OUAGADOUGOU — Soldiers blocked main roads
and gunfire was heard in the capital of
Burkina Faso on Saturday, as world
powers condemned the second coup this year in the deeply poor and restive West
African country.
اضافة اعلان
Junior officers toppled a junta leader on Friday,
saying he had failed to fight terrorist attacks in the country.
On Saturday, several witnesses told AFP they heard
gunfire in the center of the capital Ouagadougou, after which troops once again
blocked the main roads in the city, including around the presidency.
Helicopters hovered above the city and shops that
had opened for business in the morning shut their doors.
The EU and the
African Union (AU) added their voices
to a chorus of global condemnation to the change in power.
“The chairperson calls upon the military to
immediately and totally refrain from any acts of violence or threats to the
civilian population, civil liberties, human rights,” the AU said in a
statement, calling for the restoration of the constitutional order by July
2024.
AU chief Moussa Faki Mahamat said he was deeply
concerned about the resurgence of unconstitutional ousters in the West African
nation and elsewhere on the continent.
The EU warned that the coup put in danger efforts
undertaken to restore constitutional order by July 1, 2024 and called for the
new authorities to respect previous agreements.
“The EU also deplores the degradation of the
security and humanitarian situation in the country,” the bloc’s foreign policy
chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
The
Economic Community of West African States regional bloc “condemned in the strongest possible terms” the latest seizure of
power, calling it “inappropriate.”
Burkina Faso’s former colonial ruler France told its
citizens in Ouagadougou — believed to number between 4,000 and 5,000 — to stay
home.
The US called “for a return to calm and restraint by
all actors”.
On Friday, pre-dawn gunfire erupted in the dusty and
spread-out capital around the presidential palace and culminated in the latest
coup.
Just before 8pm on Friday, more than a dozen
soldiers in fatigues appeared on the state television and radio broadcaster to
announce the removal of Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
They proclaimed 34-year-old Capt. Ibrahim Traore in
charge.
“We have decided to take our responsibilities,
driven by a single ideal: the restoration of security and integrity of our
territory,” they said.
With much of the Sahel region battling a growing
Islamist insurgency, the violence has prompted a series of coups in Mali,
Guinea, and Chad since 2020.
In January, Damiba installed himself as leader of
the country of 16 million after accusing elected president Roch Marc Christian
Kabore of failing to beat back the extremists.
Damiba accused of failure
But with more than 40
percent of the country outside government control, the latest putsch leaders
said Damiba, too, had failed.
“Far from liberating the occupied territories, the
once-peaceful areas have come under terrorist control,” the new military
leaders said.
They then suspended the constitution, sealed the
borders, dissolved the transitional government and legislative assembly and
instituted a 9pm to 5am curfew.
New strongman Traore was previously head of
anti-terror special forces unit “Cobra” in the northern region of Kaya.
Junta leader’s fate unclear
Damiba’s fate remains
unknown. Though he had promised to make security his priority when he took
charge on January 24, violent attacks have increased since March.
In the north and east, towns have been blockaded by
insurgents who have blown up bridges and attacked supply convoys.
As in bordering countries, insurgents affiliated
with
Al-Qaeda and Daesh have stoked unrest.
Thousands have died
and about 2 million have been displaced by the fighting since 2015 when the
insurgency spread to Burkina Faso, which has since become the epicenter of the
violence across the Sahel.
In September, a particularly bloody month, Damiba
sacked his defense minister and assumed the role himself.
Earlier this week, suspected terrorists attacked a convoy
carrying supplies to the town of Djibo in the north of the country. The
government said 11 soldiers died and around 50 civilians were missing.
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