UN expresses concern following coup d’état in Burkina Faso

The United Nations has expressed its concern over the situation in Burkina Faso, after a group of military members of the Patriotic Movement for Salvation and Restoration (MPSR), led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, staged a coup d’état and deposed the leader of Burkina Faso’s junta and transitional president of the country, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, on Friday.

In that sense, the organization has called for “calm” and to avoid “more violence”, assuring that Burkina Faso “needs peace, needs stability and needs unity to fight against terrorist groups and criminal networks operating in some parts of the country”, as detailed in a statement.

“The UN stands in solidarity with the people of Burkina Faso and remains committed to the rapid return of the country to a constitutional order,” it added.

Among the reasons that led to the coup d’état, the UN has pointed out that the country continues to face what it described as “a multidimensional crisis” as insecurity in the country is on the rise.

However, the United Nations stressed that almost one fifth of the national population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid and that 1.7 million people are displaced, ten percent of the country.

“Burkina Faso faces one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world in 2022. The other two are Mozambique and Ukraine,” the UN has detailed in the missive.

The mobilization of military took place after an explosion in the vicinity at the airport of the capital, while witnesses quoted by the magazine ‘Jeune Afrique’ have indicated that shots have also been fired near the Presidential Palace and the Baba Sy base, headquarters of the transitional president.

The military, who have defended the coup in the face of the discontent that the country is experiencing due to the insecurity caused by jihadist terrorism, have announced on state television the suspension of the Transitional Government and of the Constitution, as reported by the news portal Burkina 24.