Heavy gunfire rang out from the main military camp and some residential areas of Burkina Faso’s capital on Friday and a large blast was heard near the presidential palace, according to Reuters.
Soldiers were said to have taken up positions along the avenue leading to the presidency and blocked access to administrative buildings and the national television, which had stopped broadcasting.
Reuters said it was not clear yet if this was a coup attempt but it bore the hallmarks of other power grabs that have swept across West and Central Africa over the past two years.
A military junta led by Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba took power Burkina Faso in a coup on January 24.
That takeover was largely celebrated by civilians fed up with former President Roch Kabore’s civilian government that was unable to rein in Islamist militants who have killed thousands of civilians in recent years and taken over large parts of the north and east.
