Gunfire Heard In Centre Of Burkina Capital Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou, Aug 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Aug, 2023 ) :Bursts of gunfire were heard early Tuesday in the centre of the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou near an airbase, an AFP journalist said.

The shots were heard from around 12:45 am (0045 GMT) in the heart of the city before ceasing about 40 minutes later.

"It's an unfortunate incident limited to the air base," a security source told AFP without giving further details, saying only that "the situation is under control".

Traffic that had been briefly interrupted by the shooting resumed tentatively, the AFP journalist noted.

The incident comes 10 months after a coup, the second in less than a year in the West African country plagued by militant violence.

It also comes less than a week after the military seized power in neighbouring Niger after overthrowing democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in Burkina Faso in a September 30, 2022, coup that ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who in January that year had toppled the country's last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The motive for both coups was anger at failures to stem a militant insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since spilling over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.