27 January 2022
The military coup deposing Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kabore is the fourth in a string of recent military takeovers in West and Central Africa, prompting fears of further regional instability.
Mutinous soldiers demanding more support for their fight against armed groups announced on Monday that they had toppled the democratically elected president according to an AlJazeera report.
Meanwhile BBC News reports that a group of Russian military contractors has written to the coup leaders in Burkina Faso offering to train the West African country’s army.
The group calling itself “Community of Officers for International Security”, which is based in the Central African Republic (CAR), published its offer in a letter the BBC has seen and verified.
It is not clear if it has been or will be accepted.
The offer in the letter is explicit: “If Russian instructors are invited to train the army in Burkina Faso, they can do it effectively.”
The letter, which has been verified by a Russian security adviser to the CAR presidency, also takes a swipe at the French-led offensive against extremists in the Sahel.
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