Turmoil as army factions struggle for power
OUAGADOUGOU: Gunfire rang out across Burkina Faso’s capital yesterday and fire broke out at the French embassy as selfdeclared leader Ibrahim Traore accused President PaulHenri Damiba of staging a counteroffensive after his apparent ouster a day earlier.
The standoff signals deep division within the army and a worrying new chapter for Burkina Faso, where a rampant Islamist insurgency has displaced almost 2 million people.
‘‘I call on Captain Traore and company to come to their senses to avoid a fratricidal war which Burkina Faso does not need,’’ Damiba said yesterday in his first statement on the crisis, posted on the official Facebook page of the presidency.
The West African country and former French protectorate has become the epicentre of violence carried out by groups linked to alQaeda and Islamic State that began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and has spread to other countries south of the Sahara Desert.
The Burkinabe army chief of staff called on opposing factions to cease hostilities and continue talks, adding that the situation was ‘‘an internal crisis within the National Armed Forces’’.
The US State Department and the UN Secretarygeneral denounced the upheaval.
‘‘He strongly condemns any attempt to seize power by the force of arms and calls on all actors to refrain from violence and seek dialogue,’’ a spokesperson for Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres said.
Forces loyal to Traore appeared on state television and said Damiba had taken refuge at a French army base from where he was organising the counterstrike.
The French foreign ministry issued a statement saying the base had never hosted Damiba, who seized power in a January 24 coup. Damiba also denied he was at the base, saying the reports were a deliberate manipulation of public opinion, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
But hundreds of people who support Traore’s takeover gathered in front of the French embassy in protest yesterday. AntiFrench demonstrators also gathered and stoned the French Cultural Centre in the Southern town of BoboDioulasso. — Reuters