Uprising in Burkina Faso

Posted on | april 19, 2011 | No Comments

Chaos appears to be descending over the landlocked West African country Burkina Faso. Apparently fed up with paltry housing allowances and other shortfalls, the military started an uprising in the capital city of Ougadougou that has spread to other cities. Police have joined in with the military in directly challenging President Blaise Compaore, who rose to power in a coup in 1987. Campaore has dissolved his government and appointed a new head of the armed forces to try to crush the opposition, but so far to no avail as the protests continue to spread.

Unlike other uprisings in North Africa or in Cote d’Ivoire, this one has begun with the military rather than that imprecise agglomeration known as “the people.” For that reason alone it seems inapt to lump this in as being inspired by movements elsewhere rather than relying on Occam’s Razor: the most obvious explanation, which is that the military, police, and other civil servants, are simply fed up with Campaore. The gambit of ousting his government seems to be Campaore’s attempts to reform without actually accepting blame, and from what I can tell from here, that gambit appears to be failing.