Burkina Faso Charges Former Coup Leader Over Murder Of Sankara

By Nadoun Coulibaly, Reuters

OUAGADOUGOU, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Authorities in Burkina Faso have charged a general who led a failed coup in September with complicity in the 1987 assassination of President Thomas Sankara, senior security sources told Reuters.

Sankara's murder is one of the most high-profile killings in Africa's post-independence history and the charge against General Gilbert Diendere appears to represent a breakthrough in a case that has haunted the West African country for decades.

It follows a pledge by the transitional government to investigate the murder and a decision in May to exhume the remains of a body believed to be Sankara's, which was buried at a cemetery on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou.

"General Gilbert Diendere is formally charged in the Thomas Sankara case," said a senior security source with direct knowledge of the case. Diendere was charged last month with complicity in assassination and attack, the source said.

Diendere's lawyer, Mathieu Some, told Reuters on Sunday his client had been charged over Sankara's death and he would prepare his legal defence. The charges are yet to be made public.

Ten others, less senior than Diendere, have already been charged. The senior security official said most were soldiers in the elite presidential guard of former President Blaise Compaore, who was ousted in October 2014.

Diendere was Compaore's intelligence chief and right-hand man. In September, he led the presidential guard in a short-lived coup in which soldiers took transitional President Michel Kafando and the prime minister hostage.

The coup failed and in its aftermath, the presidential guard was disbanded and Diendere sought refuge at the Vatican embassy. He was then arrested and charged with murder and threatening state security. He is still in detention.

"AFRICA'S CHE GUEVARA"

Sankara took power in a coup in 1983 and pursued a philosophy of Marxism and pan-Africanism that led him to be called "Africa's Che Guevara".

Many African intellectuals view him as a visionary on a par with Congo's first prime minister Patrice Lumumba, who was murdered in 1961, or South African anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko, who was killed in 1977.

He nationalized land and mineral wealth, moved to improve health and education, pressed for debt reduction, promoted women into leadership and changed the country's name from Upper Volta. The changes made an impact on Burkina Faso, a landlocked country that produces gold and cotton but remains impoverished.

Sankara was known for his trademark red beret and rejection of the lavish lifestyle typical of African leaders. In October 1987, he was murdered in a coup that brought Compaore to power.

Compaore reversed many of Sankara's policies and established a reputation as one of the region's most powerful men but mystery surrounding the killing dogged him, not least because attempts to mount a judicial investigation during his tenure stalled.

Compaore was toppled by protesters who opposed his bid to change the constitution so that he could extend his rule.

The charges against Diendere come at a critical moment for Burkina Faso as it makes a democratic transition that is seen as an example for other African states.

Voters elected former Prime Minister Roch Marc Kabore as president a week ago and when sworn in he will be the country's first new leader in decades.

Kabore was an ally of Compaore who went into opposition in early 2014. The election was key for a nation ruled by leaders who came to power in coups for most of its history since independence from France in 1960. (Additional reporting by Joe Penney; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Africa Nations Aim To Restore 100m Hectares Of Land By 2030

The AFR100 Scheme Will Be Backed By $1 billion Funds From World Bank

REUTERS, DEC 6, 2015

(PARIS) -- Ten African countries have committed to restore 31 million hectares of degraded and deforested land, under a new push to make 100 million hectares productive again by 2030.

The AFR100 scheme, launched on Sunday in Paris, will be backed by $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) from the World Bank and additional funds from Germany, as well as $545 million in private-sector investment.

“Restoring our landscapes brings prosperity, security and opportunity,” said Rwanda’s Minister of Natural Resources Vincent Biruta.

“With forest landscape restoration, we’ve seen agricultural yields rise and farmers in our rural communities diversify their livelihoods and improve their well-being,” he added in a statement.

The countries taking part so far are Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Togo and Uganda.

“If the Congo Basin is not well managed, the land will become degraded and turn into grassland, and then the desert will take over the whole of Africa,” Henry Djombo, Republic of Congo’s forest economy minister, told the launch of the initiative in Paris.

The new land restoration programme builds on national commitments made by African countries for a UN deal to tackle climate change, due to be agreed in the French capital next week.

