Stop these democracy reversals

Burkina Faso, last Monday, followed Guinea and Mali, all French speaking, as the countries where constitutional rule has been disrupted by the military in the past 18 months. On Sunday, mutinies broke out in several barracks and the following day, President Roch Marc Christan  Kabore was arrested and taken away by troops. 

Kabore, 64, was elected in 2015 following a popular revolt that forced out strongman Blaise Compaore. He was re-elected in 2020, but the following year faced a wave of anger over the mounting toll from a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali.

The impoverished Sahel state is being run by a junta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who commands military units in the country’s jihadist-torn east. He has made a televised appeal for “the international community to support our country so it can exit this crisis as soon as possible.” He promised Burkina would “return to a normal constitutional life… when the conditions are right.” 

The West African bloc ECOWAS on Friday suspended Burkina Faso following the coup, but would not impose other sanctions for the time being, a participant at a virtual summit said. It is also calling for the new junta to release the ousted president and other officials detained during Monday’s coup, the source said. The bloc is expected to hold another summit in Accra on February 3.

The Friday summit, which lasted around three hours, also decided to send a mission of ECOWAS chiefs of staff to Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe capital, the next day. A ministerial-level meeting of ECOWAS envoys will hold today, Monday January 31.

We condemn this latest onslaught against democratic rule in West Africa, specifically French speaking part of the region.We also reject ECOWAS’ halfhearted reaction by not to giving the Burkinabe military the treatment it had meted out to juntas in Guinea and Mali. Military takeover is an anachronism and nothing can ever justify its return under whatever guise. 

Yes, it is true that the civilian government in Burkina Faso was losing a lot of ground to the jihadists fighting in the northern part of the country. Sometimes mixed with inter-communal clashes, jihadist violence has killed more than 2,000 people in the past six years and forced 1.5 million to flee their homes. However, that did not call for a regime change by any means but constitutional. We reject the coupists’ promise to return the country to democratic rule “when the conditions are right’. Who determines that, the military or Burkinabes? We demand the restoration of constitutional rule NOW.