After a day marked by shootings in the district of the presidency in Ouagadougou, about fifteen soldiers dressed in fatigues and for some hooded took the floor, on the set of Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Burkina Faso, Friday September 30, shortly before 22 hours.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré read a press release announcing the dismissal of the leader of the junta, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba – in power since the coup d’etat of January 23, 2022 -, the dissolution of the government and the suspension of the Constitution, as well as the closure of the country’s borders until further notice. A curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. has also been put in place.
Ibrahim Traoré, the country’s new strongman
“Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba’s risky choices have gradually weakened our security system. The red tape that characterized the deposed regime worsened during the transition, also compromising operations of a strategic nature”, said one of the putschists on television, reports the journalist from “World Africa” Morgane Le Cam.
Putsch in #Burkina – this evening at the RTB: “We decided this day 09/30/22 to disqualify Lieutenant-Colonel Damib… https://t.co/42A2A2VRDu
The new strongman of the country, appointed president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR, the ruling body of the junta), is now Captain Ibrahim Traoré, he added.
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba took power in a coup at the end of January, promising to make security his priority, in this country undermined for years by bloody jihadist attacks. But these have multiplied in recent months, especially in the North.
Since 2015, recurrent attacks by armed movements affiliated with the jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization, mainly in the north and east of the country, have killed thousands and caused the displacement of some two million of people.