So far, 13 of the climate action plans submitted by African governments include restoration, conservation of standing forests or agriculture that adapts to climate shifts and limits greenhouse gas emissions.

Implementing those pledges starting in 2020 would reduce Africa’s annual emissions by 36 per cent, or 0.25 per cent of global emissions, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“These countries are well on their way to meeting the goal of restoring 100 million hectares of land, which will help sequester carbon and bring economic benefits to low-income, rural communities,” said WRI president Andrew Steer.

As well as storing carbon, forests and trees can improve soil fertility and food security, increase water supplies, reduce desertification, boost biodiversity and help create green jobs, according to a statement on the AFR100.

With Africa’s population expected to nearly double by 2050, demands are increasing on already scarce soil and water resources, as climate change bites.

Land restoration efforts include planting trees, stopping soil erosion and improving soil health, bringing wide benefits.

Restoration is already happening. For example, in Niger, farmers have increased the number of trees across 5 million hectares of agricultural land, improving food security for 2.5 million people, the AFR100 noted.

The scheme aims to help countries and communities share knowledge and resources to achieve restoration on a bigger scale, it said.

Ebrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development — one of 10 organisations providing technical support to AFR100 — said land restoration had worked well in African countries from Malawi to Ethiopia and Mali.

But efforts should be expanded, as over 700 million hectares of African land could potentially be restored, he added.

Last week, world leaders and international agencies pledged $4 billion over the next five years to step up implementation of the ‘Great Green Wall’, a land restoration programme in the Sahel that was launched in 2007.

Over the next 10 years, it aims to restore more than 50 million hectares of land, in addition to the AFR100 pledges. The Green Wall efforts will also count towards the 100 million-hectare goal, endorsed by the African Union.

The Green Wall plan will help sequester an estimated 250 million tonnes of carbon and provide new income opportunities for millions of young people who might otherwise consider migrating from poverty-stricken areas, a statement said.

On Saturday, governments and financial institutions announced new pledges for a separate $730 million initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean to restore deforested land by 2020.

That initiative was launched a year ago.

The new commitments of just over 9 million hectares bring the total area to be restored in the region to 27.7 million hectares, an area roughly the size of Britain.

German Court Opens Way For Trial Of Auschwitz Paramedic

© Getty Images Oswiecim, Poland - August 25, 2013: Gates to Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp, a former Nazi extermination camp on August 25, 2013 in Oswiecim, Poland.

(REUTERS) -- A German court on Tuesday permitted the trial of a 95-year-old German man accused of being an accessory to the murder of at least 3,681 people at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The higher court of Rostock in northern Germany deemed Hubert Z. fit for trial, overruling a previous decision by a lower court that considered him too fragile for a legal process.

Z., whose last name is confidential due to German privacy laws, was a sergeant in the Nazi SS at Auschwitz from October 1943 to January 1944 and acted as one of the death camp's paramedics from Aug. 15 to Sept. 14, 1944, the indictment said.

During that month, at least 14 deportation trains reached the extermination camp from places as far as Rhodes, Lyon, Vienna and Westerbork in the Netherlands, the local prosecutor's office in Schwerin said.

Although Z. is not accused of having been directly involved in any killings, the prosecution's office holds that he was well aware of the camp's function as a facility for mass murder and by joining its organisational structure consciously participated and even accelerated the deaths of thousands of people.

German court rulings have established a precedent for the conviction of Nazi concentration camp employees for being guilty of accessory to murder.

In July, 94-year-old Oskar Groening, known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of the accessory to murder of 300,000 people in Auschwitz. [ID: nL5N0ZV1GV]

Two other cases involving death camp employees are pending trial in German courts.

In the town of Detmold, Reinhold H. is accused of being an accessory to the murder of 170,000 people in Auschwitz, and in the northern city of Kiel, a 91-year-old woman is accused of the same charges in the case of 260,000 people.

In both cases, the defence maintains that the accused are unfit for trial and final court rulings on this are expected later this year and in early 2016.

Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, responsible for Nazi war crime investigations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that all these legal cases were happening very late.

