Former Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, whose future became a major issue after a January coup toppled him, has been moved from house arrest to his home in the capital Ouagadougou, an AFP journalist saw on Thursday.
Late Wednesday, the military-led government said in a statement that after three weeks of “consultations” Kabore would return to his home.
“The government gives an assurance that measures have been taken to provide his security,” it said in a statement.
Several troops were on guard outside Kabore’s home on Thursday, while a few sightseers tried to catch a glimpse of the former president.
His People’s Movement for Progress party welcomed the decision in a statement and expressed its “gratitude to all those… who mobilised for his release”.
But the party said Kabore’s release “was not total insofar as the president still suffers restrictions to his freedom”, calling for the “unconditional release” of the former head of state.
Kabore was ousted on January 24 by officers disgruntled at his handling of a nearly seven-year-old jihadist insurgency that has claimed some 2,000 lives and forced 1.8 million people to flee their homes.
The junta, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, placed him under house arrest — a move condemned by Burkina’s neighbours in West Africa, which with the UN and African Union demanded his release.
AFP