OUAGADOUGOU: A child was injured Saturday after Burkina Faso police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters at an anti-government rally in the capital, as anger over jihadist violence mounted in the impoverished country.
City authorities had banned the gathering, which aimed to voice frustration at the failure of President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to stem the bloodshed.
Anti-riot police fired tear gas to prevent the demonstrators from gathering in a square in the centre of Ouagadougou, where substantial police and security forces were deployed and all shops closed.
Angry youths erected makeshift barricades and burned tyres in several neighbourhoods, including in front of the ruling party headquarters, in an effort to block police movement.
One protester said he and others had come down for a peaceful protest, but that the police’s reaction had been excessive, forcing them to set up the barricades.
“We don’t want to burn down a country already at war, but when faced with savagery, we will defend ourselves,” he said.
An AFP correspondent said a child who appeared younger than 10 was injured after security forces fired the tear gas. Protesters handed the minor over to an anti-riot squad to get treatment.
Some youths vandalised part of the civil registry building, after trying unsuccessfully to torch the town hall whose boss had banned the rally.
In another incident, a mob attacked the car of AFP’s journalist in the city.
“The crowd set upon us, throwing stones,” photo-video reporter Olympia de Maismont said. “They wanted to block our car and yelled ‘France, we don’t want you here!’”
“We managed to escape, but just barely.”
Police also dispersed demonstrators with tear gas in the nation’s second city of Bobo Dioulasso in the west, as they did in the city of Kaya north of the capital.
One of the protesters, 28-year-old Fabrice Sawadogo, said that “after seven years of failure to prevent the terrorist attacks... it is time to ask the government to go”.
The “incompetent” administration “has to admit it has failed”, he said.