APA – Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) The military authorities in Ouagadougou have on several occasions denounced attempts to destabilise the transition.
Several pro-regime demonstrators invaded the United Nations roundabout in the capital shortly after 8pm on Tuesday 26 September, following rumours of an attempted putsch against Captain Ibrahim Traore, an APA correspondent in the country says.
“There was supposed to be a coup this very evening against the captain. But we heard about it and nipped it in the bud,” said one demonstrator, referring to information relayed on social media by activists close to the junta.
“We have a message saying that a coup is underway. It was the intelligence service that intercepted the information. There have been gatherings at the gendarmerie,” added another one, visibly older than the former.
An army officer tells APA that “the gathering of gendarmes, which was taking place at the Paspanga comp (where the national gendarmerie headquarters is located) was linked to their usual rotation to relieve their peers who are at the front. It’s this movement that people have misinterpreted. Otherwise nothing amiss happened in Ouagadougou apart from that.”
Tuesday’s demonstrators called on people to “occupy the streets and roundabouts to defend and watch over the power of the people.”
To the sounds of vuvuzelas, several demonstrators chanted slogans in support of Captain Traore, brandishing Burkinabe, Russian, Malian and Niger flags.
Reports of attempted destabilisation are regularly circulated by the military authorities and their supporters.
On 8 September, the military prosecutor indicated that soldiers had been arrested for attempting to destabilise the current regime.
At the end of August, the Minister for Security warned of the presence of “foreigners” in Burkina Faso, with a view to “destabilising the transition underway and sowing chaos,” with “national accomplices.”
SD/ac/fss/as/APA