(Ouagadougou) “Strong actions” and “a government of combat”: the Burkinabè power is expected at the turn on the security question, the day after the dismissal of the Prime Minister, carried away by the growing anger of the population at the jihadist violence which mourns the country.
Pushed towards the exit by President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, Prime Minister Christophe Dabiré resigned Wednesday evening automatically resulting in that of the entire government.
He did not resist the surge of anger that has been mounting in Burkina Faso for several weeks, in particular to denounce the “inability” of the authorities to counter jihadist violence.
PHOTO OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Protesters during a demonstration in Ouagadougou on November 27, 2021.
Thursday, according to security sources, a new attack in the north of the country left 13 dead, among Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), civilian auxiliaries trained in two weeks and engaged in the anti-jihadist fight alongside the ‘army.
Since Wednesday evening, while awaiting the appointment of the new government team expected in the coming days, the former ministers have continued to deal with current affairs.
But on Thursday, civil society, which demanded such a change, urged President Kaboré to quickly appoint a new government.
“The country does not need a time to float and navigate with ministers who have become interim and who handle current affairs,” said Issouf Sawadogo, member of the consultation framework of civil society organizations.
“We are at war and we need a fighting government to take the situation back in hand,” he added, hoping to know the name of the future prime minister “within 24 hours”.
” Common interest ”
The state newspaper Sidwaya which greeted the “firefighter” Dabiré, positioned itself on the same line by calling for “to find, and as quickly as possible, a new prime minister and a government of combatants”.
“Whatever government comes out, everyone should have a republican attitude,” he continues.
A call for appeasement, after a tumultuous month of November during which hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Ouagadougou on November 27, in particular to demand the departure of the executive.
About ten people, including a child and two journalists, were injured in the dispersal of these steps.
“The news of our country marked by the absence of peace, of hope […] invites us, in the name of republican and democratic values, to act in the common interest ”, declared Thursday Yéli Monique Kam, former presidential candidate of 2020.
Like its Malian and Nigerian neighbors, Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist armed groups, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which have left at least 2,000 dead and 1.4 million displaced. .
Attacks targeting civilians and soldiers are increasingly frequent and the vast majority concentrated in the north and east of the country.
“Generalized ras-le-bol”
But the exasperation of the Burkinabè was exacerbated by the particularly deadly attack in Inata (north), on November 14, where at least 57 people, including 53 gendarmes, were killed by jihadists.
Two weeks before this attack, the gendarmes of Inata had alerted the staff to their precarious situation, claiming to lack food and to feed themselves thanks to poaching.
Thursday evening, the Burkinabè army claimed to have “neutralized (killed, Editor’s note) a hundred terrorists”, in a joint operation with Niger, between November 25 and December 9.
According to several observers, the reshuffle must be accompanied by concrete actions to calm the anger of the Burkinabè.
“There is a generalized fed up. Day by day, we are witnessing spontaneous demonstrations by young people and women without any organization or movement calling out. They do not wait to know the composition of a government, but a change in their situation, “warns political analyst Drissa Traoré, who calls for” strong actions “.
“What is at stake is the constitution of a government of real development so that misery ceases to be the bed of exclusion and violence”, pleads Jacques Nanema, teacher-researcher in philosophy at the University of Ouagadougou.
Mr. Kaboré was elected in November 2015, a year after his predecessor Blaise Compaoré, in power since 1987, was chased into the streets for wanting to modify the Constitution in order to remain in his post.
Reelected in 2020, he has been facing a gradual deterioration in the security situation in the country since taking office, which has not yet been able to be halted.