Against the background of a military catastrophe in the north of the country, partially controlled by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, the civil parenthesis was closed in the “Homeland of honest men”. For many, this coup was foreseeable and the French authorities seemed to be preparing for it. France 24 explains what happened.
On Tuesday, January 25, Burkina Faso woke up to a military government that announced from the national television studios the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government, as well as the National Assembly. President Roch Kaboré tendered his resignation in a handwritten letter posted on the RTB Facebook page on Monday night.
The country is now led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR), an officer trained in France at the Paris Military Academy.
The 41-year-old lieutenant colonel restored military rule in a country that has experienced eight coups since gaining independence in 1960. The presidency of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (2015-2022), the first democratically elected civilian to occupy power for a long period of time, came to an end.
The removal by the Army of the first democratically elected civilian president since 1966
The economist and former prime minister (managed the historic devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994), saw his presidency hit by the jihadist offensive in the Sahel, which began in northern Mali in 2012, which his army was unable to contain.
For many observers, this new coup in Burkina Faso is not really a surprise, since the divorce between the former head of state and the armed forces was evident since the attack on the Inata gendarmerie post in November 2021, in the that 54 gendarmes died after having asked their General Staff for reinforcements and food in vain.
Misunderstandings between France and Roch Kaboré
The ousted president distrusted his Army, which he suspected wanted to overthrow him and regain power. He also seemed to mistrust Barkhane’s military operation and rejected the French military presence on Burkina Faso territory.
For Antoine Glaser, founder and former editor-in-chief of “La Lettre du Continent”, a publication specialized in the political life of the African continent, “Roch Kaboré had a certain distance from France, a country that reproached him for not wanting to reform its army. Kaboré had accepted the presence of Operation “Sabre”, formed by French special forces based in the vicinity of Ouagadougou, but was not willing to have an Operation Barkhane in his country because Barkhane is still an old-fashioned conventional force that young Africans see like a return to the years of France-Africa”.
Did the Elysee want to exfiltrate Roch Kaboré?
Without the support of your army, did the French authorities also withdraw yours? According to Africa Intelligence, in a note published on Tuesday, “Since September, French officials and diplomats have been working on scenarios for a military takeover.” In addition, the specialized site says that France proposed “an emergency exfiltration” to the former president on Sunday, before losing contact with him on Monday.
“Several places in neighboring countries had been studied to welcome the president, but he refused to be exfiltrated by France.” This information was denied by the Elysée Palace after the publication of the note, according to the site specializing in news and issues of the African continent.
The site also reported that the foreign ministry’s adviser on African affairs, Christophe Bigot, was in Ouagadougou in early December. Bigot met with Kaboré, accompanied by Luc Hallade, the French ambassador to Burkina Faso, as well as intelligence officers and senior officers of the Burkinabe army. Paradoxically, the risk of a coup had dissipated somewhat by then, although the threat was still considered very serious.”
The long closeness between the armed forces of Burkina Faso and France
For Antoine Glaser, the coup concluded on Monday was all but announced, as President Kaboré “had arrested officers close to Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba” about a fortnight ago. The journalist added in a France 24 program that he does not believe that “Paris has defrauded President Kaboré, although it is true that it was the French special forces that exfiltrated former President Blaise Compaoré to the Ivory Coast,” Burkina Faso’s military leader from 1987 to 2014.
“It is also true that there was always French support for Gilbert Diendéré (general responsible for an attempted coup in 2015). Likewise, it is true that the DGSE and the French services benefited for a long time from the Ouagadougou platform for operations in the region, but that does not mean that France did not support Roch Kaboré,” explains Antoine Glaser.
The journalist also recalls that, in September 2020, Emmanuel Macron had confided in him his doubts about Roch Kaboré’s ability to respond to the security challenge posed by the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.
Roch Kaboré’s distrust of his Army is a problem for France
In his book ‘Le Piège africain de Macron’, published in 2021, he quotes the French head of state as saying: “In Burkina Faso, there is a problem with the Army. Burkina is a country of coups, President Kaboré himself has devitalized to his Army. Let’s be clear, he doesn’t want to reform it to be a self-sufficient model because he will need foreign powers for a long time because he distrusts his own Army.”
