South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Naledi Pandor, on Tuesday expressed shock and outrage over the coup in Burkina Faso, and agonised over recurrent military interventions in West Africa in the past two years.
“I was shocked yesterday at what was underway in Burkina Faso and one is very nervous that that region mustn’t become a region of coups,” the minister said.
The minister’s reaction came after the Burkinabe military announced in a televised statement that they had arrested President Roch Kabore in the capital in Ouagadougou, ending his second mandate on Monday.
The soldiers also announced that they had suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly – and shut down the country’s borders.
The announcement cited the deterioration of the security situation and what the army described as Kabore’s inability to unite the West African nation which has come under attack from Islamist rebels in the north of the country.
The military said the takeover was carried out without violence and that those detained – including Kabore – were at a secure location, adding that it was made in the name of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR).
“MPSR, which includes all sections of the army, has decided to end President Kabore’s mandate today,” the statement said on Monday.
The MPSR said it would propose a calendar for a return to constitutional order “within a reasonable time frame, after consultations with various sections of the nation.”
Formerly Upper Volta, Burkina Faso is a gold producer and has experienced numerous coups since independence from France in 1960.
The military have toppled governments over the past 18 months in Mali and Guinea, took over in Chad last year after President Idriss Deby died fighting rebels on the battlefield in the country’s north, according to press reports.
Pandor, however, remained cautiously optimistic that the next African Union summit would focus on peace and security in the region.
“I think we have to have regard to sustaining democracy and silencing the gun on the African continent and I hope we will devote a great deal of time at the AU discussing how we secure peace and security.”
NM/jn/APA