Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore Resigns After Coup

The Burkina Faso military on Monday undertook to propose a “timetable” for the country’s return to constitutional order “within a reasonable period of time and after consultation with the active forces of the nation”.

Shortly before midnight on Monday, Roch Kabore resigned from the presidency of Burkina Faso through a letter addressed to Lieutenant Colonel Paul Henry Sandaogo Damiba, who led the coup d’état carried out on Sunday.

“In the interest of the nation, after the events that have occurred since yesterday, I have decided to resign from my functions as President of Burkina Faso, Head of Government, and Supreme Commander of the National Armed Forces,” Kabore wrote in a letter that was released after the military confirmed the coup, the dissolution of the government and Parliament, and the suspension of the Constitution.

The decision to topple Kabore was taken “with the sole objective of allowing our country to return to the right path and gather all its forces to fight for its territorial integrity… and its sovereignty,” said a spokesman for the Patriotic Movement for the Safeguarding and the Restoration (MPSR), which the military created to carry out their assault against the constitutional order.

“In the face of the continuous deterioration of the security situation that threatens the foundations of our nation, the manifest inability of the power of Roch Kabore to unite the Burkinabe to deal with the situation effectively, and following the aspirations of different social strata of the nation, the MPSR has decided to assume its responsibilities before history,” the spokesman added.

The coup plotters also announced the closure of air and land borders and the establishment of a curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time throughout the national territory. These measures will remain in force “until further order”.

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But, the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) yesterday strongly condemned the military coup in Bukina Faso, calling it a democratic sacrilege that betrays hope and rewinds the clock of democratic progress in Burkina Faso and the sub-region.

Describing the military coup as an unacceptable aberration, WAEF declared that Africa could not afford to be returned to an “inglorious era when the people’s rights, freedoms and development impetus were restricted”.

The forum called for the immediate release of deposed Kabore and all others being detained and urged the military leaders to return the country to constitutional rule.

The statement reads: “The West African Elders Forum (WAEF) condemns the military takeover of government and suspension of constitutional order in Burkina Faso by a group of military officers.

“The coup is a political sacrilege that betrays hope, as it rewinds the clock of democratic progress and successes recorded in Burkina Faso and the sub-region in the past decades.

“As a forum, we are disturbed by the gradual ceding of our civil and democratic spaces to military adventurers and unelected leaders.

“We state without equivocation that the military should not be seen as the alternative to civil rule. Africa had experienced a long spell of military rule in the past and the people of the continent cannot afford to be returned to an inglorious era when the people’s rights, freedoms, and development impetus were restricted.”