Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in Africa bordered by Mali, Niger, Ghana,Benin, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire.Previously the republic of upper volta, Burkina Faso was renamed in 1984 and its citizens are called Burkinabé. Its main language is French, remaining from the French colonisation of the area in 1896 and most of the press and tv is still in this language though more than 59
languages are spoken in the country. Its capital and largest city is Ouagadougou located strategically in the centre of the city.Burkina Faso is also a member of the United Nations, the ECOWAS (Economic Community, Of West African States), the African Union and other international organisations. Unfortunately, due to political instability the country has a long history of coups, with them occurring 7 times between 1966 and 2015. The last one occurred just before the election of the last president in 2015.
The coup d’état
President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was elected in 2015 and remained in power until his deposition by the military. On the 23rd of January 2022, gunshots were heard from the population of Ouagadougou coming from the presidential residence and from several military outposts around the city. Soldiers had reportedly seized the military base in the capital, but
the standing government denies this. The next day, the military had announced that they deposed and detained the president as well as dissolving the
government, parliament, and the constitution. President Kaboré sent out a message to the soldiers via his Twitter account asking them to put down their arms and for them to talk out their issues, however this was completely ignored. The leader of this coup d’état was Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, an officer in the military whose power had been growing as he headed the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (Mouvement Patriotique pour la Sauvegarde et la Restauration, MPSR) in the country.
Foreign Response
The Economic community of west African states, ECOWAS, condemned the coup d’état and even went as far as suspending Burkina Faso from their partnership. The leadership of ECOWAS demands several things from the new leaders; they demand that the deposed president and other politicians be set free and that the military restores constitutional order in the country.
France has had a strong political relation with Burkina Faso since its independence in the 60s so naturally France’s president Emmanuel Macron also expressed his feelings regarding the recent coup d’état stating, “Very clearly, as always, we stand with the regional organization ECOWAS to condemn this military coup,". Macron also went on to mention that former president Kaboré had been elected democratically twice by his people, in 2015 and again in 2020.
The Military’s reasons
Due to the rise of power of terrorist groups such as the Islamic state or al-Qaeda in neighbouring countries such as in Mali, Burkina Faso has been subjects to several terrorist attacks. There is a spreading ideal that former president Kaboré was not responding to the incoming possible threat of more attacks. A 2016 attack claimed by both al-Qaeda and al-Mourabitoun in a hotel and café left 30 dead, and was followed by other attacks specifically in the north and eastern regions of the country. One of the largest and most recent was a 2021 attack causing 100 deaths. The military has stated that they were worried of a deteriorating security situation due to the deepening Islamic insurgency because of the president's inability to manage the crisis.
Is there a reason for there being four coups’ d’états in the last 17 months in West Africa? Is this the last one? So many questions remain unanswered even solely about this coup d’état and we must wait and watch how this situation develops.