Joint Burkina Faso Military Want Presidential Guards Out

Men walk in front of a burning barricade set up by anti-coup protesters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, September 21, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Penney

The ultimatum is will soon reach a crescendo, who will blink, State Guards or regular Burkinabe army?

The Burkina Faso revolution is taking on a new shape. As in Gambia, where President Jammeh relies on his trusted State Guards, who are armed to the teeth, with unprecedented powers, Burkina Faso Campoare use to rely on them to keep him in power. The elite force is merely 1200 member units. The regular army want the State Guards to step down and hand over power to avoid bloodbath. The ultimatum is will soon reach a crescendo, who will blink?

On the other hand, Gambians can only hope the regular army mustering the courage to demand power transfer from State Guards to regular army, which will end the power abuses by Dictator Jammeh.

Below is Reuters story:

Military heads in Burkina Faso said on Monday that the West African nation’s armed forces were converging in the capital Ouagadougou to disarm the elite presidential guard “without bloodshed”.

The 1,200-member unit staged a coup on Wednesday, taking hostage the interim president and members of the government just weeks before Oct. 11 polls meant to restore democracy following last year’s overthrow of longtime leader Blaise Compaore.

“We ask them to immediately lay down their arms and go to Camp Sangoule Lamizana,” read the statement signed by several military chiefs, referring to a barracks in Ouagadougou.

“They and their families will be protected,” it added.

Mediators from regional bloc ECOWAS announced a draft agreement aimed at ending the crisis late on Sunday. However the proposal, which included an amnesty for the coup leaders, was swiftly rejected by civil society and opposition politicians.

Demonstrators protesting against coup leader General Gilbert Diendere and the ECOWAS deal erected barricades and burned tyres in several neighbourhoods across the capital on Monday.

Large protests were also organised in several other towns.

“There’s a potential civil conflict there now. If (Diendere) stays, the people will fight him,” said Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director for the International Crisis Group.

(Reporting by Mathieu Bonkoungou; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Emma Farge)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/21/us-burkina-army-idUSKCN0RL1LD20150921

6 Comments

  1. deyda haidara

    Suntou, this is the begining of the END of dictatorships in Africa.
    People’s POWER is GOD’s power and no gun or man on earth can defeat it.
    Diendiere is simply trying to save his assssss from Sankara’s upcoming trial in BF.
    Francois Mitterrand gave orders to Hophouet Boigny who in turn proposed Blaise to liquidate Thomas Sankara. Diendiere was the one who shot him dead.
    History in the making and the Gambia will not be an exception Inshallah.

  2. deyda haidara

    Suntou, the regular army has surrounded the presidential palace and an ultimum given Diendiere to surrender or else……Who said GOD’s plan will fail?

    • Deyda, this is the only way to deal with criminals like Diendiere. He should captured alive and persecuted for the murder of Thomas, along with Blais.

  3. The move taken by the regular army demonstrate sense of patriotism and defense of sovereign republic to ensure that the country remain stable .The majority of regular army are with the people. These few selected greedy unpatriotic ones are the very people destroying the country . In the case of The Gambia , Patriotic Gambian army will do the same when people rise up . Jammeh’s jugulars are not more than 100 men and these are people who commit crime for him . Even within the state guard , some did not approve his abuse of citizens . Gambia has more support to topple Jammeh quickly if people rise up . Almost all the leaders has isolated jammeh right now . President Macky Sall is very aware of Jammeh’s criminality , so does Nigerian president . These are two key players who can play a important role if Gambian people rise up.

  4. Let this regular army be blessed that, their move of heroism and patriotism not be shattered by the desire for a good day’s pay. Who knows Hon. Thomas Sankara could have been living his dream today?….He has never intimidated or pointed guns on Burkinabes to my knowledge, or even politically neither arbitrarily arresting citizens to instill fear for personal security disillusions.
    I think I have to agree with a previous opinion; that there are misteries to be unravelled in Africa’s present state of political retardedness and turmoils. I think it is a situation that has to be reached from the roots and one of those roots problems for an example is; thirty languges, cultures and ethnic identities and orders, in a population of just ten million people puts our intellectual face to face with well complicated tasks and obligations they cannot ignore anymore. Even if we do need an intellectual approach or position to the African countries’ stagnant or retarded political evolution, you cannot deny the fact that it is a tremendous task just thinking how, one common message can reach all Africans in their multitudes of languages, dialects, cultures and ethnic identities in their different countries.
    Thomas Sankara came for a mission in my opinion and he is not like any other African soldier or coupists in the African history as I want to believe and is not even hard to convince anyone concerned……………Which president on earth have acquired so little as a racing bicycle, a sofa, two chairs and a refrigerator?? Perhaps he have never had more than a thousand dollars personal account if he have had one at all in his time as president. Our heroes die too soon or silenced and our monster leaders energised is the mistery be be unravelled by the new age African. In my layman’s point of view, I will say blaise Campoare is among the biggest political delinquents of all times in Africa with his accomplices.
    In my individual observations, I have noted that Kairo news article and comments do probably reach farther than some of us can even imagine looking at the unfolding international humanitarian activities. For that being the case, I hope all the inspiring messages here and above, reach the members of the Regular Army of Burkina Fasso and serve them as a source of enlightenment in their well iniciated move.

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