OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso
Heavy gunfire was heard around Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, on early Friday morning, sparking fears of a mutiny nine months after a military coup d'etat overthrew the country's president.
The leader of Burkina Faso's military junta, Paul-Henri Damiba, giving a speech a day before the shooting in Ouagadougou |
Shots and a large blast were
also heard around the presidential palace and the headquarters of its military
junta. Troops were stationed on the main crossroads of the city,
especially in the Ouaga 2000 neighborhood, which is home to the presidential
and military junta headquarters.
The military was also blocking
access to administration buildings and the national television, which has
halted transmissions broadcasting a blank screen saying "no video
signal."
Military junta took control of
Burkina Faso
The military junta seized
power in a coup on January 24, overthrew President Roch Kabore and dissolved
the government.
In his first statement, coup
leader Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba vowed to restore security after years
of violence by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and the "Islamic
State." But the
attacks continue and the army is in disarray.
It was not immediately known
where the coup leader was in the country. He had given a speech the day
before in Djibo, in the north of Burkina Faso.
Last week, Damiba traveled to
New York where he addressed the UN General Assembly as the country's coup
leader-turned-president.
Thousands have died and about
two million have been displaced by the fighting since 2015 when the insurgency
spread into Burkina Faso.
More than 40 percent of the
country, a former French colony, is outside government control. Millions have
fled their homes in fear of more raids by gunmen, who often descend
on rural communities on motorcycles. Thousands were killed in attacks.
The West African country, one of the world's poorest, has become the epicenter of the violence that began in neighboring Mali in 2012 but has since spread across the arid expanse of the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert. - Africa
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