Rioting in Bobo

I’ve now been living in Satiri for over a year! The second trimester of school just ended, I’m on spring break, and the weather keeps getting hotter.

I had to stay put in the village for a couple of weeks at the end of February because of nation-wide strikes and demonstrations. The people were protesting the high cost of living and in particular a new import tax. There were demonstrations in many major cities, beginning with Bobo. Protests turned to destructive riots - tires burned, roads and cars were damaged or destroyed. Predictably, there were those who took advantage of the chaos to rob and damage homes and businesses. The riots lasted a few days before similar demonstrations broke out in Ouaga and other cities. The PC office in Bobo was safe except for a rock thrown through a window and one incident in which a few PCVs and the guard had to force the gate closed against a mob of looters. Traffic problems in Bobo are now more hectic than ever since there are no longer any traffic lights; they were all knocked down in the riots.

In the end the government repealed the import tax, but prices will not be lowered for a few months until merchants sell of the stock that they purchased under the tax. People are impatient and still angry. However, the international opinion seems to be that levying the tax is one thing the Burkinabe government has actually done right, albeit unpopular. International organizations had advised them to start collecting import taxes (as most countries do) as part of a plan for economic development. Yet implementation of the plan led immediately to riots. Hope they have some other ideas…

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