For Russia and against France: a military coup took place in Burkina Faso

Angry protesters attacked the French embassy in the capital of Burkina Faso after supporters of the West African nation’s new coup leader accused Paris of harboring the ousted interim president, a move the French authorities vehemently denied.

Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was ousted late Friday night, less than nine months after he himself orchestrated a coup in Burkina Faso that failed to effectively counter growing violence from Islamist extremists, The Guardian recalls.

Within hours, a dozen uniformed soldiers appeared on state television and radio to announce Damiba’s removal. The new leaders of the African republic quickly suspended the constitution, closed the borders, dissolved the transitional government and legislative assembly, and imposed a curfew from 9 pm to 5 am.

Comments from a spokesman for the new military authorities on Saturday provoked an outburst of anger in the capital, Ouagadougou. “Damiba tried to retreat to the French military base of Camboinsin in order to prepare a counteroffensive to sow division among our defense and security forces,” Lieutenant Jean Baptiste Cabret said, reading a statement on behalf of the new leadership of the country.

Video on social media showed residents with lit torches outside the perimeter of the French embassy, ​​and other images show part of the complex on fire. In Burkina Faso’s second largest city, Bobo Dioulasso, angry mobs also smashed the French Institute.

Damiba’s whereabouts remained unknown, but the French Foreign Ministry issued a scathing statement. “We officially deny involvement in the events unfolding in Burkina Faso. The camp in which the French forces are based never received Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, just like our embassy,” the official Paris said in a statement.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Clair Legendre later told France-24 on Saturday evening that there was a “confused situation” in Ouagadougou and urged French citizens to stay at home.

France has a military presence in Burkina Faso with a Special Forces contingent based in Camboinsin, 30 kilometers from the country’s capital, Ouagadougou.

Ibrahim Traore, a 34-year-old army captain who was put in command after the coup was announced on state television Friday night, said in an interview that he and his men did not try to harm Damiba, who unlike other deposed leaders in the region has not yet submitted his resignation.

Traore previously led the Cobra Special Forces unit in the northern region of Kaya, Al Jazeera reported.

“If we wanted to, we would have taken him within five minutes of the fight, and perhaps he would have been dead, this president. But we do not want this disaster, ”Traore argued. “We don’t want to hurt him because we don’t have any personal problems with him. We are fighting for Burkina Faso.”

Captain Traore later told Radio Omega: “We are not going to hold Damiba accountable. We only wish that he went to rest, because he is tired, and we are going to continue working.

Roads to Ouagadougou remained closed. An analysis of EU homeland security published by the Associated Press said the city was experiencing “anomalous military traffic”.

The African Union and the West African bloc known as Ecowas have strongly criticized these developments in Burkina Faso. “ECOWAS considers this new power grab to be inappropriate at a time when progress has been made,” the bloc said, citing Damiba’s recent agreement to return to constitutional order by July 2024.

Since coming to power in January in a military coup, Damiba vowed to end the Islamist extremist violence that has forced 2 million people to flee their homes in Burkina Faso.

Damiba proclaimed himself the leader of a country of 16 million after the January coup after accusing President-elect Roche Mark Christian Kabore of failing to fight back against armed groups. While much of the Sahel region is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency, since 2020 violence has sparked a series of coups in Chad, Guinea and Mali.

But a group of officers led by Traore said on Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed from power. The new leadership of the military authorities stated that it would send “all combat forces to solve the problem of security and restore the integrity of our territory.”

But it remains to be seen whether the new government will be able to overcome the crisis, emphasizes The Guardian. Fears escalated on Saturday that the latest political instability will further divert the attention of the military and allow jihadists to consolidate their hold on the once-peaceful country in West Africa.

Some in Burkina Faso’s military found Damiba too flirtatious with former colonial France, which maintains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some of those who support the new coup leader Traore have urged the government of Burkina Faso to seek support from Russia, writes The Guardian. Western media also wrote about pro-Russian sentiments in the African country against the backdrop of the January coup, when the demonstrators could see the Russian tricolor. This, according to the American press, was evidence that many locals were fed up with France’s efforts to fight gangs and Islamist paramilitary groups. Paris provides military assistance to Burkina Faso during its six-year conflict with armed groups associated with the Islamic State (a terrorist group banned in the Russian Federation) and Al-Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). Russian flags could be seen in Ouagadougou at demonstrations at the end of last week.