Agency Report

The President of Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was arrested on Monday and was detained in a barracks in Ouagadougou, a day after mutinies in military camps in this country plagued by jihadist violence.

“President Kaboré, the head of parliament (Alassane Bala Sakandé) and ministers are effectively in the hands of soldiers” at the Sangoulé Lamizana barracks in Ouagadougou, a security source told AFP, information confirmed by another security source.

President Kaboré, in power since 2015 and re-elected five years later on the promise to make the anti-jihadist struggle his priority, had become increasingly challenged by a population fed up with jihadist violence and his powerlessness to deal with it.