October 11, 2021

Zoom Named a Leader in 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Meeting Solutions

Zoom Celebrates its Sixth Consecutive Year in the Leaders Quadrant

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM), today announced that analyst firm Gartner has named Zoom a Leader in the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions. This is the seventh time Zoom has appeared in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions and its sixth consecutive time as a Leader.

For the Meeting Solutions Magic Quadrant, Gartner analyzed 15 companies in the Meeting Solutions space, naming Zoom as a Leader. Zoom is the highest-scoring vendor across three use cases in this year’s Critical Capabilities for Meeting Solutions: Learning and Training, External Presentation, and Webinar.

“We are honored that Gartner has named Zoom a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions,” said Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom. “Zoom simplifies and elevates communications for every business, from the single entrepreneur to the world’s largest enterprises, and we are humbled that so many organizations trust our frictionless, reliable, and secure platform. Zoom will continue to innovate our platform to meet emerging collaboration demands and further deliver customer happiness.”

To read a complimentary copy of the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions report, please visit zoom.us/gartner.

Disclaimer

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions, Mike Fasciani, Tom Eagle, Brian Doherty, Christopher Trueman, 7 October 2021 – For Magic Quadrant

Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Meeting Solutions, Tom Eagle, Mike Fasciani, Brian Doherty, Christopher Trueman, 7 October 2021 – For Critical Capabilities report.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner Peer Insights reviews constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-users based on their own experiences, and do not represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates.

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. We help you express ideas, connect to others, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for large enterprises, small businesses, and individuals alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

Zoom Press Relations:
Beth McLaughlin
PR Specialist
press@zoom.us

October 11, 2021

Two Soldiers Killed by Bomb in Burkina Faso’s Southeast

Two soldiers were killed when their motorcycles ran over a homemade bomb in southeast Burkina Faso on Monday, the latest attack in a region previously spared the jihadist violence of the north.

The West African country has faced increasingly frequent and deadly attacks by jihadists forces linked to the Islamic State group or al-Qaida since 2015.

The violence has killed around 2,000 people and forced 1.4 million to flee their homes.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two soldiers “were victims of an IED (improvised explosive device) attack” in the town of Farakorosso in the Cascades region.

Another security source said that the victims were “a pair of soldiers whose motorbike exploded on a mine.”

Attacks with homemade explosive devices have ramped up since 2018 in Burkina Faso, killing nearly 300 civilians and soldiers, according to an AFP count. Such attacks are often waged in tandem with ambushes.

Also in the Cascades region, two soldiers were killed by an IED near the town of Larabin on October 2.

Two days later in the north, 14 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military detachment in Yirgou, the defense ministry said.

Source: Voice of America

October 11, 2021

After 34 Years, Murder Trial of Former Burkina Faso President, 12 Others Begins

A trial on the assassination of Burkina Faso’s former president, Thomas Sankara, begins Monday, more than three decades after he and 13 others were killed in a 1987 coup. Former President Blaise Compaore, the main defendant in the trial, who lives in exile in Ivory Coast, will not be present at the military court in Ouagadougou.

Sankara is still considered a national hero in Burkina Faso.

Alouna Traore is the lone survivor of an attack that killed former Sankara and 12 others in October 1987. Traore, Sankara’s legal adviser, remembers the day of the assassination.

He says the president got up, adjusted the tracksuit he was wearing and told the other meeting attendees that he was the one the attackers were looking for. He went out the same door he came in. He walked out of the room with his hands up and headed outside, carrying no weapon.

Sankara was a popular figure whose influence was felt across West Africa and beyond.

“He came to be known by some people as the Che Guevara of West Africa… with a big focus on grassroots issues, so really focusing on the well-being of ordinary people,” said Paul Melly, an analyst at Chatham House, a U.K. policy institute.

Fourteen defendants stand accused of carrying out the assassination or conspiring to, including former top-ranking military officials and former politicians.

Compaore was ousted in a coup in 2014 after 27 years of rule and has been in exile in Ivory Coast ever since. His lawyers denounced the trial as “political” last week.

A previous trial for the Sankara assassination was held under Compaore’s rule, but that judgment was dismissed as politicized and invalid by the transitional government after Compaore was ousted.

Prosper Farama is one of the lawyers for the Sankara family. He expects the trial to last four months and says the Sankara family lawyers have amassed irrefutable evidence implicating the defendants.

He says there are many witnesses who will be heard from the military, civilians, politicians of the time. … For example, the driver who drove the commandos to the execution, is alive and able to give clear testimony, according to Farama.

Maitre Mathieu Some is representing one of the defendants, Gilbert Diendere.

He thinks the trial is being held in a context that makes the work of judges difficult, a context in which there are prejudices. He says people have already made up their minds about who carried out the assassination, which jeopardizes the presumption of innocence — the main principle of a fair trial, as far as he is concerned.

Nonetheless, the trial has gripped the country. Traore as well as the families of those killed hope to receive justice 34 years later.

Source: Voice of America

October 11, 2021

Eswatini Deploys Army, Police to Quell Student Protests

Eswatini deployed soldiers and police to multiple schools Monday as students continued to protest for political reforms.

High school students in Africa’s last kingdom have been boycotting classes for the past month.

Among the students’ demands is the release of two lawmakers who were arrested during pro-democracy protests earlier this year.

“The army is not an enemy of the people, and deploying them in schools doesn’t mean there is war but just an assistance to the other forces to maintain order,” army spokeswoman Tengetile Khumalo said, Agence France-Presse reported.

But Eswatini has been criticized by the international community over the past few months for use of excessive force against protesters. At least 27 people have been killed in clashes with police.

In July, national forces arrested two pro-democracy members of parliament on charges of terrorism for inciting unrest and violating COVID-19 regulations. [[link: https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_arrest-eswatini-lawmakers-condemned-international-community/6208940.html ]]

The arrests of Mthandeni Dube and Mduduzi Mabuza prompted more protests and international condemnation.

Source: Voice of America

October 11, 2021

UNICEF: 19,000 Migrant Children Have Crossed Dangerous Jungle

On their trek north toward the United States, some 19,000 migrant children have crossed the dangerous jungle sprawling the border between Panama and Colombia so far this year, UNICEF said Monday.

The number of children who crossed the Darien Gap is almost three times higher than the total for the previous five years, it said in a statement, adding that one-fifth of migrants crossing the border are children, and half of them are under 5 years old.

In 2021, at least five children were found dead in the jungle, the agency said, adding that “more than 150 children arrived in Panama without their parents, some of them are newborn babies — a nearly 20-time increase compared to last year.”

Migrant children sometimes travel with relatives or in the hands of human smugglers.

Jean Gough, UNICEF regional director, said, “Deep in the jungle, robbery, rape and human trafficking are as dangerous as wild animals, insects and the absolute lack of safe drinking water. Week after week, more children are dying, losing their parents or getting separated from their relatives while on this perilous journey.”

UNICEF said migrants of more than 50 nationalities — from Africa, South Asia and South America — have crossed the area.

In early 2021, Panamanian authorities had warned of a possible crisis after opening the borders that had for months been closed because of the pandemic.

By September, the immigration authorities of the Central American nation reported a record 91,305 migrants entered from neighboring Colombia. Of these, 56,676 were Haitians and 12,870 Cubans.

The Darien Gap, an extensive and inhospitable strip of tropical forest that divides Panama and Colombia, is considered one of the world’s most dangerous journeys.

Migrants move along trails, vulnerable to drug gangs and assailants, wildlife, and rivers.

Source: Voice of America