OUAGADOUGOU, April 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Burkina Faso’s former President Roch Kabore, who had been under house arrest since he was toppled in a military coup in January, has been allowed to return to his family home, the country’s interim government said in a statement.
West African leaders last month asked the junta to free the ex-president and lay out a “more acceptable” timeline for a return to democracy than its current 36-month transition period, which was agreed internally after the coup.
Kabore will return to his residence in the capital Ougadougou on Wednesday, the interim government said, adding that security measures would be installed to “guarantee his safety”.
The junta has so far resisted pressure from the West African bloc ECOWAS to relinquish power in less than three years, saying its priority is to restore security in the insurgent-hit country.
On Jan 24, the military announced that they had put an end to the functions of Kabore, judging that his management of the security crisis that the country has been experiencing since 2015 “was not effective”.
Since then, he had been in the hands of the new authorities, while his political party, the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP) and sub-regional organizations, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), demanded his unconditional release. — NNN-AGENCIES
