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Burkina Faso army cracks down on protesters

The Columbian
Published: November 3, 2014, 12:00am

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso’s military cracked down on the protesters who forced President Blaise Compaore to resign two days ago, breaking up a demonstration in the capital’s main square and seizing control of state television.

Soldiers fired warning shots to disperse protesters who had gathered at the headquarters of the national TV station. The demonstrators had called for Saran Sereme, leader of the opposition group the Party for Democracy and Change, to become the country’s next president. One person died in the shooting, Sereme said in an interview.

“We’ve no argument with the military — they are our brothers — but their place is in their barracks,” Sereme told the demonstrators earlier on Sunday.

The military named Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida as Compaore’s replacement on Saturday. The former president, who held power for 27 years, stepped down on Friday following four days of protests. He fled to neighboring Ivory Coast.

“Lt. Col. Isaac Zida was unanimously chosen to lead the transition period which opened after the departure of President Compaore,” the military said Saturday.

A joint United Nations, African Union and Economic Community of West African States mission to the country said it would seek to avoid imposing AU and ECOWAS sanctions for the breach to the country’s constitution.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for West Africa, said the mission had communicated with the military leadership, and urged a speedy return to constitutional rule.

Zida told reporters on Sunday that he has met with opposition leaders, the U.S. ambassador to the country and Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo, who was president of the country between 1982 and 1983 before being overthrown in a coup.

Thousands of people had staged a peaceful protest in the center of Ouagadougou against the military takeover, demanding a say in who runs the country now that Compaore has gone.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the military’s attempt to take control.

“We call on the military to immediately transfer power to civilian authorities,” Psaki said Saturday in a statement. “We urge civilian leadership to be guided by the spirit of the constitution of Burkina Faso and to move immediately towards free and fair presidential elections.”

In the wake of Compaore’s resignation, two military leaders fought to take the helm. First, General Honore Traore, the chief of staff of the armed forces, claimed he was acting as head of state. Zida, the presidential guard’s second-in-command, then said he would take the role. Zida said some officers did not recognize Traore’s assertion of power.

The resignation of Compaore, 63, was the culmination of an explosion of street protests over his plan for parliament to pass a law to allow him another term ruling the country.

Burkina Faso, a nation of 17 million people, ranks 181st out of 187 nations on the United Nations Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, literacy, education and gross domestic product per capita. Per capita income in 2012 was about $650, according to the UN.

Compaore, a former army officer, seized power in a 1987 coup that killed head of state Thomas Sankara. Compaore had helped install the Marxist in an earlier putsch.

He won an election in 1991 that was boycotted by the opposition. Compaore was re-elected three times in ballots that gave him about 80 percent of the vote.

As ruler of the landlocked former French colony in West Africa, he reversed many of Sankara’s Marxist policies and showed little tolerance for dissent.

Compaore was accused of involvement in civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and considered an ally of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was handed to an international court in 2006 and later convicted of aiding war crimes in Sierra Leone.

Burkina Faso’s economy depends heavily on remittances from an estimated 4 million migrant workers in neighboring Ivory Coast, according to the World Bank. Agriculture employs about 85 percent of the population, with cotton as the main cash crop.

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