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The scene of a military coup a week ago, Burkina Faso welcomes on Monday a new delegation from the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an international body from which the country was suspended on Friday. The African Union (AU) also announced on Monday the suspension of the country from all its activities “until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country”.
After the officers, the ministers. A delegation of heads of diplomacy from the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is expected Monday, January 31 in the capital of Burkina Faso where she should meet with members of the junta, in power for a week.
On Saturday, ECOWAS had sent a delegation of several army chiefs from the region to meet the head of the junta, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
After a “brief interview”, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR, junta) “reaffirmed its commitment to sub-regional and international organizations”, according to the communication from the Presidency of Faso.
Friday, Burkina Faso had been suspended from the authorities of ECOWAS, like the other countries having recently experienced a military coup, Guinea and Mali. The African Union did the same on Monday by suspending the country from all activities “until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country”.
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Monday’s delegation will be led by Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Ghana’s Foreign Minister.
In addition to the West African ministers, the Chadian Annadif Mahamat Saleh, UN special representative for West Africa and the Sahel (Unowas), is also expected in Ouagadougou.
This joint delegation will have “meetings with the military leaders as well as with the various Burkinabè actors”, indicates a press release from Unowas.
ECOWAS leaders are due to meet in Accra on Thursday to study the results of these two missions and decide on possible additional sanctions once morest Burkina.
Since the junta took power on Monday, little information has leaked out on the concrete intentions of the new power that overthrew ex-president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, nor on the composition of the junta.
Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba has spoken publicly only once, in a speech on Thursday evening on national television.
If he has made security his “priority” in his country, which has been plagued since 2015 by increasingly frequent attacks by jihadist groups, he has also committed to “return to a normal constitutional life”, “when the conditions are met”, without specifying a duration.
He also indicated that his country “needs its partners more than ever”, a declaration perceived as a plea to avoid international sanctions and to open the door to new actors likely to help Burkina.
Popular support
During the pro-junta demonstrations at the beginning of last week, several banners hostile to the French military presence in the country were visible.
Sunday evening, the French general staff announced that it had killed 60 jihadists in the north of the country, during a joint operation with Burkinabè forces.
During his only speech on Thursday, the leader of the junta also promised that the independence of justice would be ensured.
The trial of the alleged assassins in 1987 of Thomas Sankara, progressive leader and pan-African icon, killed by a coup fomented by relatives, must resume Monday morning.
Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba seems for the moment to be able to count on several supports: that of the population first, criticism of the coup d’etat remaining very rare in Ouagadougou where several demonstrations had called for the departure of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused including being unable to deal with jihadist violence.
Several civil society organizations and opposition parties also say they are ready to work with the new government to help the country emerge from the security crisis.
In the wake of Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been caught for nearly seven years in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist movements, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which have left more than 2,000 dead and forced at least 1.5 million people to flee their homes.
Several particularly deadly recent attacks had amplified the exasperation of the population once morest the regime of ex-president Kaboré.
With AFP