A delegation of leaders of the armies of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) arrived this Saturday in Burkina Faso, according to a security source, the day after the suspension of this country, led since Monday by a military junta. , authorities of the sub-region. “The delegation arrived safely in Ouagadougou this morning. They are already in a working session behind closed doors. No statement is provided“, told AFP a security source.
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According to this source, the delegation is made up of Beninese, Togolese and Ghanaian officers and is led by ECOWAS Peace and Security Commissioner, Beninese diplomat Francis Béhanzin. “This is (for the delegation) to assess the situation before the arrival of another mission next week“, she continued. This visit precedes the dispatch on Monday of a ministerial mission from ECOWAS.
It was not immediately possible to confirm whether the delegation would meet directly with Burkina Faso’s new strongman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
The West African organization on Friday suspended Burkina from its authorities, and demanded the release of ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, placed under house arrest, as well as other arrested officials. A new ECOWAS summit is scheduled for February 3 in Accra, and will study the report of these missions. The organization will then decide whether or not to impose other sanctions as it did for Mali and Guinea, where the military recently took power. The situation of these two countries will also be discussed during this summit, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, told AFP.
Five days after taking power, Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba spoke publicly only once, Thursday evening in a speech on national television. In particular, he indicated that his country had “more than ever needs its partners“. Burkina Faso has been mired in a serious security crisis since 2015, particularly in the north and east of the country.
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In the wake of Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is caught in a spiral of violence attributed to armed jihadist groups, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which have killed more than 2,000 people and forced at least 1, 5 million people to flee their homes. Several particularly deadly recent attacks had aroused the exasperation of the population, who reproached former President Kaboré for not succeeding in stemming this crisis.