By John Ikani
Burkina Faso’s interim leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, has said he was the target of a coup attempt that was crushed last week.
Rumours of a coup circulated on social media networks last weekend.
On Monday, hundreds of people presenting themselves as Traoré supporters gathered in the capital to denounce an attempt to destabilise the regime.
In a meeting with civil society organisations on Thursday, Captain Traoré confirmed the coup attempt and said that he knew who was behind it, but was not going to make any arrests as he “prefers dialogue and the situation is under control.
“Thanks to the vigilance of [my] men and the watchfulness of citizens, the enemy has been routed,” a participant at the meeting quoted Traoré as saying.
He asked participants to “be vigilant and to set up watchdog cells in neighbourhoods, because it is civil society that must ensure the smooth running of the transition.”
Capt Traoré took power in Burkina Faso on 30 September through a coup by ousting his predecessor, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, who himself had seized power through a coup.
One of the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso is also struggling with a seven-year armed uprising that swept in from neighbouring Mali. Thousands of people have died, hundreds of thousands are displaced, and more than a third of the country lies outside the government’s control.
