Mutiny fear as gunshots rock Burkina Faso capital

Gunshots were heard around the presidential palace of Burkina Faso in the early hours of Friday. The state broadcaster went off the air amid the confusion, which sparked tension that there might be a coup. Gunshots as APC Supporters protest change of delegates’ list Explosion, gunshots around Kuje Prison The development comes nine months after […]

Gunshots were heard around the presidential palace of Burkina Faso in the early hours of Friday.

The state broadcaster went off the air amid the confusion, which sparked tension that there might be a coup.

Gunshots as APC Supporters protest change of delegates’ list

Explosion, gunshots around Kuje Prison

The development comes nine months after President Roch Kaboré was overthrown in a military coup.

Last week, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba travelled to New York where he addressed the U.N. General Assembly as the country’s coup leader-turned-president.

Damiba defended his January coup as “an issue of survival for our nation, even if it is perhaps reprehensible to the international community.”

The coup came in the wake of similar takeovers in Mali and in Guinea.

Initially, many in Burkina Faso supported the military takeover after being frustrated with the previous government’s inability to stem Islamic extremist violence that has killed thousands, displacing at least 2 million.

On Tuesday, 11 soldiers were found dead and about 50 civilians were declared missing after Islamist militants attacked a 150-vehicle convoy taking supplies to a town in the northern part of the country.

The attack left 28 persons injured, including 20 soldiers, while dozens of trucks were destroyed.