The three people arrested on March 11 for their alleged involvement in the fraudulent sale of several luxury villas in Mallorca linked to a Russian oligarch were acting as front men to prevent the seizure of luxury goods following the war in Ukraine. According to a press release from the National Police, the suspects (two men and a woman) actively collaborated with an individual and two legal entities included on the sanctions list of the European Union and other international organizations as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. The investigation began when a complex corporate network was detected, designed to conceal the assets of a Russian national subject to international sanctions. According to the investigation, the detainees allegedly acted as front men, facilitating asset management and financial transactions to avoid the precautionary seizure of his property. The individuals involved, located in Spain, participated in managing and paying for utilities at the properties and acted as representatives and agents of the sanctioned Russian companies, police said. This allowed them to obstruct and hinder the seizure of several luxury properties, conceal the true ownership of bank accounts, and prove ownership of high-end vehicles located in Spain. The investigation revealed that the objective was to prevent the sanctioned individual's assets from being frozen or blocked, thus allowing him to continue enjoying his wealth and property in Spain despite the prohibition on the disposal of funds issued by the competent authorities. On March 11, officers carried out several raids on five luxury villas, seizing extensive documentation, more than €300,000 in cash, six high-end vehicles, electronic devices, and other material relevant to the case.

It was September 30th, and in Burkina Faso, rumors of another coup—the second in just eight months—were circulating, and the country was glued to their television screens. There was no signal. Gunfire and explosions could be heard near the Ouaga 2000 neighborhood, where the presidential palace, the homes of wealthy families, and the embassies are located. The capital, Ouagadougou, awoke in uncertainty and confusion. The rumors were confirmed: a new military uprising had just taken place.

"Ibrahim Traoré is not a new Sankara, but he is a Sankaraist," says a teacher from a school in Bobo-Dioulasso. Following his assassination in 1987, the Burkinabe revolutionary leader, Thomas SankaraThe man who changed his country's colonial name—Alt-Volta to Burkina Faso, "the homeland of upright men"—has left behind a very strong current of anti-colonial thought. This thought defends, above all, the dignity of the African people and "cooperation with all the peoples of the world," in opposition to the "image of the beggar" that the West had imposed through development aid.

"Out with the white woman, out with the white woman!" is the first thing I hear upon arriving at Tiéfo Amoro Square in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, the epicenter of anti-French protests and demonstrations in support of the military junta that has ruled the country since the coup d'état of September 30, 2022. "IB! IB! IB! IB!" Ibrahim Traoré, the world's youngest president, has promised to restore peace to Burkina Faso, a West African country, by July 2024. An ambitious promise for a country that already has more than two million internally displaced people and 11,312 deaths since 2016, according to the organization Conglicte. in the hands of terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State that operate mainly in the northern and eastern regions of the country.

"We are facing a new cold war in the Sahel, which has become Europe's new geopolitical laboratory," says Beatriz Mesa, researcher and professor at Gaston Berger University. The coup in Niger has shifted the pieces of the game in the international and geopolitical sphere. Two blogs have spoken out and taken a position.