Burkina's uncertain future

The hospital corridors are still overflowing with the injured. Patients with gunshot wounds and burns are spread across the floor waiting expectantly for a doctor to find time and treat them.

More than 180 people were injured in the recent protests which rocked Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. Many of them ended up in the hospital located in the city center. "Those people shot my comrade in the head, he died instantly. I was hit by a bullet in the arm," Bassole Constant told DW.

In the end the protesters were successful. Long time President Blaise Compaore was forced to flee to neighboring Ivory Coast, clearing the way for a fresh start in Burkina Faso. But the young demonstrators had to pay a high price. Representatives from the civil society speak of at least 30 people dead. Bassole Constant admits he has no idea who "those people" who shot his friend dead and him as well are.

Rumors of war

In the capital, rumors are rife that Blaise Compaore, who is said to have mistrusted a section of his own army, is said to be mobilizing mercenaries from neighboring Togo to fight for him. Such rumors and plenty of others have been circulating since the coup in Ouagadougou took place. No one has been able to verify any of those claims.

But what Bassole Constant certainly knows is that, on that evening he was shot, he was scared to death: "After the first shot I tried to pull myself to safety by crossing the other side of the street, but then a second shot hit me in the stomach." Constant fell into a ditch and found himself loosing more and more blood. "I just closed my eyes and began to pray as I thought..Maybe it's my time to see my parents again who died a few years ago."

Eventually other protesters pulled him out of the ditch, placed him on a motorcycle and took him to hospital. This entire time Constant remained unconscious. "When I woke up again, the doctor told me I was incredibly lucky to be alive." Now the young injured man hopes that his fight was not in vain.

Opposition or opportunists?

Only a few kilometers away from the hospital, the Burkinabe opposition is holding a crisis meeting called on short notice. But even before the event begins, a fiery dispute breaks out among those present. Someone has taken a pen and paper with the intention of creating a list of participants. But no one knows who actually belongs to the opposition and thus is entitled to attend the closed door meeting.

A young man named Ginko Desiree, who calls himself the coordinator of the "civil movement for the transition", is indignant that his name is not part of the list of participants. "All the fine ladies and gentlemen here in their fancy suits never had their hands dirty. "The young people had to do the dirty work and risk their lives and now they want to divide the pie among themselves," Desiree complained.

In fact, the opposition in Burkina Faso is extremely fragmented. Many of the opposition figures are former members of Blaise Compaore's Party for Democracy and Progress (CDP). Almost none of them can be said to have founded an opposition party primarily by their own initiative. Rather it was as a result of feeling insufficiently patronized by the former president.

Searching for a leader

So far it has proven difficult to find a suitable candidate who could take over as an interim president until the elections scheduled for the end of 2015. Saran Serene, one of the most influential representatives of the opposition, recently called for more serenity: "The chaos is not that big, we just need some time until we find a compromise," the politician said.

Serene has promised the 16 million people of Burkina Faso that will soon get a suitable person who could govern as the interim president.

But people like Bassole Constant have enough of such promises and power games playing out of a few kilometers away from where he lies. He is currently worried about how is he going to pay his medical bill that seems to increase with each passing day in the hospital. As a street vendor, he has hardly put any savings aside. The military-led government of Colonel Isaac Zida promised the demonstrators that it will contribute to their medical costs. But even that, remains a promise.