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Gunfire Is Heard in Burkina Faso’s Capital, Kindling Fears of a Coup Gunfire Is Heard in Burkina Faso’s Capital, Kindling Fears of a Coup
(about 5 hours later)
Gunfire rang out and the state television channel went off the air in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Friday morning, raising fears that another military coup was unfolding in the West African nation. DAKAR, Senegal — Gunfire rang out and the state television channel went off the air in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Friday, raising fears that another military coup was unfolding in the West African nation.
Soldiers blocked off roads in Ouagadougou in areas near the presidential palace and where the government administration is based. The turmoil came just eight months after the military seized power in a coup as the country was convulsed by widespread anger at the government’s failure to both stop attacks on civilians from violent extremists and stem rising economic hardship.
Nicodeme Natama, an office worker who lives in the capital near a military base called Camp Baba Sy, said that he heard an explosion at around 4 a.m., thinking at first that it was the rain. Now the president, Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who led the coup in January, is trying to hold onto power and reassure citizens amid Friday’s chaos. He said on Facebook that negotiations were underway “to bring back calm and serenity,” adding that “the enemy” attacking the country was trying to sow division among the population.
Millions of citizens in West Africa, the focus of a recent rash of coups and coup attempts, have become familiar with such destabilizing events that often lead to seizures of power. There have been six coups in the past two years in countries that stretch in a broken line across the bulge of Africa.
On Friday, soldiers blocked off roads in Ouagadougou in areas near the presidential palace and where the government administration is based. People on motorcycles and bicycles began arriving at the Place de la Nation and other central areas of the city, cellphones in hand, filming knots of people gathering. Men yelled over each other to make their opinions heard on local media’s live streams, the occasional Russian flag fluttering behind them.
Nicodeme Natama, an office worker who lives in the capital near a military base called Camp Baba Sy, said that he heard an explosion around 4 a.m., thinking at first that it was a rainstorm.
“The second explosion brought reality home,” he said by phone. Then, he, added, he began to hear gunfire.“The second explosion brought reality home,” he said by phone. Then, he, added, he began to hear gunfire.
It was not immediately clear if a coup was occurring. But the pattern of how events unfolded in the country’s last coup, in January — and how a spate of coups have unfolded in the region recently — prompted worries that some soldiers might be trying to seize control from those who have held power for the past eight months. It was not immediately clear if a coup was occurring. But the pattern of how events unfolded in the country’s last coup, in January — and how a spate of coups have unfolded in the region recently — prompted worries that some soldiers might be trying to seize control from military leaders who have held power for the past eight months.
Many people in Burkina Faso welcomed the January coup, hoping that it would help bring change in a nation that, like several of its neighbors, has suffered devastating attacks in recent years. Extremists, vigilantes and soldiers have killed civilians. Nearly two million people have fled their homes, and many more are going hungry. Burkina Faso, a landlocked country of 22 million people and one of the continent’s biggest cotton producers, traditionally prided itself on a national spirit of peace, tolerance and integration. Its name meant “the land of upright people.”
But the change in government has done little to improve the security situation. This month, at least 35 civilians were killed after a convoy of vehicles hit a roadside bomb. But the situation changed after a jihadist uprising in Mali that began in 2013 spread to its neighbors, including Burkina Faso. Armed men began robbing and killing civilians and soldiers, while military and vigilante groups sometimes executed those suspected of working with jihadists. By January, citizens were so unhappy with the country’s direction that many welcomed its new military rulers with joy.
Later on Friday morning, the state broadcaster, RTB, came back on air, but did not mention the events of the morning. Instead, it aired an interview with a Muslim leader, a story about cotton farming, and an advertisement for a television show that is Senegal’s answer to “Sex and the City.” In a post on Facebook, Mr. Damiba, the president, said there had been a “change in mood among certain elements of the national armed forces.”
That prompted a torrent of online comments from citizens, both in support of the president and condemning him. “The Damiba era is over,” wrote one, Alphonse Marie Guissou.
At a monument erected to the memory of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s most iconic leader, young men staged a small demonstration in favor of the rumored coup. But the conversation soon turned to the role the men thought that France, the former colonial power, was playing.
“We want Russia. We don’t want France any more,” said one, Omar Ouedraogo. “The youth are jobless. Insecurity is everywhere.”
The remarks mirrored the rhetoric in neighboring Mali, which the French military quit last month after nine years fighting Islamist militants. As the attacks intensified despite the French presence, so did Malians’ condemnation of their military partner.
Although the French have no such presence in Burkina Faso, criticism of the former colonizers has spread throughout the arid region known as the Sahel, much of which has been destabilized in recent years by extremist groups tapping into local grievances.
Many people in Burkina Faso welcomed the January coup, hoping it would help bring change in a nation that, like several of its neighbors, has suffered devastating attacks in recent years. Extremists, vigilantes and soldiers have killed civilians. Nearly two million people have fled their homes, and many more are going hungry.
But that change in government has done little to improve the security situation. This month, at least 35 civilians were killed after a convoy of vehicles hit a roadside bomb.
In fact, under Lt.-Col. Damiba, jihadists took control of large new swaths of territory and blockaded key towns, said Abdul Zanya Salifu, a scholar at the University of Calgary who focuses on the Sahel. At the same time, he said, hunger, displacement, and the cost of living have all increased, while economic hardship and unemployment continued — all issues that the new administration said it would tackle.
“The justification for the January coup has come back to haunt the coup-makers,” he said.
Later on Friday morning, the state broadcaster, RTB, came back on air, but did not mention the morning’s events. Instead, it aired an interview with a Muslim leader, a story about cotton farming, and an advertisement for a television show that is Senegal’s answer to “Sex and the City.”
Still, Mr. Natama said, he would wait to be sure the area was secure before venturing to his office in another neighborhood.Still, Mr. Natama said, he would wait to be sure the area was secure before venturing to his office in another neighborhood.
“For the moment, we’re staying at home,” he said.“For the moment, we’re staying at home,” he said.
Oumar Zombre contributed reporting from Ouagadougou.Oumar Zombre contributed reporting from Ouagadougou.