The Burkina Faso government acknowledged this Sunday that “shots” in certain military barracks during this morning, but rejects fears that a coup is taking place in the country.
By a statement signed by the government spokesperson, Alkassoum Maiga, the executive branch of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (president since the end of 2015) called on the population to remain calm and stressed his confidence in the country’s army.
“Some information on social networks tends to make us believe in a takeover by the military on this day. 23 January 2022. The government even acknowledges the authenticity of (that) shots were fired in certain barracks, denies this information and asks the population to remain calm, ”reads the short text.
The statement was issued after several local media outlets published information about shots fired at military barracks in the areas of Ouagadougou and from the city of Kaya (northeast of the capital), from 04:00 (same GMT time).
One of the centers affected is a military camp that houses detainees for an attempted coup in 2015.
This same month there was in Burkina Faso fifteen arrests (ten soldiers and five civilians) in connection with an alleged coup attempt.
The detainees were brought before a military court in Ouagadougou and, after the first court hearings on the case, some have been released and the rest remain in pre-trial detention.
This Saturday, the country experienced a new day of unauthorized protests, called by groups in civil society to express the great social dissatisfaction over the insecurity generated in the country by the jihadist violence and the lack of results from the Government when it comes to stopping it.
The protests were carried out by the security forces with tear gas and there were some clashes between agents and protesters.
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Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso are often attributed to groups affiliated with both terrorist networks Al-Qaeda as well as the Islamic State (IS) organization, especially in the northern Sahel region, but it has expanded to neighboring regions and since 2018, to the east of the country.
Insecurity has led to an increase in the number of internally displaced persons 1.5 million people, according to data from the Burkina Faso government.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com