Two days after the putsch in Burkina Faso, the ousted president Marc Christian Kaboré is “in the hands of the army” but “is fine”.
A situation still unclear and an ex-president under surveillance. On Wednesday, a source close to the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), the party of overthrown Burkinabe President Marc Christian Kaboré assured that he was “still in the hands of the army”, “in a presidential villa under house arrest but that he was “well” and had “a doctor at his disposal”. Reassuring words, while his relatives had denounced in the early hours of Monday’s putsch “a failed assassination attempt”. He had been quickly exfiltrated but was “left” in the hands of the putschists “under the pressure of the mutineers” to whom the gendarmes who ensured his security “joined in stride”.
A demonstration of support for the putschists took place on Tuesday in the streets of Ouagadougou, marking their support for Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, specialist in the fight against jihadist, who is at the head of a junta called Patriotic Movement for the Safeguard and the Restoration (MPSR). It was this group that announced the dissolution of the institutions of the Republic of Burkina Faso after months of demonstrations denouncing the inaction of President Kaboré in the face of the increase in jihadist violence.
Despite the reopening of air and -partial- land borders, this coup – which follows those in Mali and Guinea – has been strongly condemned by the international community, including French President Emmanuel Macron. Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, warned: “If constitutional order is not restored” in Burkina Faso, this will have “immediate consequences on our partnership with the country.
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