Burkinabe soldiers announced on national television that they had “put an end” to President Kaboré’s rule. Hooded soldiers had taken up position in Ouagadougou earlier in the day in front of the national television headquarters. The events began with a series of mutinies in several military camps on the night of Saturday, January 22 to Sunday, January 23, 2022.
Confusion abounded about the fate of President Roch Marc Kaboré, who took office in 2015 and faced Islamist insurgencies that only grew during his tenure, leading to thousands of deaths and leaving more than a million homeless. As regional leaders called for his release, Kaboré — or someone running his official Twitter account — wrote a plea to his captors: “I invite those who have taken up arms to lay them down in the higher interests of the nation.”
Two hours later, his political party asserted that he’d survived an assassination attempt. His private residence lay in ruin, wrote the Movement of People for Progress in a statement, and soldiers had taken over the national television station.
Our democracy is in peril,” the party said without clarifying Kaboré’s whereabouts or condition.
Authorities initially denied that Kaboré was taken into military custody, asserting that all was calm even as soldiers battled for control of several barracks. Then the mutineers reached the presidential palace late Sunday, and Kaboré was physically removed from office less than a day after the uprising began, said the Western official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc known as ECOWAS, condemned the “attempted coup d’etat” in a statement Monday afternoon, urging the military to keep Kaboré from harm.
A Burkinabe counterterrorism officer said Monday that the president “is in good hands.” Soldiers were fed up with what they saw as a lack of support from the top, said the officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.
The European Union on Monday called for the “immediate” release of Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who security sources said was being held by soldiers who have mutinied. The United States on Monday called on the army of Burkina Faso to “immediately release” President Roch Marc Kaboré and to “respect the Constitution” and “civilian leaders” of the country.
