Following the overthrow of the country’s leader, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, angry protesters stormed the French Embassy in Ouagadougou on Saturday accusing France of harboring the ousted president.
A group of soldiers appeared on state television late Friday had announced that Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba had been overthrown less than nine months after he took over the reins of leadership through a coup.
While his whereabouts remain unknown late Saturday, a new statement attributed to Damiba was posted on the Burkina Faso presidency’s Facebook page directed at the newly declared leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore.
“I call on Captain Traoré and company to come to their senses to avoid a fratricidal war that Burkina Faso does not need,” said the statement attributed to Damiba, who unlike other ousted West African leaders has yet to tender a resignation.
The new junta’s spokesman had set into motion, an outburst of anger that enraged citizens
“Damiba has tried to retreat to the Kamboinsin French military base to prepare a counteroffensive in order to sow divide amongst our defense and security forces,” said Lt. Jean Baptiste Kabre, reading a statement on behalf of the new junta leadership.
The protesters chanting anti-French slogans accuse France and other European countries of hosting and protecting the recently overthrown Interim President Damiba, a charge that France has vehemently denied.
In the statement released by France, it denied allegations by the coup leaders, it “denies involvement in events underway since yesterday in Burkina Faso. The camp where French forces are located has never welcomed Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, any more than our embassy”