After a quiet night and morning, several people said they heard a burst of gunfire near the United Nations roundabout in the city center late in the morning, the AFP news agency reported.
Then, like the day before, the military resumed their positions to blockade the main points of the city and in particular the neighborhood where the presidency is located.
Shopkeepers who had reopened for business this morning with the return of calm closed and hurriedly left, as helicopters hovered over the city center at noon. Despite the tension, several inhabitants in the streets welcomed this new blow in a positive way.
“Damiba failed. Since he came to power, areas that were at peace are under siege. He took power and then betrayed us,” said Habibata Rouamba, a trader and civil society activist.
“In terms of security, nothing is going well, there are no results,” said Honoré Yonli, director of an organization of young entrepreneurs.
In a message broadcast last night on national radio and television, fifteen soldiers reported the dismissal of Damiba – whose fate remained unknown – and announced the closure of land and air borders, as well as the suspension of the Constitution, the dissolution of the Government and the Transitional Legislative Assembly. A curfew was also established between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. local time, citing “the continued deterioration of the security situation” in the country.
The new head of the junta, Captain Traoré, was until now the head of the Kaya Artillery Regiment, in the north of the country, particularly affected by the jihadist attacks.
“They are the same young officers who were already in the maneuvers during the first coup in January. It is an intramural coup. (…) The issue will once again focus on the anti-jihadist struggle,” said political analyst Drissa Traoré.
This new coup was condemned by the European Union (EU), which called for respect for the commitments assumed for a return to constitutional order.
The coup “endangers the efforts undertaken for several months, especially by Cedeao (Economic Community of West African States), to supervise the transition,” warned the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borell in a statement.
The African body, from which Burkina Faso has been suspended since the January coup, had last night condemned the seizure of power by force “in the strongest terms” and lamented that it occurred amid the progress “achieved through diplomacy and the efforts” of Cedeao so that the country restores constitutional order “no later than July 1, 2024”.
For the time being, the new coup plotters have not indicated whether they intend to respect the agreed transition schedule. Civilians were scheduled to return to power in July 2024.
The president of the African Union (AU) Commission, Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, also condemned “the unconstitutional change of government.”
In recent months, attacks against dozens of civilians and soldiers have multiplied in the north and east, where cities are blockaded by jihadists, who blow up bridges with dynamite and attack supply convoys passing through the area.
Since 2015, there have been recurrent attacks by the armed movements affiliated with the jihadists of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, mainly in the north and east of the country, causing thousands of deaths and the displacement of some two million people.
With the two coups in Mali in August 2020 and May 2021 and the one in Guinea in September 2021, this is the fifth coup in West Africa since 2020.
Source: Ambito
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