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In Ouagadougou, the country’s capital, and other cities in the nation, protests were held against the government’s inaction to stop jihadist attacks in the country. The protesters, who were called by civil society despite opposition from the authorities, clashed with the security forces and, in some cases, called for the resignation of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
In the Burkina Faso capital, the Great Market area was the center of the incidents. There the demonstrators erected barricades to face the action of the security forces that repelled the protest by launching tear gas.
According to Radio Omega, a medium cited by the EFE news agency, the market facilities suffered a fire as a result of the launch of projectiles by the State forces.
Des incidents ont éclaté à #Ouagadougou between the forces of l’ordre et des protestants who ont brave l’interdiction of se rassembler pour protester contre l’insécurité au Burkina Faso in favor of jihadist violence, a journalist from the#AFP pic.twitter.com/nJrUgm07Tq
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) January 22, 2022
The citizen action, in part, reveals the anger of the population against the insecurity resulting from the jihadist violence and the ineffectiveness that the Government has shown in combating it.
“Jihadis are hitting (the country), people are dying, others are fleeing their homes… We want Roch and his government to resign because their management of the country is not good. We will never support them,” Amidou Tiemtore, one of the protesters, told The Associated Press (AP) news agency.
In the southwestern part of the country, the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest in the nation, also registered demonstrations that were dispersed by the local police.
The French media ‘tv5monde’ points out that in Kaya, capital of the central-north region and home to the largest number of people displaced by jihadist violence, protesters looted the headquarters of the ruling party, according to an interviewee quoted by the AFP news agency. .
Jihadist violence in Burkina Faso has increased in recent months
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been affected by a spiral of violence attributed to armed jihadist groups, including those affiliated with the Al Qaeda group and also with the Islamic State group.
Since then, attacks against civilians and soldiers have become more frequent, concentrating mainly in the north and east of the country.
France maintains some 5,000 troops deployed in the region to fight against jihadist armed groups. On January 19, one of its units was attacked by them when it was carrying out a joint operation with Burkina Faso forces, leaving four French soldiers wounded.
Demonstrations against jihadist violence saw the light of day since November 27, 2021, when mobilized by civil society groups such as Save Burkina Faso, they rejected the government’s stance against violence.
Since then, the government has responded with repression of protesters, arrests of people for planning demonstrations, and limitations on access to the social network Facebook.
Prior to the actions of January 22, authorities such as the City Council of the capital had expressed their refusal to allow them.
Figures from the Burkina Faso government indicate that at least 1.5 million people have been displaced by the violence. Likewise, the Qatari media ‘Al-Jazeera’ indicates that in the month of December alone some 12,000 people were forced to leave their homes due to violence.
The Government has indicated its willingness to reopen negotiations with the rebel groups to achieve a reduction in violence, as occurred in 2020, within the framework of the elections, when both parties held secret talks that subsided the fighting for several months.
With AFP, EFE and AP
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