The family of the president of Burkina Faso left the country and the military demand the resignation of Kaboré

The President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré

The family of the president of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, left the African country this Sunday and the mutinous soldiers demand the resignation of the president.

“According to our information, the family of President Roch Kaboré left Burkina Faso,” as reported via Twitter by the LSI Africa media.

Late this Sunday, shots were heard near the house of the president of Burkina Faso, hours after mutinous soldiers fired on several barracks in the capital, Ouagadougou, according to the media. The Africa Elects.

The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have called for calm in Burkina Faso through a statement and have expressed their solidarity with the president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the Government and the people of the African country.

ECOWAS has also asked the military to promote dialogue with the Burkina Faso authorities.

The Government of Burkina Faso has decreed this Sunday a curfew between 8:00 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. in response to the situation of uncertainty after the mutiny of several military units during the day, the public radio and television reported. RTB.

Previously, the government had confirmed several incidents of shooting at military barracks in the capital, Ouagadougou, and other cities in the country, but it has completely denied that a military coup is taking place right now, one day after a large demonstration against the country’s president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré as a gesture of rejection for the instability and violence that reign in the country.

Since around 4am on Sunday, shots have been fired at a number of military installations, including the military airport in the capital, Ouagadougou.

After the denial of the coup d’état, the mutinous soldiers since dawn have assured that they do not aspire to take power, but rather demand more means and the immediate dismissal of the leadership of the National Intelligence Agency for their inability in the fight against the jihadism that has plagued the country for years.

Military of Burkina Faso

Military sources from the Courrier Confidentiel outlet have confirmed that the mutineers also request “the training of personnel adapted to the threat”, a revaluation of the bonuses they receive for fighting on the front lines of combat and better care for the wounded and the families of the deceased. .

The mutinous soldiers have assured that at no time have they requested the removal of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré from power and his dismissal is not part “for the moment” of the demands. However, the same sources of the Courrier Confidentiel have received the warning from the mutineers that “this situation could change” if they perceive that the Government is ignoring their demands.

After learning of this information, the Defense Minister, General Aime Barthelemy Simpore, explained to RTB that they are trying to find out the specific demands of the soldiers and has confirmed shots fired at at least six locations. In addition, he has denied the arrest of President Kaboré to stop the rumors.

The revolt of the military has been supported by groups of people who have taken to the streets of the capital, where they have erected barricades and attacked a headquarters of the government party, the Popular Movement for Progress.

Throughout the morning, groups of protesters have set fire to the MPP campaign headquarters in the Nonsin neighborhood, as journalists from the news portal have witnessed. At the moment the Government has not commented on this attack.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Burkina Faso has confirmed protests during the day and “sporadic shots fired”.

These protests repeat those that occurred on Saturday, when hundreds of people demanded the resignation of the president in a call made by a civil society movement called Sauvons le Burkina (“Save Burkina”) and which had been banned for security reasons.

The same group had held another banned protest in late November 2021 against the government’s failure to stop attacks by armed groups affiliated with Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The march resulted in dozens of injuries.

Protests in Burkina Faso

Violence continues unabated in the country despite the efforts of the Army; a bloodshed that reached a critical point in November last year, when two terrorist attacks were perpetrated in the towns of Inata and Foubé. The first left at least 53 dead, the vast majority of Police officers. Ten other civilians and nine soldiers died in Foubé on November 22, in an assault blamed on Islamist militias.

Nearly 12,000 people were displaced by violence over two weeks in December, according to the UN, while Kaboré has spent the last few weeks trying to manage as best he can a crisis that is spilling over into his cabinet, as he showed last month by replacing all the Government and appoint Lassina Zerbo as the country’s new Prime Minister.

In fact, in early January, the Burkinabe authorities arrested eight soldiers, including a high-ranking commander, in connection with an alleged plot to “destabilize” the country’s institutions.

(With information from Europe Press)

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