Burkina Faso denies arming RUF

Burkina Faso has denied as “crude”, accusations that it is supplying arms to the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), according to news reports. The latest accusation came from an alliance of three opposition parties formed on Sunday and called La Convention panafricaine des sankaristes. Formed in the memory of late Burkina Faso leader Thomas Sankara, killed in a 1987 coup, the party condemned the government’s “interference in the internal affairs of other African countries, in flagrant violation to the OAU charter”. ‘The Guardian’ of Lagos cited Burkina Faso’s government as saying in a communique: “It is surprising that, in light of the overall evolution of the African political context, one can accuse Burkina Faso of supporting one component of the Sierra Leonean society against another by supplying it with arms.”