Uniformed soldiers reportedly seized power in Burkina Faso and ousted President Marc Roch Christian Kaboré.
Uniformed soldiers announced on public television on Monday that they had seized power in Burkina Faso and ousted President Marc Roch Christian Kaboré, plunging this Sahelian country into a new crisis, undermined by incessant jihadist attacks.
The Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR) “which brings together all the components of the defense and security forces has thus decided to put an end to the power of Mr. Marc Roch Christian Kaboré on January 24, 2022”, announced the captain Kader Ouedraogo, surrounded by about fifteen soldiers on television.
As a result of this coup initiated on Sunday by mutinies in the barracks of the country, the land and air borders were to be closed from midnight, the government and the National Assembly dissolved and the constitution “suspended”. A curfew is in place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. throughout the territory, continued Kader Ouedraogo who read a press release signed by the leader of the MPSR, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, commander of the 3e military region, which appears to be the country’s new strongman.
The MPSR is also committed “to propose within a reasonable time (…) a timetable for a return to a constitutional order accepted by all”. The “calls on patriots, honest Africans and all friends of Burkina Faso to support and accompany it at this decisive turning point in the history of our country”.
One question remains: where is Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who has chaired the “country of upright men”? The soldiers contented themselves with indicating that “the operations took place without bloodshed and without any physical violence on the arrested persons who are detained in a safe place with respect for their dignity”, without mentioning any names.
Monday morning, a journalist saw near the residence of the head of state three vehicles riddled with bullets. Traces of blood were visible on one of them.
The situation was confused on Monday concerning the fate of the President of Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, whose security sources announced that he was detained by soldiers who mutinied in the face of degradation in their country plagued by jihadist violence. “President Kaboré, the Head of Parliament (Alassane Bala Sakandé) and ministers are indeed in the hands of soldiers”, at the Sangoulé Lamizana barracks in Ouagadougou, said a security source, information confirmed by another source within the security services.
But a government source later claimed that the President had been “exfiltrated” from his residence on Sunday evening by gendarmes from his guard “before the arrival of armed elements who fired on the vehicles of his convoy”.
A journalist saw in the morning near the residence of the Head of State three vehicles riddled with bullets. Traces of blood were visible on one of them.
Throughout the day on Sunday and Monday, demonstrators gave their support to the mutineers, before being dispersed by the police.
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