This group of a dozen vehicles, from Côte d’Ivoire, must join Niger but many events take place on its passage for several days. Saturday, four protesters were injured while they were trying to approach it.
Le Monde with AFP
He is not welcome. An important logistical convoy of the French army is the source of disputes in Burkina Faso, where protesters have been opposed, since Thursday, to its passage over the territory to reach the neighboring Niger. At least four people were injured on Saturday, November 20 in Kaya, the main city of the north center of the country.
“This morning, the tension is mounted by a notch between the protesters and the soldiers of the French army who spent the night, on a vague ground. While protesters were trying to approach the perimeter, of the Soldiers carried out summons, “said France-Presse Agency (AFP) a local source attached to Kaya, evoking” bullet wounded “, which confirmed a hospital source.
“Four bullet-wounded people were received at the emergency department of the Kaya Regional Hospital Center,” said this hospital source, stating that the “vital prediction of patients is not at stake”. The daily life Sidwaya showed Saturday night of “three wounded following the summation shots”, stating that one of them has “received a ball in the cheek”.
“Free the Sahel “
The AFP could not determine the origin of the bullets, the French and Burkinabe soldiers having all taken summons to disperse the protesters according to concordant sources.
“A group of protesters tried to cut the fence to return to the right-of-way and the Burkinabe gendarmes pulled tearful grenades to disperse the crowd. The French soldiers performed some summation shots above the crowd” , said a source of the French staff. “There is no injury as a result of the action of the French military. We are not aware of any injuries, even following the shots of tearful pomegranate”, according to the same source which ensures that “negotiations are in progress between the Burkinabe authorities and the protesters “.
Friday, thousands of people gathered, in Kaya, to oppose the passage of this convoy, from Côte d’Ivoire and to Niger. Slogans such as “French army releases”, “free the Sahel”, “more military convoy of French invasion and recolonization”, were registered on brandished signs and banners by protesters. The fists in the air, they sang the Burkinabé national anthem against the French convoy of several dozen vehicles.
This “convoy of about sixty trucks and a hundred French military party from Abidjan heading towards Niamey then Gao” is not a convoy to carry weapons to jihadists, as can be read On social networks, “said the French staff.
Calls for the resignation of the president
The advance of the convoy had already been blocked Wednesday and Thursday by protesters in Bobo Dioulasso (West), then in the capital Ouagadougou where the Burkinabe security forces had to make use of tear gas to disperse the protesters, according to Roland. Bayala, spokesman for the African Patriots Coalition of Burkina Faso (COPA-BF), who called these events.
“We decided to block, because despite the agreements signed with France, we continue to register dead and our countries remain under-armed,” he explained to AFP.
Tuesday, several hundred people participated in several cities of the country to demonstrations to claim the resignation of President Burkinabé Roch Marc Christian Kaboré for his “Inability to end terrorist attacks”, two days after a jihadist attack having done At least 53 dead, including 49 gendarmes in Inata, in the north of the country.
The Burkina Faso has been facing regular and deadly jihadist attacks, particularly in the northern and east regions, in the so-called “three border” zone on the confines of Mali and Niger, two Countries also faced with the operations of armed jihadists.