What is happening in Burkina Faso? Gunshots were heard on Sunday, January 23, in several barracks in the country, including three located in the capital Ouagadougou. The government of President Roch Marc Kaboré reacted quickly by denying an attempted coup and denouncing rumours. “The government, while recognizing the effectiveness of shooting in certain barracks, denies this information and calls on the populations to remain calm”, he adds.
“No institution of the Republic has yet been worried”, said General Simporé in an intervention on national television. He added that the movements observed “in some barracks” are “localized, circumscribed”, and that he was “in the process of getting in touch with those who are at work to understand the motivations”.
“Since 1 a.m., shots have been heard here in Gounghin coming from the Sangoulé Lamizana camp”, affirmed a soldier of this district located at the western exit of Ouagadougou, which residents confirmed, speaking of “increasingly heavy shooting”. Shots were also heard in another military camp in Ouagadougou, that of Baba Sy, at the southern exit of the capital, and at the airbase near the airport, according to military sources. Gunshots also occurred in barracks in Kaya and Ouahigouya, in the north of the country, according to residents contacted by AFP.
Residents of the Gounghin district said that shots were still heard in the middle of the morning at the Sangoulé camp, which houses the house of arrest and correction of the armies (Maca). This is where General Gilbert Diendéré, close to former President Blaise Compaoré who was overthrown in 2014 and who has since lived in Côte d’Ivoire, is being held. General Diendéré was sentenced to 20 years in prison for an attempted coup in 2015 and is currently on trial for his alleged role in the assassination of former President Thomas Sankara, a pan-African icon, in 1987.
These movements in Burkinabe barracks come the day after new demonstrations of anger from residents exasperated by the powerlessness of the authorities to deal with the jihadist violence that is ravaging Burkina Faso. The country has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to armed jihadist groups, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Attacks targeting civilians and soldiers are increasingly frequent and mostly concentrated in the north and east of the country. Violence by jihadist groups has killed more than 2,000 people over the past six years and forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes.