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ANGRY DEMONSTRATORS HAVE gone on the rampage in the landlocked African country of Burkina Faso, setting parliament ablaze in a surge of violence that forced the government to scrap a vote on controversial plans to allow President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year rule.
The United States and former colonial power France voiced alarm over the unrest gripping the poor west African nation and appealed for calm.
Hundreds of people broke through a heavy security cordon and stormed the National Assembly building in the capital Ouagadougou, ransacking offices and setting fire to cars, before attacking the national television headquarters and moving on the presidential palace.
The crowds were being held back by troops from the presidential guard who fired warning shots into the air.
One man was killed in the chaos that erupted just before lawmakers were due to vote on the legislation that would allow Compaore — who took power in a 1987 coup — to contest next year’s election, AFP correspondents said.
This is despite term limits being set previously.
The government, facing its worst crisis since a wave of mutinies shook the country in 2011, later announced it was calling off the vote but it was not immediately clear if this was a temporary move.
“The president must deal with the consequences,” said Benewende Sankara, one of the leaders of the opposition which had called for the people to march on parliament over the Compaore law.
The country has been tense for days over the constitutional changes.
The United States said it was “deeply concerned” about the crisis and criticised the attempts to alter the constitution, while France appealed for calm and said it “deplored” the violence.
The European Union had also urged the government to scrap the legislation, warning it could “jeopardise… stability, equitable development and democratic progress”.
“October 30 is Burkina Faso’s Black Spring, like the Arab Spring,” said Emile Pargui Pare, an official from the the opposition Movement of People for Progress (MPP).
Government spokesman Alain Edouard Traore issued a statement Wednesday hailing the “vitality” of Burkina Faso’s democracy despite what he termed anti-government “misbehaviour”.
Many have spent their entire lives under the leadership of one man and — with the poor former French colony stagnating at 183rd out of 186 countries on the UN human development index — many have had enough.
Compaore was only 36 when he seized power in the coup in which his former friend and one of Africa’s most loved leaders, Thomas Sankara, was ousted and assassinated.
He has remained in power since, re-elected president four times since 1991 — to two seven-year and two five-year terms.
In 2005, constitutional limits were introduced and Compaore is coming to the end of his second five-year term.
The opposition feared the planned new rules would enable Compaore to seek re-election not just once, but three more times, paving the way for up to 15 more years in power.
What the he’ll is wrong with some parents risking there children’s and other children’s lives because of paranoid ignorance
@Robert Halvey: Looking at the latest immunisation rate for MMR in infants, it’s 89.9% for 3Q 2023, vaccination rates must be c. 95% to prevent outbreaks. Also, vaccination rates are trending down for all childhood vaccines, not just MMR. They’ve been slowly since a peak around 2012-2014. There’s a spreadsheet on this page that can be downloaded, contains detailed stats and charts. The immunization rates for all vaccines are below the 95% recommend mimum. So we’re not just risking measles outbreaks.
Measles had been eradicated since the 1960′s in America and Europe. What is causing the return of this vicious disease?
@Brian Hunt: @Brian Hunt: I don’t think it had been eradicated.
There have been incidents and little outbreaks all down the years.
@Brian Hunt: Anti-vaxxers.
@Kevin Collins: those same anti Vax people that wouldn’t put the C19 crap into themselves. I will only take a vaccine that has gone through all the tests over 10 or 15 years before release. The flu Vax is tried and tested over decades with tweaks along the way. The C19 Vax was a rushed s h I t show.
@brendan C5: The C19 vaxes saved countless millions of lives?
And reduced much suffering besides.
Those vaxes?
@brendan C5: if you don’t view people who reneged on the covid vaccine as anti-vaxers, why have you taken offence at the use of the term? The comment never even mentioned the covid vaccine. Doth protesting too much and all that.
@Brian Hunt: what lies
@brendan C5: So, would you have had the ‘flu vaccine 15 years ago, or are you somehow, in your own mind at least, relying on others to be the guinea pigs?
@brendan C5: COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have 19.8 million lives within the first year they became available.
“Within the first year of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, it is estimated to have saved 19.8 million lives, and thus far, over 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in most countries around the world.”
Chavda, V.P., Yao, Q., Vora, L.K., Apostolopoulos, V., Patel, C.A., Bezbaruah, R., Patel, A.B. and Chen, Z.S., 2022. Fast-track development of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2: the shots that saved the world. Frontiers in Immunology, 13, p.961198. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.961198/full
Watson, O.J., Barnsley, G., Toor, J., Hogan, A.B., Winskill, P. and Ghani, A.C., 2022. Global impact of the first year of COVID-19 vaccination: a mathematical modelling study. The Lancet infectious diseases, 22(9), pp.1293-1302. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00320-6/fulltext?ref=refind
@Brian Hunt: there’s money to be made
@P. V. Aglue: Maybe so in North America where people can’t afford private healthcare. But when an established vaccine is free and publicly available, this isn’t about money. It’s more about other reasons why people can’t get to see a GP.
Imported
@Ali Osman: True. It seems that all these anti-vax trends are imported from USA and UK.
Excess deaths running at 20%+ this year again, any word on the potential reasons for this? Anyone?
Please be careful around the Germans.
@Sean Money: symptoms include wearing sandals with socks, and being no craic.
@Setanta O’Toole: jah hah haha
Close the pubs.we need to lock it down now.And close the off-licences. Please
Comments closed
@Richie Whelan: No, they aren’t closed.
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