Today, Mahamadou Issoufou, mediator in Burkina Faso of the regional bloc of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said he was satisfied with the meeting with the new leader of the country, stating that ECOWAS will continue to accompany the transition of Burkina Faso to a constitutional government.
After a two-day respite from Friday's coup, anti-French demonstrations in Burkina Faso resumed yesterday (October 4). Calm returned to the capital after the dismissed Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba fled to neighboring Togo following the second coup in 2022. The news was confirmed by the Togolese government which said it accepted him to support the peace in the region.
The military junta that deposed Lieutenant Colonel Damiba, in power since a previous military coup last January on Friday, September 30, said that "The situation is under control". The confusion, however, in Burkina Faso is persistent.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré self-proclaimed head of the country until last Friday was artillery commander in Kaya, in the north of the country and last January he was one of the officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Damiba, who overthrew Roch Marc Christian Kaboré last January.
The action of the military was supported by popular demonstrations calling for the expulsion of Damiba, the end of the French military presence in the Sahel (Mission Sabre contingent of special forces training the forces of Burkinabe, based in Kamboinsin) and military cooperation with Russia.
On Friday evening, during a televised speech, Captain Traoré surrounded by a dozen soldiers announced the closure of the borders, the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government and the Transitional Legislative Assembly. A curfew is also foreseen. On Sunday the curfew was lifted and the air borders were reopened.
Burkina Faso's new military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, said in an interview on Saturday that "The struggle we are engaged in is not about power, the struggle we are waging is for Burkina Faso". He also stated that it must “Go deep into the bush to understand certain things. ... we go to the villages and see that all the leaves on the trees have disappeared because people are eating them. People also eat grass. We are proposing solutions that could enable us to produce and protect these people, we want to protect our people. We want to get our people out of this misery, this underdevelopment, this insecurity. This is the fight ".
We'll see what happens ...
Traoré's men also claim the "firm will to turn to other partners ready to help in the fight against terrorism", referring, according to most, to Russia.
Spread across the news channels, this accusation helped arouse the anger of pro-Traoré protesters. Thus, on Saturday the French embassy in Ouagadougou and the French Institute in Bobo-Dioulasso were targeted, where fires were started. To disperse the demonstrators, tear gas grenades were fired from inside the embassy.
A terrorist attack against the French embassy and the headquarters of the local Armed Forces had already occurred on 2 March 2018, causing several victims. In January 2016, an Italian restaurant was attacked by an armed group in the same area of the city: among the victims, an Italian child and his mother.
The Italian embassy in Ouagadougou was established in 2018 and the first ambassador took office in March of the following year.
The French foreign minister, Colonna, described the attacks on French institutions on the ground as acts of "Hostile protesters manipulated by a disinformation campaign against us".
"We want Russia, we want collaboration with Mali, down with France! ", these are the words uttered by the demonstrators who can be heard in the various videos broadcast on the network.
Anti-French resentment is not new in Burkina Faso. In addition to the well-known past colonial events, the networks amplify the rumors about an alleged transalpine collusion with jihadist militiamen. The continuous attacks since 2015 (read article Moscow continues to deepen its footprint in Africa) have disoriented and led the population to exasperation who increasingly want to rely on other international partners for the fight against terrorism. Russia is one of them.
Protesters brandishing Russian flags and asking for their cooperation invoked and pleaded to imitate neighboring Mali. The Malian army makes use of the paramilitary group Wagner, and occupied bases abandoned by French soldiers during the retreat of the operation Barkhane.
In both coups this year, coup leaders said they had to intervene because national security was so dire. Burkina Faso controls only 60% of its territory, experts say, and Islamist violence is worsening. Since 2020, more than one million people have been displaced in the country due to violence.
During the coup last January, the Russian businessman Evgueni Prigojine, close to the Kremlin and who has since admitted to having founded the group Wagner, hailed the coup as the sign of a "new era of decolonization", implicitly offering services to the new power of Ouagadougou.
The coup on Friday seems to symbolize the war of influence that is taking place in Burkina Faso between Russia and France. The latter retains many strategic bases in West Africa but the region is in the crosshairs of Russia, which has been establishing military cooperation for several years, through the Group Wagner, with African countries.
According to reporter Wassim Nasr "Burkina Faso is a country obviously targeted by Russia for a while now, which is trying to get it out of the bosom of France. Also, (the Russians) welcomed when Damiba made his coup, thinking to be able to recover it ".
In the various announcements made, Captain Traoré declared himself leader Interim of Burkina Faso promising that the "driving forces of the nation" they would meet in time to appoint a new civilian or military president and a new "transitional charter".
Since 1960, the year of its independence, eight coups have taken place in Burkina Faso ...
Opening frame: Euronews
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