Jump to navigation

Published 25th September 2015

Vol 56 No 19

Burkina Faso

The people take on the putschists

Demonstrators protest against the coup on the streets of Ouagadougou on Monday 21 September. Picture: Theo Renaut / AP/Press Association Images
Demonstrators protest against the coup on the streets of Ouagadougou on Monday 21 September. Picture: Theo Renaut / AP/Press Association Images

After launching a coup, soldiers loyal to ousted President Compaoré face conflict with the national army and activists on the street

The presence of coup leader General Gilbert Diendéré, flanked by soldiers from the Régiment de sécurité présidentielle (RSP), to welcome West African leaders at Ouagadougou airport on 23 September casts further doubt on the negotiations to end the coup. Diendéré has apologised publicly for his role in the coup but as the leaders arrived the RSP was still moving around Ouagadougou and guarding the state television headquarters. RSP officers were blatantly breaking their commitment to return to barracks as part of the peace deal. The previous day West African leaders had a backed the deal to end the coup in a extraordinary meeting chaired by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. They agreed to fly to Ouagadougou to oversee the reinstatement of the civilian Interim President Michel Kafando on the following day. Kafando has told journalists he is back in the saddle but there are doubts about the future of the interim government and the rules for the national elections due next month.

READ FOR FREE

Trembles at the top

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

View site

The removal of the security chief is a major event which could signal the beginning of the end of the Bouteflika years

After holding the reins of power since he took over the Département du renseignement et de la sécurité in November 1990, the military intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Mohammed...

Battle for the bureaucrats

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

View site

A political deal between Tobruk and Tripoli is as distant as ever. Economic collapse may be a bigger threat than the low-level militia violence

Despite their extreme differences, there is still pressure on Libya's rival parliaments in Tripoli and Tobruk to agree a unity government. It comes not from the limited diplomatic...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Is a Buhari doctrine emerging? Despite the lengthy delays in forming a cabinet, President Muhammadu Buhari has been much quicker to appoint his top military and security officers and to push ahead with a series of bilateral and multilateral summits. Not only did he chair the regional leaders' meeting to tackle the Burkina Faso coup, having unequivocally condemned it five days earlier, he has agreed on the ...

Is a Buhari doctrine emerging? Despite the lengthy delays in forming a cabinet, President Muhammadu Buhari has been much quicker to appoint his top military and security officers and to push ahead with a series of bilateral and multilateral summits. Not only did he chair the regional leaders' meeting to tackle the Burkina Faso coup, having unequivocally condemned it five days earlier, he has agreed on the agenda for a new regional security conference with French President François Hollande. The plan for this meeting, aimed at strengthening military coordination and sharing intelligence about Boko Haram's operations in Nigeria and its Francophone neighbours, was discussed during Buhari's trip to Paris on 14-16 September.

Flanked by his National Security Advisor, General Babagana Monguno, Buhari told French officials that Nigeria would be taking a far greater role in regional security. Buhari talks about the 'concentric circles' of Nigeria's foreign policy, which puts peace and security on its borders as the top priority.

France, traditionally wary of a militarily assertive Nigeria, now finds its forces overstretched in Africa as problems multiply in its operations in Mali and Central African Republic, so it wants to encourage Buhari. Several other governments, such as Kenya, South Africa, Britain and the United States, are also keen to discuss security matters with Buhari when he arrives in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly meetings.

Read more

Frank’s fickle fortunes

The self-styled Emperor of West African Resources has seen his empire’s foundations badly shaken in the past year

In the face of tumbling commodity prices, the operations of Vasile Frank Timis in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone have sunk, stopped producing or...

End of ZANU-PF economics

The clearest sign that planning for the post-Mugabe era is under way is the open discussion of abandoning some of his most cherished policies

Zimbabwe is gearing up to introduce major economic changes to facilitate reconciliation with the International Monetary Fund, say sources in the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)....

Court rescues Koroma

Five months after being asked to rule on the President’s summary sacking of his Vice-President, judges have dismayed many by endorsing it

In a decision mourned in Freetown's legal and political circles alike, the Supreme Court has ruled that President Ernest Bai Koroma did indeed have the power to sack...

Opposition blues

Museveni’s fractious political opponents are striving to get behind a single candidate to fight him for the presidency

After three days of drawn-out deliberation, the opposition coalition formed in June, the Democratic Alliance, had still not been able to decide on a joint candidate for the...

Pointers

Tongue-tied BBC

After years of cutting services, the BBC World Service made a dramatic U-turn this month when the Director of the BBC World Service Group appointed last year, Francesca...

EU in denial

The European Union is limiting the number of Eritreans whom member countries grant asylum to. Brussels is finalising a 200 million euro development aid package for Asmara which,...

No go for Greens

Rwanda's Supreme Court was due to begin hearings on 23 September on whether the constitution could be changed to allow President Paul Kagame to stand for a third...

Stories by country

Footer Map