Roch Kaboré, the president, is said to have resigned. In his place is a new strongman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba
ALL COUPS begin with confusion. In Burkina Faso the first sign was thunderous gunfire echoing out from army bases in Ouagadougou, the capital, on January 23rd. Mutinous soldiers soon emerged demanding the resignation of the top brass and better equipment for their fight against jihadists swarming across the Sahel. By daybreak bullet-riddled and blood-spattered presidential vehicles were visible in the streets and soldiers surrounded the main television station .
The fight is going badly for the region’s governments, and for the West. In Burkina Faso more than 1.5m people out of a population of 21m have been pushed from their homes in the past three years. Almost 7,000 have been killed. Yet the recent spate of coups has vastly complicated these efforts. Mali’s junta has postponed elections and a handover to civilians until 2025, prompting its neighbours to impose financial sanctions and close their borders with it. It has also hired Russian mercenaries accused of human-rights abuses to protect its officials and train its soldiers, which has prompted several Western countries to threaten to withdraw their forces.
But it is insecurity that underpins the latest putsch. In June last year jihadists slaughtered more than 100 people in Solhan, a village in the north . In November they killed 49 officers and four civilians near Inata, another northern town. The soldiers there had run out of food and had been forced to commandeer livestock, according to a memo they sent their superiors. Mr Kaboré boasted of having bumped up the security budget but little extra gear seemed to make it to the frontlines.
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