Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has roiled the politics of his country by seeking a third term as President, something which is prohibited by the Burundian constitution. Protests have been going on for five days in the capital city of Bujumbura. Nkurunziza became President in the midst of a serious crisis in 2005. Burundi, like Rwanda, is populated by both Hutus and Tutsis, the same ethnic groups involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The fear is that the political protests could trigger off a spasm of ethnic violence. The dispute has been referred to the UN Security Council but Russia has adamantly opposed any intervention in the crisis.
The economic situation in Venezuela is one of the worst in the world today. The collapse in oil prices has aggravated an already sputtering economy plagued by mismanagement and corruption. Shortages of basic necessities such as toilet paper have become endemic, and the country’s pharmacy’s have been forced to adopt a rationing system, monitored by fingerprinting, in order to assure that sufficient medicines are available to the sick.
Venezuelan Inflation Rate
The BBC is reporting that the Islamic State has executed about 300 Yazidis in an area west of Mosul. The massacre is only the latest in a string of barbarities by the extremist group. But it also comes amid reports that the leader of the group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, suffered severe injuries in an allied air attack earlier in the month of March. It does not appear as if the group has been hamstrung by the injury to the leader, indicating that the Islamic State has a robust chain of command.
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