On Tuesday, the French president declared: “Very clearly, as always, we are on the side of the regional organization, ECOWAS, in condemning this military coup.” Interviewed by ‘RFI’, he added that “we must not underestimate the fatigue and exhaustion created by the permanent attacks of terrorist groups that weaken the armed forces, on the one hand, and that also profoundly weaken the link with the population and legitimate institutions”.
The impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow
Beyond the French criticism of the former president’s security strategy, it was the population’s frustration that seems to have authorized the coup that returned the military to power in Burkina Faso. As the newspaper Libération points out: “the impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow.” On Tuesday, January 25, a demonstration in support of the coup plotters took place in Ouagadougou, where the calm.
“Of course it is a coup, but one has the feeling that in the Sahelo-Saharan strip, the leaders are entrenched in their capitals, that they are abandoning the countryside to the jihadists and that they have relinquished all their sovereign powers of education. or health. In Burkina Faso, 2,000 people have died and millions have been displaced. After a while, it is no longer possible to continue in the same situation,” concludes Antoine Glaser.
This article was adapted from its French original
Against the background of a military catastrophe in the north of the country, partially controlled by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, the civil parenthesis was closed in the “Homeland of honest men”. For many, this coup was foreseeable and the French authorities seemed to be preparing for it. France 24 explains what happened.
On Tuesday, January 25, Burkina Faso woke up to a military government that announced from the national television studios the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government, as well as the National Assembly. President Roch Kaboré tendered his resignation in a handwritten letter posted on the RTB Facebook page on Monday night.
The country is now led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR), an officer trained in France at the Paris Military Academy.
The 41-year-old lieutenant colonel restored military rule in a country that has experienced eight coups since gaining independence in 1960. The presidency of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (2015-2022), the first democratically elected civilian to occupy power for a long period of time, came to an end.
The removal by the Army of the first democratically elected civilian president since 1966
The economist and former prime minister (managed the historic devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994), saw his presidency hit by the jihadist offensive in the Sahel, which began in northern Mali in 2012, which his army was unable to contain.
For many observers, this new coup in Burkina Faso is not really a surprise, since the divorce between the former head of state and the armed forces was evident since the attack on the Inata gendarmerie post in November 2021, in the that 54 gendarmes died after having asked their General Staff for reinforcements and food in vain.
Misunderstandings between France and Roch Kaboré
The ousted president distrusted his Army, which he suspected wanted to overthrow him and regain power. He also seemed to mistrust Barkhane’s military operation and rejected the French military presence on Burkina Faso territory.
For Antoine Glaser, founder and former editor-in-chief of “La Lettre du Continent”, a publication specialized in the political life of the African continent, “Roch Kaboré had a certain distance from France, a country that reproached him for not wanting to reform its army. Kaboré had accepted the presence of Operation “Sabre”, formed by French special forces based in the vicinity of Ouagadougou, but was not willing to have an Operation Barkhane in his country because Barkhane is still an old-fashioned conventional force that young Africans see like a return to the years of France-Africa”.
Did the Elysee want to exfiltrate Roch Kaboré?
Without the support of your army, did the French authorities also withdraw yours? According to Africa Intelligence, in a note published on Tuesday, “Since September, French officials and diplomats have been working on scenarios for a military takeover.” In addition, the specialized site says that France proposed “an emergency exfiltration” to the former president on Sunday, before losing contact with him on Monday.
“Several places in neighboring countries had been studied to welcome the president, but he refused to be exfiltrated by France.” This information was denied by the Elysée Palace after the publication of the note, according to the site specializing in news and issues of the African continent.
The site also reported that the foreign ministry’s adviser on African affairs, Christophe Bigot, was in Ouagadougou in early December. Bigot met with Kaboré, accompanied by Luc Hallade, the French ambassador to Burkina Faso, as well as intelligence officers and senior officers of the Burkinabe army. Paradoxically, the risk of a coup had dissipated somewhat by then, although the threat was still considered very serious.”
The long closeness between the armed forces of Burkina Faso and France
For Antoine Glaser, the coup concluded on Monday was all but announced, as President Kaboré “had arrested officers close to Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba” about a fortnight ago. The journalist added in a France 24 program that he does not believe that “Paris has defrauded President Kaboré, although it is true that it was the French special forces that exfiltrated former President Blaise Compaoré to the Ivory Coast,” Burkina Faso’s military leader from 1987 to 2014.
