Burkina Faso’s military junta has accused France of sheltering the country’s ousted former-leader.
Crowds of protesters tried to storm the French Embassy in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou on Saturday, after special forces staged the second military coup in a year. The protesters accused the former colonial power of aiding the ousted leader, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
“Damiba has tried to retreat to the Kamboinsin French military base to prepare a counteroffensive in order to sow divisaion amongst our defense and security forces,” spokesman Lt. Jean Baptiste Kabre announced on state television on Saturday on behalf of the new junta leadership.
France’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement denying any involvement in the events unfolding in Burkina Faso, and insisted that the “camp where the French forces are based has never hosted Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba nor has our embassy.”
????#Burkina – #France
Les Burkinabés font fort, les choses se compliquent pour le gouvernement de M. Emmanuel Macron au pays des hommes integres.
La France humiliée, accusée de partie pris.#NouvelOrdreAfricain#alternative_nouvelle pic.twitter.com/nB4N2TChUn— Leopold VII A.A Abrotchi (@la_agir) October 1, 2022
The French authorities advised citizens to stay home, as crowds of angry people gathered outside the perimeter of the French Embassy on Saturday afternoon. The protesters attempted to storm the diplomatic compound, pelted it with stones, and set fires at the entrance and around the perimeter of the facility, according to videos shared on social media.
#Burkina – 01 Oct. 18h : Des manifestants allument le feu autour de l'ambassade de #France et tentent d'y pénétrer. pic.twitter.com/Gmh8d2AIMr
— Harouna Simbo Drabo (@HarounaSimbo) October 1, 2022
Angry crowds also reportedly vandalized the French Institute in Burkina Faso’s second-largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso.
#Putsch #BurkinaFaso: Des manifestants mettent le feu ce samedi à l’ambassade de France à Ouagadougou et saccage le bâtiment. Un incendie s’est déclaré devant l’Institut français à Bobo-Dioulasso. Les protestataires appellent en soutien les #Russes.@beninwebtv @lematindz pic.twitter.com/Me3LyjdOCe
— LUNIE JOSEPH ???????? (@josephlunieOFF) October 1, 2022
On Friday, a faction of the Burkina Faso military claimed power in Ouagadougou. Captain Ibrahim Traore has replaced Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba at the head of the military junta.
Break News France ???????? Embasy in Bukina Faso is on fire . Demonstrators targeted the French embassy in Ouagadougou where a fire was started while the facade of the building was vandalized, according to several testimonies and videos published Saturday evening on social networks. pic.twitter.com/UbG7v24oVA
— African Revolt (@Africarevolt) October 1, 2022
Damiba’s whereabouts remain unknown and he has yet to officially resign, as the new junta leadership claimed they are not seeking revenge against the deposed leader. “If we wanted, we would take him within five minutes of fighting and maybe he would be dead, the president. But we don’t want this catastrophe,” Traore told the Voice of America.
Damiba – who was educated in France – led the January 24 coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore. At the time, he promised to restore democracy and peace, but has since been accused of failing to deal with an Islamist militant insurgency.
Burkina Faso has a population of about 20 million and is landlocked between Mali and Niger in the north, and Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire in the south. Along with its northern neighbors, it has been affected by the insurgency of militants allied with either Al-Qaeda or Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist groups, which has reportedly been ramped up this year.
France, the former colonial power in the area, sent an expeditionary force known as ‘Operation Barkhane’ to fight the Islamist terrorists, without much progress. It was recently scaled back and renamed ‘Takuba Task Force’, after Mali ordered all French troops out and accused Paris of assisting the terrorists.