"You would expect that considering the age of the accused every effort would be made to expedite these cases but instead they all follow a lengthy process," Zuroff told Reuters over the phone from his office in Jerusalem.

"But better late than never."

 (Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Paul Carrel and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Egypt Says 90 Percent Chance Of Hidden Rooms In Tut Tomb

 BY NOUR YOUSSEF, ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015 file photo, the tomb of King Tut is displayed in a glass case at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, Tuesday. On Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said there is a 90 percent chance that hidden chambers will be found within King Tutankhamun's tomb, based on the preliminary results of a new exploration of the 3,300-year-old mausoleum.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) :- CAIRO — Egypt on Saturday said there is a 90 percent chance that hidden chambers will be found within King Tutankhamun's tomb, based on the preliminary results of a new exploration of the 3,300-year-old mausoleum.

Researchers say the discovery of a new chamber could shine new light on one of ancient Egypt's most turbulent times, and one prominent researcher has theorized that the remains of Queen Nefertiti might be inside.

Egypt began the search for the hidden chamber last week. Announcing the results of three days of testing in the southern city of Luxor, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said the findings will be sent to Japan for a monthlong analysis before the search is resumed.

Luxor, in southern Egypt, served as the pharaonic capital in ancient times, and is home to sprawling temples and several ancient tombs.

British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves theorizes that Tutankhamun, better known as King Tut, who died at the age of 19, may have been rushed into an outer chamber of what was originally Nefertiti's tomb. Famed for her beauty, Nefertiti was the subject of a famous 3,300-year-old bust.

Reeves reached his theory after high-resolution images discovered what he said were straight lines in King Tut's tomb. These lines, previously hidden by color and the stones' texture, indicate the presence of a sealed chamber, he said. The images were later broadcast live on national television last September.

Nefertiti was the primary wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who unsuccessfully attempted to switch Egypt to an early form of monotheism. Akhenaten was succeeded by a pharaoh referred to as Smenkhare and then Tut, who is widely believed to have been Akhenaten's son.

Tut, Nefertiti, and Akhenaten's family ruled Egypt during one of its most turbulent times, which ended with a military takeover by Egypt's top general at the time, Horemheb. The whole family's names were wiped out from official records later on.

Reeves believes that Smenkhare is actually Nefertiti.

This is the second find to be announced this week. On Tuesday, el-Damaty said the Austrian Archaeological Institute discovered a "giant fence" dating back over 3,500 years at the site of another ancient capital city, Avaris. The sandstone fence is least 500 meters (yards) long and 7 meters (yards) thick, antiquities official Mahmoud Afifi said.

Putin Orders Sanctions Against Turkey

 BY SUSAN FRASER AND JIM HEINTZ

Turkey shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber at the Syrian border on Tuesday, insisting it had violated its airspace despite repeated warnings. The tanks are expected to be deployed to the border with Syria.(DHA agency via AP) TURKEY OUT

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) --Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called for sanctions against Turkey, following the downing this week by Turkey of a Russian warplane.

The decree published on the Kremlin's website Saturday came hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had voiced regret over the incident, saying his country was “truly saddened” by the event and wished it hadn’t occurred.

The decree includes a ban on some goods and forbids extensions of labor contracts for Turks working in Russia as of Jan. 1.. It doesn’t specify what goods are to be banned or give other details, but it also calls for ending chartered flights from Russia to Turkey and for Russian tourism companies to stop selling vacation packages that would include a stay in Turkey.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev earlier in the week had ordered his cabinet to develop a list of goods to be sanctioned.

Putin’s decree also calls for ending visa-free travel between Russia and Turkey and orders the tightening of control over Turkish air carriers in Russia “for security reasons.” A Kremlin statement said the decree was issued “to protect Russian citizens from crimes.”

Erdogan’s expression of regret Saturday was the first since Tuesday’s incident in which Turkish F-16 jets shot down the Russian jet on grounds that it had violated Turkey’s airspace despite repeated warnings to change course. It was the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane and drew a harsh response from Moscow.