“It is also true that there was always French support for Gilbert Diendéré (general responsible for an attempted coup in 2015). Likewise, it is true that the DGSE and the French services benefited for a long time from the Ouagadougou platform for operations in the region, but that does not mean that France did not support Roch Kaboré,” explains Antoine Glaser.
The journalist also recalls that, in September 2020, Emmanuel Macron had confided in him his doubts about Roch Kaboré’s ability to respond to the security challenge posed by the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.
Roch Kaboré’s distrust of his Army is a problem for France
In his book ‘Le Piège africain de Macron’, published in 2021, he quotes the French head of state as saying: “In Burkina Faso, there is a problem with the Army. Burkina is a country of coups, President Kaboré himself has devitalized to his Army. Let’s be clear, he doesn’t want to reform it to be a self-sufficient model because he will need foreign powers for a long time because he distrusts his own Army.”
On Tuesday, the French president declared: “Very clearly, as always, we are on the side of the regional organization, ECOWAS, in condemning this military coup.” Interviewed by ‘RFI’, he added that “we must not underestimate the fatigue and exhaustion created by the permanent attacks of terrorist groups that weaken the armed forces, on the one hand, and that also profoundly weaken the link with the population and legitimate institutions”.
The impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow
Beyond the French criticism of the former president’s security strategy, it was the population’s frustration that seems to have authorized the coup that returned the military to power in Burkina Faso. As the newspaper Libération points out: “the impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow.” On Tuesday, January 25, a demonstration in support of the coup plotters took place in Ouagadougou, where the calm.
“Of course it is a coup, but one has the feeling that in the Sahelo-Saharan strip, the leaders are entrenched in their capitals, that they are abandoning the countryside to the jihadists and that they have relinquished all their sovereign powers of education. or health. In Burkina Faso, 2,000 people have died and millions have been displaced. After a while, it is no longer possible to continue in the same situation,” concludes Antoine Glaser.
This article was adapted from its French original
Against the background of a military catastrophe in the north of the country, partially controlled by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, the civil parenthesis was closed in the “Homeland of honest men”. For many, this coup was foreseeable and the French authorities seemed to be preparing for it. France 24 explains what happened.
On Tuesday, January 25, Burkina Faso woke up to a military government that announced from the national television studios the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government, as well as the National Assembly. President Roch Kaboré tendered his resignation in a handwritten letter posted on the RTB Facebook page on Monday night.
The country is now led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR), an officer trained in France at the Paris Military Academy.
The 41-year-old lieutenant colonel restored military rule in a country that has experienced eight coups since gaining independence in 1960. The presidency of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (2015-2022), the first democratically elected civilian to occupy power for a long period of time, came to an end.
The removal by the Army of the first democratically elected civilian president since 1966
The economist and former prime minister (managed the historic devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994), saw his presidency hit by the jihadist offensive in the Sahel, which began in northern Mali in 2012, which his army was unable to contain.
For many observers, this new coup in Burkina Faso is not really a surprise, since the divorce between the former head of state and the armed forces was evident since the attack on the Inata gendarmerie post in November 2021, in the that 54 gendarmes died after having asked their General Staff for reinforcements and food in vain.
Misunderstandings between France and Roch Kaboré
The ousted president distrusted his Army, which he suspected wanted to overthrow him and regain power. He also seemed to mistrust Barkhane’s military operation and rejected the French military presence on Burkina Faso territory.
For Antoine Glaser, founder and former editor-in-chief of “La Lettre du Continent”, a publication specialized in the political life of the African continent, “Roch Kaboré had a certain distance from France, a country that reproached him for not wanting to reform its army. Kaboré had accepted the presence of Operation “Sabre”, formed by French special forces based in the vicinity of Ouagadougou, but was not willing to have an Operation Barkhane in his country because Barkhane is still an old-fashioned conventional force that young Africans see like a return to the years of France-Africa”.
Did the Elysee want to exfiltrate Roch Kaboré?
Without the support of your army, did the French authorities also withdraw yours? According to Africa Intelligence, in a note published on Tuesday, “Since September, French officials and diplomats have been working on scenarios for a military takeover.” In addition, the specialized site says that France proposed “an emergency exfiltration” to the former president on Sunday, before losing contact with him on Monday.
“Several places in neighboring countries had been studied to welcome the president, but he refused to be exfiltrated by France.” This information was denied by the Elysée Palace after the publication of the note, according to the site specializing in news and issues of the African continent.
The site also reported that the foreign ministry’s adviser on African affairs, Christophe Bigot, was in Ouagadougou in early December. Bigot met with Kaboré, accompanied by Luc Hallade, the French ambassador to Burkina Faso, as well as intelligence officers and senior officers of the Burkinabe army. Paradoxically, the risk of a coup had dissipated somewhat by then, although the threat was still considered very serious.”
The long closeness between the armed forces of Burkina Faso and France
For Antoine Glaser, the coup concluded on Monday was all but announced, as President Kaboré “had arrested officers close to Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba” about a fortnight ago. The journalist added in a France 24 program that he does not believe that “Paris has defrauded President Kaboré, although it is true that it was the French special forces that exfiltrated former President Blaise Compaoré to the Ivory Coast,” Burkina Faso’s military leader from 1987 to 2014.
“It is also true that there was always French support for Gilbert Diendéré (general responsible for an attempted coup in 2015). Likewise, it is true that the DGSE and the French services benefited for a long time from the Ouagadougou platform for operations in the region, but that does not mean that France did not support Roch Kaboré,” explains Antoine Glaser.
The journalist also recalls that, in September 2020, Emmanuel Macron had confided in him his doubts about Roch Kaboré’s ability to respond to the security challenge posed by the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.
Roch Kaboré’s distrust of his Army is a problem for France
In his book ‘Le Piège africain de Macron’, published in 2021, he quotes the French head of state as saying: “In Burkina Faso, there is a problem with the Army. Burkina is a country of coups, President Kaboré himself has devitalized to his Army. Let’s be clear, he doesn’t want to reform it to be a self-sufficient model because he will need foreign powers for a long time because he distrusts his own Army.”
On Tuesday, the French president declared: “Very clearly, as always, we are on the side of the regional organization, ECOWAS, in condemning this military coup.” Interviewed by ‘RFI’, he added that “we must not underestimate the fatigue and exhaustion created by the permanent attacks of terrorist groups that weaken the armed forces, on the one hand, and that also profoundly weaken the link with the population and legitimate institutions”.
The impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow
Beyond the French criticism of the former president’s security strategy, it was the population’s frustration that seems to have authorized the coup that returned the military to power in Burkina Faso. As the newspaper Libération points out: “the impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow.” On Tuesday, January 25, a demonstration in support of the coup plotters took place in Ouagadougou, where the calm.
“Of course it is a coup, but one has the feeling that in the Sahelo-Saharan strip, the leaders are entrenched in their capitals, that they are abandoning the countryside to the jihadists and that they have relinquished all their sovereign powers of education. or health. In Burkina Faso, 2,000 people have died and millions have been displaced. After a while, it is no longer possible to continue in the same situation,” concludes Antoine Glaser.
This article was adapted from its French original
Against the background of a military catastrophe in the north of the country, partially controlled by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, the civil parenthesis was closed in the “Homeland of honest men”. For many, this coup was foreseeable and the French authorities seemed to be preparing for it. France 24 explains what happened.
On Tuesday, January 25, Burkina Faso woke up to a military government that announced from the national television studios the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government, as well as the National Assembly. President Roch Kaboré tendered his resignation in a handwritten letter posted on the RTB Facebook page on Monday night.
The country is now led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR), an officer trained in France at the Paris Military Academy.
The 41-year-old lieutenant colonel restored military rule in a country that has experienced eight coups since gaining independence in 1960. The presidency of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (2015-2022), the first democratically elected civilian to occupy power for a long period of time, came to an end.
The removal by the Army of the first democratically elected civilian president since 1966
The economist and former prime minister (managed the historic devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994), saw his presidency hit by the jihadist offensive in the Sahel, which began in northern Mali in 2012, which his army was unable to contain.
For many observers, this new coup in Burkina Faso is not really a surprise, since the divorce between the former head of state and the armed forces was evident since the attack on the Inata gendarmerie post in November 2021, in the that 54 gendarmes died after having asked their General Staff for reinforcements and food in vain.
