British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has requested an investigation into claims made by a Muslim former minister that she was fired from his cabinet because of her faith.
The allegations made by Nusrat Ghani, a former junior transport minister, have reignited debate in Downing Street as Johnson awaits the results of a separate inquiry into the “partygate” revelations.
On Monday, the prime minister’s spokeswoman announced, “The prime minister has instructed the Cabinet Office to start an inquiry into the claims made by Nusrat Ghani MP.”
Ghani had initially been advised by Johnson to submit a formal complaint with the Conservative Party. She refused, claiming that the charge was about government work rather than party work.
The spokeswoman added that Johnson “takes these claims extremely seriously” and that “the prime minister has immediately asked staff to establish the facts regarding what transpired.”
Ghani praised the latest investigation, which came after she met with Johnson on Sunday evening.
“All I want is for this to be taken seriously and for him to investigate,” she tweeted, echoing what she urged to the prime minister last night.
According to the Tory MP, the probe should look into what she was told by Downing Street staffers as well as a Conservative whip in Parliament.
Ghani, 49, was fired as transport minister in 2020, and she told the Sunday Times that at one meeting in Downing Street, her “Muslimness was mentioned as an issue.”
She also complained that her “Muslim woman minister status” was making her colleagues uncomfortable.
Chief whip Mark Spencer, whose job it is to get MPs on board with the government’s agenda, took the rare step of identifying himself as the subject of the allegations and vehemently refuting them.
The government whips were already in the spotlight after another Conservative MP accused them of “blackmailing” Johnson’s backbench rivals over the partygate issue., Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has been detained by mutinous soldiers.
Soldiers staged mutinies at multiple army barracks the day before, raising fears of a coup in the conflict-torn country. Heavy gunfire was also heard near Kabore’s apartment in the capital, Ouagadougou, later on Sunday.
On Monday morning, several presidential fleet armoured cars were visible near the mansion, all of which were riddled with gunshots. Blood was splattered on one of them.
Kabore was seized at a military barracks, according to two security sources and a West African diplomat who spoke to Reuters. The administration, which had denied that a coup was taking place on Sunday, did not respond immediately.
On Monday, journalist Henry Wilkins reported from Ouagadougou, “We just passed the military base where Kabore is supposed to be imprisoned at the present.”
“Traffic is flowing normally, but there is a disproportionately large number of military soldiers on the streets outside the presidential palace,” says the official.
The president, along with other government leaders, was also arrested, according to the AFP news agency.
Two security officials reported that at the Sangoule Lamizana barracks in the capital, “President Kabore, the president of parliament, and the ministries are practically in the hands of the soldiers.”
Kabore is being held “in a safe area,” according to two of the dissident soldiers who spoke to The Associated Press by phone early Monday.
Kabore has been the president of Burkina Faso since 2015, after a popular revolt deposed longtime strongman President Blaise Compaore, who had ruled the country for nearly three decades. Kabore was re-elected for another five-year term in November 2020, but anger with his inability to stop the spread of violence across the country has grown.
Attacks related to al-Qaeda and the terrorist group ISIL (ISIS) are intensifying, killing thousands of people and displacing over 1.5 million people. The military has sustained a significant number of casualties.
Angry mutinous soldiers said that the government was cut off from its forces on the ground, that their comrades were dying, and that they demanded military leadership. The soldiers called a man who claimed to be looking for better working conditions for Burkina Faso’s military.
‘Government that is out of its depth’
According to one of the mutinous soldiers, some 100 military members planned the coup since August. He claimed that the organisers never met in the same place more than twice and that they always met outside of the capital. He stated that they planned using chat apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegraph.