by Thiam Ndiaga and Anne Mimault
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso’s incumbent president Paul-Henri Damiba has tendered his resignation and new de facto leader Ibrahim Traore has accepted conditions set by the ousted president to avoid “clashes with serious human and material consequences”. , announces a press release from the country’s religious and customary authorities.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, had assured earlier that order was being restored in the country, after violent anti-French demonstrations and several days of tension in the capital, Ouagadougou.
His entourage called on the population to avoid any act of vandalism at the French embassy, which was targeted by protesters on Saturday after an officer involved in the coup the day before said that France had welcomed the president. overthrown, Paul-Henri Damiba, in a French military base and that he was preparing a counter-offensive.
“We would like to inform the population that the situation is under control and that things are gradually returning to order,” said an army officer reading a statement on the air of RTB, the channel public television.
“We therefore invite you to go about your business freely and to divest yourself of any act of violence and vandalism (…) in particular those which could be perpetrated against the French embassy and the French military base”, added this officer, around whom stood Captain Traoré and several masked soldiers.
Among the conditions set by Paul-Henri Damiba is that of his own security as well as that of the members of the security forces who supported him.
Placed on Friday at the head of the military junta by the group of officers who had already led the January 24 coup, Ibrahim Traoré accused him on Saturday of having tried to organize an armed response to his ousting from power. .
Gunshots had been heard in the capital throughout the day and demonstrators, some of whom were waving Russian flags, had tried to set fire to the French embassy.
(Report Thiam Ndiaga and Anne Mimault, French version Marc Angrand and Nicolas Delame)