The situation is increasingly tense in Burkina Faso. At the end of the afternoon, Saturday October 1, two French institutions were targeted by demonstrators: a fire broke out in front of the French embassy in Ouagadougou and another in front of the French Institute in Bobo-Dioulasso , according to witnesses in this city in the west of the country.
Confusion reigns, after a declaration by the army not recognizing the seizure of power the day before by soldiers who had announced that they had dismissed the head of the junta, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. In its first reaction since Friday evening, the General Staff of the Armed Forces admitted crossing “an internal crisis”but specified that the “consultations” were continuing.
For their part, the putschists affirmed on Saturday afternoon in a televised address that Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was preparing a “counteroffensive” from “the French base of Kamboinsin”, a military camp near Ouagadougou where French special forces train their Burkinabè counterparts. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has “formally denied any involvement in the events underway since yesterday in Burkina”.
UN chief condemns “any attempt to seize power by force”
The United States says “deeply concerned” by the situation and urge “officials to defuse the situation, prevent harm to citizens and soldiers, and return to constitutional order”State Department spokesman Ned Price said, noting that the United States “monitored the situation closely”.
As for the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutteres, he “firmly” condemned in a press release on Saturday “any attempt to seize power by force of arms” in Burkina Faso, the day after a coup in the country.
The Secretary General “calls on all actors to refrain from violence and seek dialogue”said his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.