This is popular front a podcast focused on the niche details of modern warfare and

underreported conflict with me Jake Hanrahan. In this episode we're speaking to journalist Henry

Wilkins about the recent military coup in the African country of

Burkina Faso and what a conflict there might mean for the

surrounding regions. We talk about Russia, the military vigilantes, the

tribal animist militias, all sorts. This is a region that very rarely gets enough coverage,

but it's very interesting either way. Remember here at Popular Front, we are completely

independent, grassroots. If you like what we're doing and you want

extra content please support us at patreon.com slash popular front front.

So January 23rd there was this this military coup in Burkina Faso. Maybe just take us

through that what actually happened what led up to this you know why did it happen? So yeah, I mean 23rd Sunday I mean woke up in the morning to hear

that there have been reports overnight of gunfire at the largest military base in

Wagatugu, which is the capital of Burkina Faso.

Yeah, so, you know, it went down there the military had taken over the entire the entire base basically myself from another journalist went down there. They were, we could hear gunfire coming from inside the base.

Initially and we thought, you know, perhaps there were gunfights going on inside between

troops that were loyal to the government and troops that were mutiny and basically so

we we tried to we tried to get a little bit closer, went up to an overpass next to the base which

which sort of gave a bit of a review of what was going on and did some filming from there.

Then we were actually stopped by some of the mutineers who fired, who fired, you know, warning shots in the in the air took our camera equipment and so on and

actually took us inside the base detained us for about half an hour and took us inside the base where the mutiny had started.

And yeah, as it's, I mean initially we were thinking obviously that we're being being taken

hostage or you know we're going to be detained for a lot longer than we were but it turned out

...