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He had disappeared to the point of fueling the wildest speculations. In Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, some said it ” hurt “, “exiled” or even imagined ” the worst “. Monday evening, January 31, the first images of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré finally leaked out, while a joint mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations visited the president overthrown by a coup eight days earlier and placed under house arrest in a villa in the capital.
In front of the junta’s camera, Mr. Kaboré appeared, as usual, stoic in his long boubou, even sketching a smile as he greeted the diplomats. “He is doing well physically, he receives his family and his doctor, but he is not free”reports one of the emissaries.
Sunday, January 23, when the first shots broke out in several barracks in the capital, those around him first wanted to believe in a “simple mutiny”. “Let’s go out, let’s go out many! », then orders his party, the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), to its militants, in a final call for resistance. But in the streets of Ouagadougou, several hundred people are already gathering to support the hooded putschists armed with Kalashnikovs. The MPP campaign headquarters is set on fire.
“We kept hoping to be able to respond to material demands, but the mutineers demanded his departure”, says a close friend of the ousted president. Monday, January 24, Mr. Kaboré signs his letter of resignation, despite the insistence of the Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara who tries on the telephone to dissuade him and offers him “to mobilize heads of state” of ECOWAS.
“Ease” with which he was knocked down
Was Roch Marc Christian Kaboré already resigned? In any case, several observers are surprised at the “ease” with which he was knocked down. According to a diplomatic source, even his counterpart and comrade Mohamed Bazoum, the President of Niger, was “stunned by the lightness with which RK has relinquished power”.
“He especially wanted to avoid a bloodbath between loyalists and putschists”replies Clément Sawadogo, the first vice-president of the MPP, who reports that the former leader is taking advantage of his forced retirement to ” to rest ” and “follow the matches” of the African Cup of Nations. In recent months, faced with the worsening of terrorist attacks, now almost daily in the country, the former Burkinabe president seemed more and more tired and emaciated, to the point of worrying his entourage.
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