health, its economy and the handover of power.

The Burkina Faso authorities have sounded the alarm over the increased rate of degradation of forests in this Sahelian country. According to a study by the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development, some 110,550 hectares of forest are destroyed each year, just over four per cent of the country's total wooded area – around three-quarters of this annual loss linked to farming. The data covers forest loss between 1992 and 2002, but the trend continues, according the ministry.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré has sacked all of the 14 governors of the country’s regions and promised to name replacements in due course. A statement on the State radio said the move followed a Cabinet meeting which was chaired by the President in the capital, Ouagadougou. Even though no reasons were given for the sackings, it is believed the action was in connection with the riots and military mutinies that have rocked the country for three months now.

With the country witness to sustained, diverse protests in the face of a repressive and unrepresentative regime, Burkina Faso’s people are no longer scared of their government, writes Pierre Sidy.

Since October 1997 – for more than 13 years – the International Justice Committee for Thomas Sankara has called for judicial procedures to be launched in Burkina Faso around the assassination of Thomas Sankara.

Commenting on the Western media’s preference towards coverage of particular uprisings across North Africa, Tendai Marima asks ‘what makes Burkina Faso's crisis so un-newsworthy that it is easily swept under the news pile?'

Burkina Faso's government will hold talks with soldiers to discuss issues which led to a military mutiny and days of unrest across the West African nation. The mutiny, which began with shooting near the presidential palace, triggered riots and looting in the capital, Ouagadougou, and in other towns and cities.

Mutinous soldiers have rampaged through a southern town in Bukina Faso as the revolt against Blaise Compaore, the West African nation's ruler, enters its fourth day. Soldiers at a military garrison in Po, near the Ghana border, fired in the air, looting and seizing private vehicles, residents told the AFP news agency. Compaore, who came to power in a 1987 military coup, has faced a series of protests since February, staged first by students and then by soldiers. He won a new five-year term in office after taking 80 per cent of the votes in November elections.

There are concerns about the future of organic cotton in Burkina Faso, reports Farm Radio Weekly. The concern is caused by a jump in plantings of genetically modified or GM cotton. By 2009, genes from GM crops had been found in organic cotton. At that time, only 10 per cent of conventional cotton farmers were growing GM varieties. But with the massive spread of GM cotton in 2010, almost 90 per cent of conventional producers now grow GM cotton.

Lila Chouli gives a behind-the-scenes view on protests in Burkina Faso. The spontaneous protests might prove that kicking a leader out might not need a formal organisation.

Taking note of the people’s uprisings across North Africa, the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste of France denounces the repression of President Blaise Compaoré's regime.

Y a-t-il un espoir pour les femmes du Burkina Faso de voir leurs droits respecter dans un pays plus sensible aux problèmes auxquels elles sont confrontées?

In a message commemorating the death of Thomas Sankara on 15 October 1987, Mariam Sankara calls on the people to continue the struggle not only for justice for Thomas Sankara, but also for Africa.

The economic crisis has affected the economy of Burkina Faso only in a limited way. Despite dry whether conditions and low cotton prices, GDP growth has only been slightly reduced. According to the latest analysis of the Burkinabe economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), GDP growth was reduced from 5.2 percent in 2008 to 3.2 percent in 2009.

The Burkinabe president, Blaise Compaore, has called for the acceleration of the establishment of electronic communication infrastructure in Africa, saying this would open up new tech n ology-related opportunities and cope with the digital divide that threatens to further marginalise developing countries. The Burkinabe head of state was speaking during the opening ceremony of the Third Panafrican Forum on Best Practices in the Field of New Information and Communication Technology.

Migration in search of work has long been common in Sourou Province, northern Burkina Faso, but the trend is increasingly for younger girls to join the exodus, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh). “Migration is after all a method of survival,” Herman Zoungrana, head of Tdh’s protection programme in Burkina Faso, told IRIN. He said traditionally after the harvest people would fill up their granaries then set out to find work until the next planting season.

“Bee-ba-ta a un bébé!” Seated on plastic mats, their sandals and book bags on the ground nearby, children follow text with chalk-dusted fingers as they practice reading. Months ago these children spent most of their time begging in the streets of the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou. With help from local university student volunteers and support from the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh), the children - part of Burkina’s Malian Tuareg community - now spend their days in the classroom.