Police in Burkina Faso fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters at an unsanctioned anti-government rally in the capital on Saturday as anger over jihadist violence mounted in the impoverished country, IgbereTV reports.
City authorities had banned the gathering, which aimed to voice frustration with the failure of President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to stem the bloodshed.
Anti-riot police fired tear gas to prevent the demonstrators from gathering in a square in the centre of Ouagadougou, where substantial police and security forces had been deployed and all shops closed.
Angry youths erected makeshift barricades and burned tyres in several neighbourhoods, including in front of the ruling party headquarters, in an effort to block police movement.
A mob attacked the car of AFP’s journalist in the city.
“The crowd set upon us, throwing stones,” Olympia de Maismont said. “They wanted to block our car and yelled ‘France, we don’t want you here!’”
“We managed to escape, but just barely.”
Police also dispersed demonstrators with tear gas in the nation’s second city of Bobo Dioulasso in the west.
One of the protesters, 28-year-old Fabrice Sawadogo, said that “after seven years of failure to prevent the terrorist attacks… it is time to ask the government to go.”
The “incompetent” administration “has to admit it has failed”, he said
