African Union chair Tshisekedi demands release of ousted Burkinabe leader
Tuesday January 25 2022
Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in Ouagadougou on December 2, 2015. PHOTO | AFP
The African Union has denounced the coup d'état in Burkina Faso and demanded for the release of detained President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
Chairman of the continental bloc, President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said on Tuesday President Kabore was illegally arrested and he should be freed without condition.
Tshisekedi called on "Ecowas, (the west African bloc), the African Union and the international community to work together for a peaceful and non-violent solution to the political crisis in Burkina Faso.”
Kabore, first elected in 2015 and later re-elected in 2020 on a promise to prioritise the fight against insurgency, has faced growing public anger at the state’s failure to stop the bloodshed.
On Sunday, he was arrested and detained by the junta under the banner of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration.
The Burkinabe leader came to office following the ouster of Blaise Compaoré, who is now accused of being behind the assassination of the country’s transformative leader Thomas Sankara in October 1987.
The intensity and frequency of jihadist attacks on Burkinabe soil have increased over the years, placing Kabore’s leadership in sharp focus.
The junta said they will “put the country back on the right track” and “fight for territorial integrity.”
They shut all land borders and suspended the constitution, even though they promised to shortly oversee a transition back to civilian rule.