With a recent sour history of conflicts spreading across borders in the West African region, West African leaders are working against time to calm growing tension in Burkina Faso. In the late 1980s conflicts spread across the West African region like wildfire after a rebellion started in the same Burkina Faso with the assassination on October 15, 1987, of Thomas Sankara who was killed by an armed group with twelve other officials in a coup d'état organized by his former colleague and now ousted President Blaise Compaoré.
Following the death of Sankara, several rebel groupings grew and spread to countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and later Guinea and Ivory Coast. Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia were allegedly harbored by Campore in Burkina Faso from where they used the Ivorian soil to launch a rebellion to unseat the regime of Samuel K. Doe.
Some accounts of the regional instability in West Africa reported that some of Taylor's Special Forces trained in Libya helped Campore to dethrone Sankara in order for the new Burkinabe leader to provide some support for Taylor and his men in return. When Taylor and the NPFL finally entered Liberian soil, some Burkinabe soldiers were visibly fighting alongside the NPFL providing military as well as advisory supports. There were reports of collaboration between the NPFL and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone where both rebel groups were said to have received military support from Libya through Burkina Faso.
As the fighting in both Liberia and Sierra Leone dragged on, rebels also entered Guinea and Ivory Coast all said to have links with the NPFL, where Liberian mercenaries were reportedly fighting in Ivory Coast and Guinea. The entire West African region became a war zone with the emergence of smaller fighting groups resulting in marauding militias all across the region. With peace now prevailing, the military coup d'état in Burkina Faso is sending fears amongst regional leaders that something might be afoot if the situation is not handled speedily.
Great dismay
In a joint statement, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and the United Nations said they have learned with great dismay of the abduction by the presidential guards of the President of Faso, Michel Kafando, the Prime Minister, Yacouba Isaac Zida, and transitional Ministers.
"The three organisations strongly condemn this gross violation of the Constitution and the Charter of the Transition and demand that the defence and security forces submit to the political authorities and in this case, the transition government", a statement from the three organizations stated. West African mediators including Senegal's Macky Sall and Boni Yayi are currently in the West African State seeking to peacefully roll back a military coup. The two leaders have said they negotiated a draft deal on Sunday to end the crisis though they failed to secure the immediate restoration of civilian rule.
As part of the proposed deal, in exchange for returning power to the civilian transitional authority, former Compaore right-hand man General Gilbert Diendere and his presidential guard would receive an amnesty for acts committed during the putsch. Reuters News agency reports that President Michel Kafando would be restored as head of the transitional government, though the body's military members would be excluded, a move likely aimed at eliminating Prime Minister Isaac Zida, seen as Diendere's chief opponent.
The deal also calls for the reinstatement of candidates with close links to Compaore, who were excluded from running in the polls under a law passed by the transitional authorities. Their exclusion from the election along with concerns that the transitional government was preparing to disband the presidential guard were among justifications given by Diendere for staging the coup.
Before Senegalese President Sall announced the plan, Francois Hollande, president of Burkina Faso's former colonial master France, issued a warning against rejecting the mediation. "There are discussions taking place as we speak and France backs the African mediations. I address a strong warning to those who would be tempted to oppose them", he said during a state visit to Morocco.
However, there were immediate indications that the ECOWAS proposal might struggle to gain support among the rival Burkinabe groups. In his own proposal submitted to mediators late on Saturday and seen by Reuters, Diendere put his own name forward to head a new post-coup transition. Many opposition and civil society members present as the various points of the ECOWAS-mediated deal were announced appeared visibly shocked by the document's content.
"It's a draft. That's all it is," said opposition politician Benewende Sankara. Roch Marc Christian Kabore, another leading opposition figure, said he had not been shown the content of the deal before it was announced. Guy-Herve Kam, spokesman for the civil society group Balai Citoyen (Citizen's Broom) which helped lead the uprising against Compaore, was seen in tears.
Balai Citoyen members were among those attacked by masked presidential guard soldiers who burst into the Leico Hotel earlier in the day, brandishing assault rifles, pistols and shotguns. Meanwhile, anti-coup protests continued for a fourth day on Sunday as demonstrators erected barricades in neighbourhoods across Ouagadougou, braving the presidential guard's attempts to break up gatherings of protesters.
Army demands disarmament
While mediation is ongoing, late Monday the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC reported that, Burkina Faso's military chiefs demanded that the leaders of last week's coup disarm, saying the army is marching on the capital Ouagadougou. "All the national armed forces are converging on Ouagadougou with the sole aim of disarming the presidential guard without any bloodshed," they said.
The coup was carried out by allies of President Blaise Compaore, who was ousted by street protests last year. Transitional President Michel Kafando was forced from office last Thursday. Meanwhile, coup leader Gen Diendere said he was prepared to accept a proposal by regional mediators to restore civilian rule. At least 10 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in clashes since Thursday.
