Multiple news global agencies are reporting of heavy gunfire around the Presidential palace in Burkina Faso.
The Associated Press reported that gunfire rang out late Sunday, January 23, 2022 near the home of President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, “raising the specter that a military coup might still be under way after mutinous soldiers seized a military base earlier in the day.”
The government on Sunday morning issued a terse statement assuring the populace that constitutional order was still in force.
Reports indicated the soldiers took over some military bases in the country amid heavy exchange of fire with forces believed to be loyal to the government.
But by day’s end anti-government protesters supporting the mutineers also had set fire to a building belonging to Kabore’s party, the AP report added.
It s widely held that soldiers behind the mutiny are acting against the failure of government to curb rising insecurity that has seen terrorist activity experience an uptick in terrorist attacks.
A BBC journalist said unconfirmed reports were that a coup has taken place, with the President arrested and replaced by an army colonel.
Aside the heavy gunfire, there are reports that a helicopter is said to have been hovering overhead.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
