The military announced this Monday on television that they took power in Burkina Faso, and dissolved the government. They also said they had closed the borders and promised a “return to constitutional order” in a “reasonable time”.
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This comes a day after mutinies in the military throughout the country, devastated by the jihadist violence. Earlier, the mutinous soldiers had arrested the president of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, in a barracks in Ouagadougou on Monday.
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“President Kaboré, the head of parliament [Alassane Bala Sakandé] and the ministers are effectively in the hands of the soldiers” at the Sangoule Lamizana barracks in Ouagadougou, a security source told AFP.
President Kaboré, who has been in power since 2015 and was re-elected five years later with the promise of making the fight against jihadists a priority, was increasingly criticized by the population, fed up with jihadist violence and his inability to confront it .
An AFP journalist saw a dozen hooded and armed soldiers stationed Monday morning in front of the headquarters of Radio Televisión de
Burkina (RTB), which broadcast entertainment programs.
Soldiers rioted in several Burkina Faso barracks on Sunday to demand the resignation of army chiefs as well as “adequate means” to fight jihadists, who have been active in the country since 2015.
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On Sunday night, shots were heard near the residence of the head of state and a helicopter flew over the area with all the lights off, according to residents.
In recent months there have been several protest demonstrations in the country to denounce the inability of the authorities to counteract the growing number of jihadist attacks.
This region of Africa is increasingly destabilized by jihadists, who are also active in Niger and neighboring Mali, a country that has suffered two coups in a few months.
Protesters support the rioters
In Burkina Faso, protesters on Sunday supported the rioters and set up barricades on several avenues in the capital that were later dispersed by the police, AFP journalists noted.
Shots were also heard for hours at various barracks in Burkina Faso, including Sangoule Lamizana, Baba Sy and at the Ouagadougou air base.
There were also riots in Kaya and Ouahigouya, in the north of the country, where most of the jihadist attacks are concentrated, according to residents and military sources.
The government had acknowledged shots fired at several barracks, but had denied “a takeover by the army.”
On Sunday night, President Kaboré decreed a curfew “until further notice” from 8:00 pm to 05:30 am local, and the government announced the closure of schools on Monday and Tuesday. Like Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is immersed in a spiral of violence attributed to armed jihadist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
The attacks, directed at civilians and the military, are becoming more frequent and are concentrated in the north and east of the country. The violence of jihadist groups has killed more than 2,000 people in almost seven years and has forced 1.5 million to flee their homes.
The coming to power of President Kaboré in 2014 – a year after the fall of Blaise Compaoré, overthrown by a popular uprising after 27 years in power – had raised great hopes.
But it was that same year that Burkina Faso, which had been spared until then, began to suffer attacks by armed jihadist groups, which have only increased since then.
AFP
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