The shots were heard this Friday morning before dawn in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in the district that houses the presidency and the headquarters of the military junta in power since last January, witnesses told AFP, and the national television signal.
“I heard loud explosions around 4:30 am (local and GMT), and there the roads around my house are blocked by military vehicles,” said one of them, who lives near the presidency.
The origin of these shots remained unknown as of Friday morning. Several axes of the Burkina Faso capital were blocked in the morning by the military, AFP journalists pointed out.
The national television signal was cut
These soldiers are stationed at the main intersections of the city, in particular in the Ouaga 2000 district where the presidency and the military camp of the ruling junta are located, but also in front of the national television headquarters, said one of the ‘ to them.
The national television signal was cut on Friday morning, a black screen replaced the programs with a message indicating “No video signal” (“No video signal”).
Burkina Faso is ruled by a military junta that came to power last January in a coup. This putsch, which had overthrown President-elect Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, had begun with riots in various barracks across the country.
The strong man of this board, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, had promised to make security his priority, in this country mined for years by jihadist attacks.
A still unstable political situation
But the situation has not improved and the deadly attacks, affecting dozens of civilians and soldiers, continue. Again this week, a convoy that was to supply food to the northern city of Djibo was attacked by suspected jihadis.
11 soldiers were killed, 28 people were injured and 50 civilians were missing, according to the latest official report.
Several cities in the north are even now subject to a blockade by jihadists who blow up bridges with dynamite and attack supply convoys passing through the area.
86 civilians killed in the north in June
Other attacks have especially marked public opinion, such as the Seytenga (north) massacre last June, where 86 civilians died. And in early September, another supply convoy was blown up by an improvised explosive device, killing 35 civilians, including many children.
Since 2015, recurrent attacks by armed movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, mainly in the north and east of the country, have caused thousands of deaths and displaced some two million people.
Since last year, Burkina has become the epicenter of violence in the Sahel, with more deadly attacks than in Mali or Niger in 2021, according to the NGO Acled. More than 40% of the territory is outside state control, according to official figures.
Source: BFM TV