“We are truly saddened by this incident,” Erdogan said. “We wish it hadn’t happened as such, but unfortunately such a thing has happened. I hope that something like this doesn’t occur again.”

Addressing supporters in the western city of Balikesir, Erdogan said neither country should allow the incident to escalate and take a destructive form that would lead to “saddening consequences.”

He renewed a call for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a climate conference in Paris next week, saying it would be an opportunity to overcome tensions.

Erdogan’s friendly overture however, came after he again vigorously defended Turkey’s action and criticized Russia for its operations in Syria.

“If we allow our sovereign rights to be violated ... then the territory would no longer be our territory,” Erdogan said.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also said he hoped a meeting between Erdogan and Putin would take place in Paris.

“In such situations it is important to keep the channels of communication open,” he said.

Putin has denounced the Turkish action as a "treacherous stab in the back," and has insisted that the plane was downed over Syrian territory in violation of international law. He has also refused to take telephone calls from Erdogan. Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that the Kremlin had received Erdogan's request for a meeting, but wouldn't say whether such a meeting is possible.

Asked why Putin hasn't picked up the phone to respond to Erdogan's two phone calls, he said that "we have seen that the Turkish side hasn't been ready to offer an elementary apology over the plane incident."

After the incident, Russia deployed long-range S-400 air defense missile systems to a Russian air base in Syria just 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the border with Turkey to help protect Russian warplanes, and the Russian military warned it would shoot down any aerial target that would pose a potential threat to its planes.

Russia has since also restricted tourist travel to Turkey, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a raft of broader economic sanctions.

On Saturday Turkey issued a travel warning urging its nationals to delay non-urgent and unnecessary travel to Russia, saying Turkish travelers were facing "problems" in the country. It said Turks should delay travel plans until "the situation becomes clear."

Heintz reported from Moscow

Child Brides In Africa To More Than Double By 2050

By Shauna Wilkins, Ameri Publications

Should the reduction in underage marriages accelerate in the coming decades, as UNICEF hopes, then population growth would lead to 150 million child brides by 2050 – 25 million more than today.

Africa will overtake South Asia as the region with the largest number of child brides, their number soaring to 310 million, more than 40 percent of the global total, in 2050, from 125 million, 25 percent of the total, today.

The two-day meeting in Lusaka is the African Union’s first conference on “Ending Child Marriage in Africa”, gathering representatives from member states as well as first ladies, United Nations officials and civil society groups.

My parents married me off when I was 13.

In South Sudan, girls from the wealthiest households are almost as likely to be married by age 18 as girls from the poorest households. UNICEF said that rapid population growth and limited social change across the African continent were key factors contributing to their prediction. Currently, 34% of young women were married as children, down from 44% in 1990.

Though the rates of child marriage are on the decline in most parts of the world, the number of girls married as children in Africa is expected to increase by 250 percent by the year 2050.

“The total number of child brides will rise from 125 million to 310 million by 2050… if we do not do something now”, UNICEF deputy executive director Fatoumata Ndiaye told AFP.

The report highlights slow rates of reduction, combined with rapid population growth, as major causes for the projected increase.

Africa’s population of girls is expected to balloon from the current 275 million to 465 million within 35 years.

It is also important to increase girls’ access to reproductive health services so that they have fewer, safer pregnancies and can break the cycle of poverty, UNICEF said.

Young girls married early face higher risks of health complications from childbirth, and their children are more likely to be stillborn or die shortly after birth than those born to older mothers. Girls who are married as children or teenagers are less likely to finish school, and more likely to experience violence or contract HIV.

Lake said as a result of the number of girls affected, lost childhood and shattered future, there was urgency of banning the practice once and for all. Each child bride is an individual tragedy. Moreover, UNICEF says that child brides often lack the skills needed for employment. “It is a harmful practice which severely affects the rights of a child”.

More than 700 million women alive today were married as children and one in three girls in the developing world were married before they turned 18, according to Girls Not Brides, a nonprofit working to end child marriage. In the Central African Republic and some other regions, the practice of boys being married off while underage was also rated disproportionately high.

