In Burkina Faso, the National Coordination of Organizations of Citizen Watch Associations planned to demonstrate this Friday morning, June 28, in front of the French embassy to demand the relocation of diplomatic influence to another location in Ouagadougou. Finally, the demonstrators were dispersed with tear gas by the police before even reaching the meeting place. According to the demonstrators, fervent supporters of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the embassy – located near the presidency – constitutes a threat to the security of the head of state.
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While the authorities have not officially expressed any wish in this direction, the demonstrators had submitted an ultimatum so that the French embassy, currently avenue d’Indépendant, a few steps from the current president of Fasoor relocated elsewhere in Ouagadougou.
Lassané Sawadogo, member of the National Coalition of Citizen Watch Associations, explains: “ We see the embassy today as a threat to our president, that’s it. We asked the embassy just to move and told them to move because Burkina Faso has 274,000 km² and the French embassy can move wherever they want. »
This morning, following the police’s refusal to allow them access to the site, the demonstrators attempted to force their way through. They were then dispersed with tear gas. Lassané Sawadogo takes this somewhat forceful dispersal very philosophically:
“ By suppressing his own supporters… I said, by suppressing his own supporters… today, (…) when we say a patriot, a revolutionary, it is this president. Because he has proven to us that No, he follows through on his commitments, and we appreciate him for that. And we say to the French Authority that the act that was done to us this morning gives us more courage to go on the offensive because we find a patriotic president and we will succeed in our mission. Whatever the circumstances, we will succeed. »
Despite this failure, the demonstrators do not intend to give up, they announce that they want to maintain the pressure until Paris relocates its embassy elsewhere to a site deemed less sensitive in the Burkinabe capital.