SOCIETY
[ ASSA TRAORÉ’S REACTION ] – Adama Traoré’s brother Bagui Traoré is released
Justice freed my brother Bagui, she could no longer remain indifferent to his distress, she could not ignore the cries of a man locked up alive.
There are still the cries of Adama, locked in a box, which we do not hear, but which continues to scream in us, to call for justice.
Five years of legal denial. And three weeks of hearings to finally see the end of a long tunnel of solitude and isolation from the world for my brother Bagui Traoré, who spent nearly five years in prison, far from us, far from his child.
We take one step, the lies fall, the truth rises. The Cour d’assises de Pontoise, presided over by Judge Marc Trévidic, acquitted Bagui of all the attempts at murder against the security forces accused of him.
They were five to appear: SB, Bagui’s ex-girlfriend, was acquitted; CT was also exonerated; EM, who confessed to having fired three shots, is sentenced to 12 years in prison; SC, who also fired, is sentenced to 8 years in prison.
We think of their families, their loved ones. The revolts that followed Adama’s death on 19 July 2016 on the soil of the Persian gendarmerie were at the heart of the debates.
For the first time in five years, my brother’s name resonated in his right place, in a court, in the midst of the sometimes untruthful words of the gendarmes, seated in the place that must be ours, the place where we should have been before them: on the victims’ bench.
Bagui Traoré became during this trial, and in spite of himself, the living voice of Adama. He cried out for injustice, with strength and courage, as he has done for the past five years.
The jurors, the court, the president, were able to recognize, thanks to the talents of a team united in the defence of the accused, that there was not even the beginning of an investigation worthy of the name in this case.
My brother’s defence, made up of Yasmina Belmokhtar, Florian Lastelle, and Frank Berton, showed the total lack of evidence against Bagui, and all the injustice in which he was held, for too long… He’s the only witness to Adama’s death. This trial was a demonstration of all that the institution can make against a family, against men, with procedures, with repeated complaints, to try to stifle its determination, to extinguish its energy.
We have held fast, thanks to your support, thanks to your faith in equality and justice, these values in which we intend to see our children live.
This acquittal honors justice, the justice we want to believe in, the justice that leaves no room for impunity, the justice that recognizes its mistakes. This justice which must now put in indictment the gendarmes who crushed Adama by the weight of their bodies five years ago, these men who let him die, handcuffed on the asphalt of their barracks five years ago.
Justice has been stalling for too long. We will march on Saturday, July 17, for truth and justice, for Adama. All together. With my brothers. With Bagui. With all of you! Because we want things to change, because all lives matter.
Assa Traoré
In Cameroon, about 7 million children, including more than 1.5 million in school, do not have a birth certificate. The absence of this essential document for access to education, health and other public services, particularly affects rural areas and the regions of the Far North, Northwest and Southwest. The subject was discussed during the 3rd International Economic Days of Municipalities (JEICOM), held from June 2 to 4, 2025, at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé.
A deplorable situation at the moment when Cameroon is celebrating the 5th edition of Children’s Day under the theme “Child-sensitive budgeting and planning: a strategic lever for the promotion and protection of children’s rights”.
Faced with the constant problem of establishing birth certificates in Cameroon, the government, through the National Civil Registry Office (BUNEC), collaborates with partners such as UNICEF or the World Bank in order to provide an effective response to the phenomenon.
In this dynamic, the Bunec provides the town halls with tools to ensure a “compliant and reliable registration of births”. It also supports them in the modernization of the civil status system, including the digitization of registers. UNICEF has enabled some town halls to strengthen their human resources capacities and develop innovative strategies.
Several initiatives were launched, notably the national forum on universal birth registration, organized in April 2024, which brought together mayors, civil status officials, and partners to discuss solutions to the problem.
A violent mutiny broke out this Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at the Maison Pénale de Bouaké in Ivory Coast. While the Prison Administration was conducting a routine search within the establishment, it encountered hostility from the inmates of Building E. According to the prosecutor’s statement, they “were attacking them with the help of clubs, machetes and other blunt objects.” To clear themselves, the agents were forced to carry out warning shots in order to cover their retreat.
Unfortunately, this incident led to a heavy toll: “the death of five (05) detainees is to be deplored. Twenty-nine (29) injured, including six (06) prison officers and twenty-three (23) detainees, were also recorded,” said the public prosecutor. He specifies that the injured were taken care of and a coroner was requested for findings of use in such circumstances.
The rapid intervention of the forces of the Gendarmerie and the National Police allowed to limit the violence and restore order. The search operation then continued without further incidents. She led to the discovery of “several blocks of cannabis, platelets of Tramadol tablets, eighteen (18) mobile phones, including eight (08) smartphones, three (03) grenades, knives etc… strictly prohibited in detention.
The prosecutor recalled that previous excavations had already led to the discovery of bladed weapons
More than 200 people were found dead after the sudden floods that hit the Central West of Nigeria on Thursday, May 29, 2025, announced the humanitarian coordinator of the state of Niger in a new report, Tuesday, June 3. Hundreds of victims are still missing.
The balance sheet is getting heavier. Trapped by sudden floods in west-central Niger, many people were still missing on Tuesday 3 June. The humanitarian coordinator of Niger state said that the death toll now exceeds 200, while hundreds of people are still missing.
“We have more than 200 bodies,” Ahmad Suleiman told Channels Television. “No one can say at the moment how many deaths there are in the state of Niger because we are still looking for other bodies,” he added.
The research continues
“We continue to search but sincerely, we cannot be sure of anything,” he added. Many victims were counted in Mokwa, the most affected agglomeration and a neighborhood of which was wiped out within hours Thursday by flood waters from the Niger River. Since then, volunteers and rescue teams have been combing the area under an overwhelming heat, sometimes finding bodies up to 10 kilometers away.
The coordinator’s announcement comes after the official toll remained stuck at 150 deaths, although some residents deplore the loss of more than a dozen family members.
Fifteen of the 36 states in Nigeria had been placed on flood alert a few days before the disaster. Climate change amplifies extreme weather events in Nigeria but for the people of Mokwa, the tragedy is also linked to human failures. In Mokwa, muddy waters swept away hundreds of houses in the town, including the lack of maintenance of the nozzles designed to evacuate floodwaters, which were clogged with debris on the day of the flood.
The death toll could exceed the 321 deaths from the floods that occurred in 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states in 2024. The Nigerian government claims to have provided aid, but on the spot, the inhabitants feel left to themselves and several families said they had received nothing.
Source: la-croix.com/ Photo credit: TV5
