In power since the end of January, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo has been removed from his post, according to a statement read by soldiers on television. A curfew has been instituted.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
The head of the junta in Burkina Faso, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who came to power in a putsch at the end of January, was removed from office by soldiers on Friday, September 30, in a statement read on national television.
After a day peppered with shooting in the district of the presidency in Ouagadougou, about fifteen soldiers in fatigues and for some hooded spoke, shortly before 8 p.m. (10 p.m.) on the national radio and television set. “Lt. Col. Damiba is removed from office as President of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration” (MPSR, the ruling body of the junta), the military said in a statement read by a captain.
The new strongman of the country, designated president of the MPSR, is now captain Ibrahim Traoré, he added. The putschists also announced the closure of the country’s land and air borders from midnight, as well as the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government and the Transitional Legislative Assembly. A curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. is also in place. The soldiers invoke “the continuous deterioration of the security situation” in the country. “We have decided to take our responsibilities, driven by a single ideal, the restoration of the security and integrity of our territory”they continued.
Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba had promised when he took power 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 group, mainly in the north and east of the country, have killed thousands and caused the displacement of some two million people. .