(MENAFN) Burkina Faso's army officers allege ousted military chief Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba is organizing a counteroffensive from a "French base."
Gunshots broke out in the city, Ouagadougou, on Saturday, amid hints of lingering tensions, a day after police deposed the man who had seized power in a coup barely nine months earlier.
“[Damiba] is believed to have taken refuge in the French base at Kamboinsin in order to plan a counteroffensive to stir up trouble in our defense and security forces,” the coup-makers asserted in an announcement read on national television and signed by Captain Ibrahim Traore, the country’s new leader.
An hour before the televised remarks, the French embassy launched an announcement “firmly denying any involvement of the French army in the events”. It also denied “rumors that Burkinabe authorities have been hosted or are under the protection of French military”.
Burkina Faso's past colonizer is France.
Late Saturday, angry protestors assaulted the French embassy in Ouagadougou. On social media, locals were seen holding lighted torches outside the property's fence, while other photographs showed part of the compound on fire.
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