Power Struggle in Burkina Faso as Rival Army Chiefs Claim Control

Burkina Faso's President, Blaise Compaoré, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, has been swept from power after 27 years by a violent popular uprising reports the Guardian newspaper.

Compaoré announced his resignation on Friday as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest at plans to extend his rule.

General Honoré Traoré, head of the armed forces, said he had taken charge of the west African country. But further confusion and uncertainty broke out after another military leader, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida, declared himself to be president and said Traoré’s claim was “obsolete”.

“I assume from today the responsibilities of head of this transition and of Head of State,” Zida said in his statement, read in the studio of BF1 Television and aired on radio, after apparently using his position as a commander in the President’s guard to mount a challenge to Traoré. There were reports of gunfire near the presidential palace, and Zida was said to have ordered curfew measures and the closure of borders.

Zida had earlier announced Compaoré’s departure in the central Place de la Nation in the capital, Ouagadougou, to cheering from a huge crowd of protesters. He later told journalists that the former president was “in a safe place” and his “safety and wellbeing are assured”. Traoré’s whereabouts, though, were unknown after Zida announced he was taking charge.

Like so many strongmen before him, Compaoré was forced to abandon the luxurious trappings of the presidential palace and flee for safety as his regime collapsed. A heavily armed convoy believed to be carrying the 63-year-old was seen travelling on Friday towards the southern town of Po, near the border with Ghana, according to sources quoted by Reuters. It was not clear whether he would seek asylum.

On Friday, outside army headquarters, Colonel Boureima Farta, hoisted on the shoulders of other officers, had declared: “As of today Compaoré is no longer in power.” It was a defining moment for the country’s young population, many of whom were not born when Compaoré took charge in the 1987 coup in which Thomas Sankara, his former friend and one of Africa’s most revered leaders, was assassinated.

Compaoré issued a statement on Friday that said: “In order to preserve the democratic gains, as well as social peace … I declare a vacancy of power with a view to allowing a transition that should finish with free and transparent elections in a maximum period of 90 days.”

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Source: The Guardian