by Thiam Ndiaga and Anne Mimault
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso’s self-proclaimed military leader Captain Ibrahim Traore said on Sunday that order was being restored in the country after violent anti-French protests 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.
The French Foreign Minister denied that Paul-Henri Damiba was welcomed on this basis. Damiba himself denied being there, denouncing an attempt to manipulate public opinion.
His whereabouts were unknown on Sunday.
“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.
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 Paul-Henri Damiba on Saturday of having tried to organize an armed response to his ouster. 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.
Sunday, Ouagadougou was generally calm but a new rally took place in front of the French embassy at the start of the day.
Protesters also targeted the French cultural center in Bobo-Dioulassou, the main city in the south of the country.
(Report Thiam Ndiaga and Anne Mimault, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Nicolas Delame)