Burkina Faso warning?

[alexmcfire]

So is this serious or just hot air?
Link http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118273

[ifzulu001]

right,
1. no radar in Burkina as far as I know of
2. IF they find 'intruders' what are they gonna shoot them down with?

think its just some stange kind of african diplomacy

IZ

[Gouabafla]

There has been a lot about this at www.abidjan.net over the last couple of weeks - all in French though.

The first article I saw was about the rebels who hold the North of CI talking about using Sam 7s to take out the Ivorian Army's MI24s and any jets that overfly the Rebel area. A day or so later there was something in the press about the Burkinabe army getting ready to shoot down Ivorian military planes which overfly their airspace. Reading between the lines, I'm assuming that the Ivorian Air Force has been zooming about the North of the Country putting on a show of force and bothering the rebels. In all probability they would stray into Burkina doing this, hence both the rebels and the Burkinbe objecting.

I don't know anything about the weapons involved, but I can't see either the Ivorian Rebels or the Burkinabe govt throwing expensive ordinance into the sky if they didn't have what they saw as just cause.

There has been quite a war of words between CI and Burkina since the rebellion started almost two years ago.