Abidjan, Jan 22, 2022 (AIP)- Incidents erupted this Saturday, January 22, 2022, in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso between the police and demonstrators who defied the ban on gatherings to protest against insecurity in the country, international media report.

Warnings from the town hall and the Ministry of Security did not prevent several demonstrators from shouting their fed up with power in Bobo-Dioulasso, in downtown Ouagadougou and in Kaya, in the Center-North, where the headquarters of the ruling party (MPP) was ransacked, according to the Burkina Information Agency (AIB).

Scuffles opposed young people to riot police, causing some injuries. The riot police managed to disperse the demonstrators who did not admit defeat using tear gas.

The demonstration against the government’s “inability” to prevent jihadist attacks responds to the call of a civil society movement, called “Sauvons le Burkina”. It had been banned for “security reasons” by the town hall of Ouagadougou.

The mayor of Ouagadougou also banned another rally in support of Mali, scheduled for the same Saturday, January 22, following the sanctions reinforced by the leaders of ECOWAS.

Burkina Faso has been caught in a spiral of violence since 2015 attributed to armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Attacks targeting civilians and soldiers are increasingly frequent and mostly concentrated in the north and east of the country.

Sometimes mixed with inter-community clashes, these jihadist attacks have killed more than 2,000 people over the past six years and forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse