Opposition to French soldiers is growing in Burkina Faso. At least four people were injured on Saturday in Kaya, the main city in the center-north of the country, where demonstrators have been opposing since Thursday the passage of a large logistics convoy of the French army, in transit to neighboring Niger.
“This morning, the tension escalated between the demonstrators and the soldiers of the French army who spent the night on a vacant lot. While demonstrators tried to approach the perimeter, soldiers fired warning shots, “said a local source attached to Kaya, referring to” gunshot wounds “. “Four people wounded by bullets were received in the emergency departments of the regional hospital of Kaya”, specified for its part a hospital source, indicating that the “vital prognosis of the patients is not at stake”.
The unknown origin of the shootings
The state daily Sidwaya reported Saturday night of “three wounded following warning shots”, specifying that one of them “received a bullet in the cheek”. AFP could not determine the origin of the bullets, the French and Burkinabe soldiers having all fired warning shots to disperse the demonstrators according to corroborating sources.
“A group of demonstrators tried to cut the fence to get into the grip and the Burkinabé gendarmes fired tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. The French soldiers fired a few warning shots above the crowd, ”for his part indicated a source from the French general staff. “There were no injuries due to the action of the French soldiers. We do not know of any injured, even following the tear gas grenade fire ”, according to the same source who assures us that“ negotiations are underway between the Burkinabe authorities and the demonstrators ”.
Tear gas in Ouagadougou
From the Ivory Coast and bound for Niger, the advance of the logistics convoy of the French army had already been blocked Wednesday and Thursday by demonstrators in Bobo Dioulasso (west), then in the capital Ouagadougou where the forces Burkinabe security forces had to use tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
This “convoy of sixty trucks and a hundred French soldiers from Abidjan heading for Niamey then Gao” is “not a convoy to transport weapons to jihadists, as we can read on networks social “, also underlined the French general staff.