Burkina Faso, the scene of a military coup on Monday, was suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday, following a virtual summit of the organization whose heads of State will meet on February 3 in Accra to reassess the situation in this country.
ECOWAS demanded the immediate release of overthrown President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, placed under house arrest, as well as other arrested officials.
The summit also decided to send a mission to Ouagadougou on Saturday by the chiefs of staff of the ECOWAS armies, which will be followed on Monday by a ministerial mission.
The head of the UN’s West Africa regional office, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, will also visit Burkina Faso over the weekend.
The February 3 summit in Accra, in the presence of the leaders of the region, will study the report of these missions to decide whether or not to impose other sanctions, as it did for Mali and Guinea where military also took over.
This summit will also discuss the situation in Mali and Guinea, said the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, in an interview with AFP.
” Zero tolerance “
“Each time you have a coup, it’s a democratic setback for the country and the region” and “ECOWAS’ response has always been very firm and very consistent, it’s zero tolerance”, said he said.
“It is also an international requirement,” added Mr. Brou, believing that “the period of coups d’etat of the 1970s is over.” According to the principles of ECOWAS, “the army must be republican and apolitical”.
He recalled that his organization was “always ready to accompany” the countries where putschists have taken power “to go through a process of returning to constitutional order”.
Thursday evening, in his first speech since taking power on Monday, Burkina’s new strongman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, declared on national television that his country needed its partners “more than ever”. .
Saying that he understood the “legitimate doubts” aroused by the coup d’etat, he assured that Burkina “will continue to respect international commitments, particularly with regard to respect for human rights”, and specified that independence justice would also be “assured”.
Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba also pledged “to return to a normal constitutional life”, “when the conditions are met”, without specifying an agenda.
“A criminal act”
The population criticized in particular the ousted president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, for not having succeeded in stemming the deterioration in security since 2015, particularly in the north and east of the country.
In the wake of Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is caught in a spiral of violence attributed to armed jihadist groups, affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which have killed more than 2,000 people and forced at least 1, 5 million people to flee their homes.
In his televised address, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba assured that he wanted to associate all the “living forces” of the Nation with “a roadmap” with a view to redressing Burkina Faso.
Several organizations seem inclined to work with him.
“We have an interest in this army succeeding in stabilizing the country,” says the association Sauvons le Burkina Faso, which ardently demanded the resignation of Mr. Kaboré.
Several opposition parties to Mr. Kaboré, including the most important, the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) close to Blaise Compaoré – ex-president chased by the street in 2014 after 27 years in power -, also marked “their availability to appreciate the vision that will be submitted to them” by the junta.
“We would have liked to have had a more united ECOWAS with the people of Burkina Faso. Taking sanctions would be a criminal act,” said Boubacar Sanou, first vice-president of the CDP.
Asked about the large market in the center of Ouagadougou, Ousmane Zoungrana, hardware store, agrees: “We no longer want ECOWAS. They didn’t even send soldiers to help Burkina against the jihadists”.
The question of Mr. Kaboré’s future should also arise soon.
Under house arrest, he is in good health according to several sources and has a doctor at his disposal. Thursday evening, the head of the junta did not pronounce his name.