NIGERIA: 718 Pregnant Women Tested Positive For HIV In Ogun In 2014

By Kehinde Akinyemi, Daily Trust Nigeria

Abeokuta — A total of 718 out of 50,209 pregnant women screened for HIV tested positive in the year 2014, the state commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye has disclosed.

Ipaye, who was briefing newsmen on the 2015 World AIDS day in Abeokuta, said the a total of 1022 HIV positive pregnant women received ARV prophylaxis for PMTCT.

He said there were 488 live births by HIV positive women with 639 HIV exposed infants receiving first dose of Nevirapine.

The Commissioner also hinted that in the year under review a total of 140,904 were counseled, tested and received results in 2014 with 4693 persons testing positive. Out this figure, 2207 persons were initiated on ART in the state.

On the possibility of eradicating AIDs epidemic by 2030, Ipaye said there is need to close the gap between people who have access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services and people who are being left behind to make the eradication possible.

He noted that such barriers, which include stigma and discrimination, false beliefs and poor domestic funding among others should be looked into, suggesting further that, "government will take a lead by supporting mobilization of resources to expand and improve access to treatment as well as engaging all members of society especially those who are most vulnerable which is key to a unified and comprehensive HIV/AIDs response."

Nigeria Naira Firmer On Unofficial Market As C.Bank Tightens Forex Rules

REUTERS

(Adds quotes, details, background)

Nov 26 The Nigerian naira strengthened 2.1 percent to 235 per dollar on the unofficial market on Thursday after the central bank moved to enforce documentation requirements on bureau de change operators prior to dollar sales, traders said.

In a circular seen by Reuters on Thursday, the central bank asked all bureau de change (BDCs) operators to submit accounts showing their dollar usage at the start of each week before they can access future sales, a move traders say was aimed at curbing speculation.

The naira had fallen sharply on Wednesday, a day after the central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates to stimulate lending in Africa's biggest economy, traders said.

The currency was quoted at the pegged rate of 197 naira on the official interbank market on Thursday.

"It has been observed that a good number of bureaux de change purchased foreign exchange from the central bank without rendering returns on their utilisation," the bank said

The central bank has introduced currency controls to stop the naira weakening, defying calls to further devalue the currency hard hit by the plunge in global crude prices.

The bank asked BDCs to immediately return all forex bought at its Wednesday auction without documents to show how they used previous purchases. It cut dollar supply to BDCs last week to conserve its dwindling foreign exchange reserves. (Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Dominic Evans)

100 Women Die Daily In Northern Nigeria During Childbirth, Says UNFPA

Leadership-Agency Report

Ms Ratidzai Ndhlovu, Nigeria Country Director of United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA), says no fewer than 100 women die daily across Northern Nigeria during childbirth.

She spoke on Thursday in Sokoto at a consultative meeting with the theme: “Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal Deaths in Northern Nigeria: The Role of the Traditional and Religious Leaders.”

Ndhlovu decried the high maternal mortality figure, and stressed that collective efforts must be stepped up to redress the ugly trend.

” No pregnant woman should be allowed to die while bringing a life into the world and they should be adequately protected.

” Traditional rulers, community and religious leaders should take census of all pregnant women in their areas, with a view to tracking the exact figure of maternal mortality.

” This would help in gingering all of us to step up measures to reduce the menace and save more pregnant mothers and their children from dying during childbirth.

” This would certainly help in reducing maternal mortality and even help to reduce it to a zero-level across the North,” she said.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, who spoke called for the building of capacities of more traditional birth attendants in the region.

Abubakar said that the action would complement the efforts of the skilled midwives in health facilities.
He suggested that the traditional birth attendants ” should be recruited by the three tiers of government and deployed to health facilities, to boost manpower provision.’’

Dr Ado Mohammed, the Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency , reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to provide good health facilities for women across the country.

Sokoto State Health Commissioner, Dr Shehu Kakale, who spoke, said government had set up a committee to see to the reduction of maternal mortality in the state. ( NAN)

Thousands Of Children Crossed US-Mexico Border In October

© Provided by Associated Press 16, 2015, aerial file photo, a U.S. border patrol vehicle appears near the border wall near Abram, Texas, from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter. Nearly 5,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were…

SAN ANTONIO — Nearly 5,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were caught illegally crossing the U.S. border with Mexico in October, almost double the number from October 2014, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Also, in the figures released Tuesday, the number of family members crossing together nearly tripled from October 2014 — from 2,162 to 6,029.

The numbers spiked despite expectations of lower numbers due to the colder winter months coming, better enforcement along the border and efforts by Mexican authorities to stem the stream of Central American migrants to the U.S. Though tens of thousands of women and children from Central America were caught at the border in summer 2014, it had dropped by nearly half during the 2015 federal fiscal that ended Sept. 30.

The 4,973 unaccompanied children caught at the border last month is the highest number that Washington, D.C.-based think tank Washington Office on Latin America has recorded for October since their records began in 2009, said Adam Isacson, a border expert and senior analyst.

The high numbers buck the typical trends of crossings peaking in spring then declining through summer and fall, Isacson said. But there was an uptick in families and children crossing in July, and the numbers have stayed over 4,000 each month since.

"Rather than a big jump, it's been a steady burn," he said. "I think we are almost in crisis mode with this many months of sustained arrivals."

Most children and families trying to cross the border in October were from El Salvador. Increased violence in the tiny country, which averaged 30 murders a day in August, is likely partly to blame, Isacson said. Previously, Guatemala had the most families and children apprehended at the border.

While the Rio Grande Valley remains the center of migration flows in Texas, immigrants are starting to venture farther west. The number of unaccompanied children caught in Del Rio sector jumped from 120 to 237, while 187 children were apprehended in the remote Big Bend area, up from just 13 a year ago.

According to internal intelligence files from the Homeland Security Department, most families interviewed told Customs and Border Protection officials that smugglers decided where they would try to cross. They reported that the cost ranged from about $5,000 to cross the border near Matamoros or Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from the Rio Grande Valley, but was about $1,500 to $2,000 to cross near Ciudad Acuna, across the river from Del Rio.

The administration was caught off guard by the sudden surge of children and families in 2014 and made several efforts to curb the flow of people crossing the border illegally, including media campaigns in Central America to scare people out of attempting the dangerous journey.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement this week that the campaigns are still in place and highlight that "those attempting to come here illegally are a top priority for removal."

Immigrant families caught illegally crossing the border between July and September told U.S. immigration agents they made the dangerous trip in part because they felt they were likely to succeed, according to the intelligence files. Immigrants spoke of "permisos," or passes, that they believed would allow them to remain in the United States.

Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. Follow Seth Robbins on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/serobbins

Obama: Syrian Refugees Are Like Pilgrims On The Mayflower

By Bradford Richardson, The Hill

© Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for MoveOn.org Syrian refugees and community leaders join together for a #RefugeesWelcome Thanksgiving dinner hosted by MoveOn.org on November 20, 2015 in Evanston, Illinois.

This Thanksgiving, President Obama is calling for Americans to lend a helping hand to another group of pilgrims fleeing persecution.

“Nearly four centuries after the Mayflower set sail, the world is still full of pilgrims – men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer, better future for themselves and their families,” Obama said in his weekly address Thursday. “What makes America America is that we offer that chance.”

The president praised Americans who have offered to open their homes to refugees fleeing war-torn Syria.

“One woman from Pennsylvania wrote to me to say, ‘Money is tight for us in my household. … But I have a guest room. I have a pantry full of food. We can do this,’ ” Obama said.

“Another woman from Florida told me her family’s history dates back to the Mayflower — and she said that welcoming others is part of ‘what it means to be an American,’ ” he added.

Obama called for citizens to put the “generosity” of America on full display by welcoming refugees into the country with arms wide open.

“I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving, surrounded by loved ones and full of joy and gratitude,” he said. “And together, may we all play our own small part in the American story, and write a next chapter that future generations can be thankful for.”

The House passed a measure earlier this month making it more difficult for Syrian refugees fleeing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to enter the country.

Republicans have cast doubt on whether refugees can be properly vetted to ensure that they are not terrorists.

At least one assailant in the Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attack, in which 130 people were killed, is suspected of entering France posed as a migrant.