Officials in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou have told reporters that President Blaise Compaore has survived an assassination attempt by a fugitive ex soldier.

Romuald Tuina, an ex-deserted soldier of the Regiment Security at the Presidency (RSP) was reportedly to have broken into the Presidential Palace over the weekend unnoticed by the presidential guards.

Mr. Tuina was said to have then opened fire on the office of the president but a quick response by the security forces, shot him dead instantly.

The Fasozine Newspaper quoted deputy prosecutor of the Burkina Faso High Court, Blaise Bazie as saying that Mr. Tuina was shot because he had tried to break into the Presidential Palace and carry out what was believed to be assassination of the president.

“A former soldier named Romuald Tuina was killed in the crossfire between military and him on the night of August 30, 2013, he was wearing a military uniform improperly and tried to deceive the vigilance of a sentinel and had attacked a guard regiment of presidential security and nearly got the President”, Mr. Blaise Bazié told the Fasozine Newspaper.

Romuald Tuina on 11 April 2012 was said to have robbed a bank in a broad daylight in Ouagadougou and carried more than seven million CFA francs and fled to neighboring Cote d’Ivoire.

The fact that a wanted soldier could successfully penetrate presidential security has raised concerns about the efficiency of the country’s security situation especially at the Presidency.

President Blaise Compaore came to power in 1987 in a bloody coup d’état in which the then-president, Thomas Sankara was assassinated.

But Mr. Compaore has insisted that Sankara’s death was an accident, but the circumstances surrounding Sankara’s death was never being investigated.

Mr. Compaore reversed many of the Sankara’s policies, claiming that his policies were a rectification of the Burkinabe revolution.

Burkina Faso attained full independence from France on 5 August 1960. The person who spearheaded the independence was Maurice Yameogo, the then leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (VDU) and later became the first President of the country.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

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