Published on: 01.10.2022 – 13:54 Modified on: 01.10.2022 – 14:58
While the morning was calm in Ouagadougou, heralding a return to normalcy, gunfire rang out again in the Burkinabe capital. Soldiers are also deployed. The day before, after a muddled day, captain Ibrahim Traoré took over from Paul-Henri Saondogo Damiba at the helm of the country.
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3:30 p.m.: “The situation in Ouagadougou remains tense, notes French diplomacy. It is recommended to limit yourself to what is absolutely necessary, to adopt a cautious and reserved attitude and to avoid crowds. A curfew is in effect from 9pm to 5am. The airport is currently closed, all flights are temporarily suspended. » See the France Diplomacy website.
Update at 2:30 p.m.: At midday, the situation was confused again, reports our correspondent in Ouagadougou, Sidy Yansané. Gunshots were heard in United Nations Square in the city center late in the morning. Since then it has been completely barricaded by the military. You can’t get any closer than 100 meters.
The area around Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Burkina Faso (RTB), where the Prime Minister is also located, is also barricaded. There was quite a crowd at the big market a few blocks from this United Nations site. Motorbikes and cars were caught off guard on the main streets and it quickly became backed up because all vehicles started to turn around, and dealers also closed all their shops.
The Ouaga 2000 district is also cordoned off. Shots were heard there, and helicopters are said to be monitoring the area. Then the situation becomes tense again, while the morning was very calm. The streets were busy. This morning, nothing seemed to indicate that this had been the case another coup on Friday, apart from the heavily armed soldiers surrounding the RTB HQ. It is unclear whether these are clashes between the new junta and the old one.
These tensions follow the overthrow of interim President Paul-Henri Damiba on Friday at the hands of soldiers from the MPSR, the Patriotic Movement for the Assurance of the Restoration. They named captain Ibrahim Traoré as the country’s new strongman. The second coup in eight months in Burkina Faso.
Mr Damiba had urged former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré to cede power in January. This time it was he who was pushed out. On Friday evening, after the fall of the president, the putschists spoke on television. In particular, they announced a closure of land and air borders, the suspension of the constitution, and the dissolution of the government and the Transitional Legislative Assembly.
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