Burkina Faso: Military detains President Roch Kaboré in apparent coup

the president of Burkina Faso, Roch Kaboré, has been arrested by the military in an apparent coup d’état, a high command of the Army of this West African country confirmed to Efe today. “They arrested him at his home and took him to a barracks” in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, said the source, who requested anonymity.

The arrest occurred after the day of tension that he lived this Sunday Burkina Faso, where shots were fired at several military barracks in an alleged riot to demand improvements in the Armed Forces.

According to the aforementioned source, the authorities held last night, when shots were heard near the presidential residence, negotiations with the mutineers that seem to have failed.

Soldiers have taken up positions in front of the RTB state television headquarters and the rebels are expected to make a statement throughout the day to reveal their intentions, local media reported.

The arrest also took place after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expressed in a statement last midnight its “great concern” about Sunday’s riot, called for “calm” and urged the military to favor “the dialogue with the authorities.

The statement was published after the Burkina Faso government imposed a nightly curfew yesterday after the riot.

The Government of Kaboré (president of Burkina Faso since the end of 2015) thus sought to maintain control of the situation in the country, after a day that began with fears of a riot as a result of the shots heard at dawn in several Army barracks.

The Executive denied this Sunday that it was an attempted coup and, in a television interview, the Minister of Defense, General Aimé Barthélémy Simporé, assured that “no public institution” had been “disturbed”.

Although the reasons for the shooting were not officially confirmed, local media indicated that it was a riot to demand improvements from the Government, including more means to fight against jihadist terrorism (of which Burkinabe troops are usually targeted), and the resignation of senior military and intelligence officials.

One of the affected centers is a camp that houses military prisoners detained for an attempted coup in 2015, including Gilbert Diendéré (one of former President Blaise Compaoré’s strongmen).

During the day, there were popular rallies in support of the Army in the capital, Ouagadougou, among other incidents.

A headquarters of the ruling party, the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), was also burned.

This same month there had already been fifteen arrests in Burkina Faso (ten soldiers and five civilians) in relation to an alleged coup attempt.

Last Saturday, the country experienced a new day of unauthorized demonstrations, called by civil society groups to express the great social discontent due to the insecurity generated by jihadist violence and the lack of results from the Government when it comes to tackling this problem. .

Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso are usually attributed to groups affiliated with the Al Qaeda terrorist network and the Islamic State (IS) organization, especially in the northern Sahel region, but it has spread to neighboring regions and, since 2018, to the east of the country. .

Insecurity has caused the number of internally displaced persons to rise to just over 1.5 million, according to data from the Burkina Faso government.

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