Security forces fired harmful tear gas at protesters outside the French embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, according to an AFP journalist. France has previously occupied the country and ruled it with an iron fist while still intervening in its internal affairs to this day, ruining the lives of many.

Supporters of Burkina Faso's newest coup d'etat leader gathered outside the embassy one day after the leader accused the man he deposed of hiding in a French base, plotting a "counteroffensive."

French soldiers watched from the roof as protesters set fire to the barriers and threw rocks at the embassy. 

#Burkina - 01 Oct. 18h : Des manifestants allument le feu autour de l'ambassade de #France et tentent d'y pénétrer. pic.twitter.com/Gmh8d2AIMr

— Harouna Simbo Drabo (@HarounaSimbo) October 1, 2022

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On Friday, Burkinabe army Captain Ibrahim Traore announced that he led a coup against military leader Paul-Henri Damiba, dissolved the government and suspended Burkina Faso's constitution and transitional charter. Traore said a group of officers took the decision to topple Damiba over his inability to deal with the growing terror attacks in the country.

The borders are currently closed indefinitely and all political and civil society activities have been suspended, Traore added.

This is the country's second military coup in eight months, with Damiba only assuming power in January after outsing former President Rock Kabore via a coup of his own in light of growing frustration over the state of the country's security. 

On September 28, a convoy carrying supplies was attacked in the town of Djibo, leaving 11 soldiers killed and around 50 civilians missing. More than 40% of the African nation, previously a French colony, is not under government control as most of the Sahel, including Niger and Mali, is suffering from the outcomes of the insurgency, which is beginning to spill over into the Ivory Coast and Togo.

Mali witnessed a large presence of French forces for nearly a decade, but French President Emmanuel Macron decided to withdraw his troops and the Malian military took over. The last French troops from Barkhane departed last month.