Misunderstandings between France and Roch Kaboré
The ousted president distrusted his Army, which he suspected wanted to overthrow him and regain power. He also seemed to mistrust Barkhane’s military operation and rejected the French military presence on Burkina Faso territory.
For Antoine Glaser, founder and former editor-in-chief of “La Lettre du Continent”, a publication specialized in the political life of the African continent, “Roch Kaboré had a certain distance from France, a country that reproached him for not wanting to reform its army. Kaboré had accepted the presence of Operation “Sabre”, formed by French special forces based in the vicinity of Ouagadougou, but was not willing to have an Operation Barkhane in his country because Barkhane is still an old-fashioned conventional force that young Africans see like a return to the years of France-Africa”.
Did the Elysee want to exfiltrate Roch Kaboré?
Without the support of your army, did the French authorities also withdraw yours? According to Africa Intelligence, in a note published on Tuesday, “Since September, French officials and diplomats have been working on scenarios for a military takeover.” In addition, the specialized site says that France proposed “an emergency exfiltration” to the former president on Sunday, before losing contact with him on Monday.
“Several places in neighboring countries had been studied to welcome the president, but he refused to be exfiltrated by France.” This information was denied by the Elysée Palace after the publication of the note, according to the site specializing in news and issues of the African continent.
The site also reported that the foreign ministry’s adviser on African affairs, Christophe Bigot, was in Ouagadougou in early December. Bigot met with Kaboré, accompanied by Luc Hallade, the French ambassador to Burkina Faso, as well as intelligence officers and senior officers of the Burkinabe army. Paradoxically, the risk of a coup had dissipated somewhat by then, although the threat was still considered very serious.”
The long closeness between the armed forces of Burkina Faso and France
For Antoine Glaser, the coup concluded on Monday was all but announced, as President Kaboré “had arrested officers close to Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba” about a fortnight ago. The journalist added in a France 24 program that he does not believe that “Paris has defrauded President Kaboré, although it is true that it was the French special forces that exfiltrated former President Blaise Compaoré to the Ivory Coast,” Burkina Faso’s military leader from 1987 to 2014.
“It is also true that there was always French support for Gilbert Diendéré (general responsible for an attempted coup in 2015). Likewise, it is true that the DGSE and the French services benefited for a long time from the Ouagadougou platform for operations in the region, but that does not mean that France did not support Roch Kaboré,” explains Antoine Glaser.
The journalist also recalls that, in September 2020, Emmanuel Macron had confided in him his doubts about Roch Kaboré’s ability to respond to the security challenge posed by the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.
Roch Kaboré’s distrust of his Army is a problem for France
In his book ‘Le Piège africain de Macron’, published in 2021, he quotes the French head of state as saying: “In Burkina Faso, there is a problem with the Army. Burkina is a country of coups, President Kaboré himself has devitalized to his Army. Let’s be clear, he doesn’t want to reform it to be a self-sufficient model because he will need foreign powers for a long time because he distrusts his own Army.”
On Tuesday, the French president declared: “Very clearly, as always, we are on the side of the regional organization, ECOWAS, in condemning this military coup.” Interviewed by ‘RFI’, he added that “we must not underestimate the fatigue and exhaustion created by the permanent attacks of terrorist groups that weaken the armed forces, on the one hand, and that also profoundly weaken the link with the population and legitimate institutions”.
The impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow
Beyond the French criticism of the former president’s security strategy, it was the population’s frustration that seems to have authorized the coup that returned the military to power in Burkina Faso. As the newspaper Libération points out: “the impotence of the government in power to stop the inexorable progression of terrorism caused a wind of desperate anger to blow.” On Tuesday, January 25, a demonstration in support of the coup plotters took place in Ouagadougou, where the calm.
“Of course it is a coup, but one has the feeling that in the Sahelo-Saharan strip, the leaders are entrenched in their capitals, that they are abandoning the countryside to the jihadists and that they have relinquished all their sovereign powers of education. or health. In Burkina Faso, 2,000 people have died and millions have been displaced. After a while, it is no longer possible to continue in the same situation,” concludes Antoine Glaser.
This article was adapted from its French original