CNN
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The mediator sent to Burkina Faso by the main political and economic bloc in West Africa, ECOWAS, Mahamadou Issoufou, said on Tuesday he was satisfied with a meeting with the country’s new military chief. Ibrahim Traore.
Issoufou added that the 15-member bloc would continue to support Burkina Faso’s transition to constitutional rule after the country was hit by his second military coup This year.
ECOWAS had repeatedly urged the junta that took power on Friday to respect a timetable agreed with its predecessors to return to constitutional order by July 2024.
“We had very deep conversations. Very frank exchanges,” Issoufou told reporters after meeting religious leaders and Traore in the capital Ouagadougou.
“I can assure you that ECOWAS will stand by the people of Burkina Faso…and the difficult challenge they face,” he added.
The government of Burkina Faso released a statement saying the meeting had taken place but provided no further comment.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of protests in Ouagadougou which forced the delegation to stay at the airport rather than go to a conference room in the city center for security reasons, a diplomatic source said.
Dozens of protesters blocked access to the conference center on Tuesday morning to prevent the meeting from taking place, a Reuters reporter said.
Crowds remained relatively small and peaceful.
But they followed violent anti-France demonstrations over the weekend which erupted after Traore said Damiba had taken refuge in a French military base, which France denied.
Some have accused the bloc of siding with France, Burkina Faso’s former colonizer, and doing little to help the country fight a rampant Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds, displaced thousands of people and pushed the beleaguered towns of the north to the brink of starvation.
Frustrations over growing insecurity have spurred both the first military coup in January and the last coup d’etat.
ECOWAS struggles to facilitate the return to constitutional order in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guineaand maliall of which have experienced coups since 2020.