Burkina Faso Soldiers Overthrow Government

A coup d’état took place in Burkina Faso on 30 September 2022, removing Interim President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba over his inability to deal with an Islamist insurgency. Damiba had come to power in a coup d’état just eight months earlier. Captain Ibrahim Traore took over as interim leader.

Heavily armored soldiers in fatigues and masks appeared on state television in Burkina Faso on Friday night to announce the ouster of President Paul-Henri Damiba, the second coup in the troubled West African country this year.

The announcement came at the helm of a day that dawned with gunfire near a military camp in the capital Ouagadougou, an explosion near the presidential palace, and interruptions to state television programming.

Burkina Faso’s new leader is army Captain Ibrahim Traore. In a scene similar to Damiba’s own coup de tat in Jan. 24, Traore appeared on television surrounded by soldiers and announced the dissolution of government, suspension of the constitution and closure of country’s borders. He subsequently declared a nightly curfew.

Damiba’s whereabouts were unknown on Friday evening.

Traore said a battalion of officers who aided Damiba grab power in January had decided to remove their leader due to his inability to deal with the Islamists. Damiba ousted former President Roch Kabore for the same reason.

“Faced with the deteriorating situation, we tried several times to get Damiba to refocus the transition on the security question,” said the statement signed by Traore and read out by another officer on television.

The statement said Damiba had rejected proposals by the officers to reorganise the army and instead continued with the military structure that had led to the fall of the previous regime.

“Damiba’s actions gradually convinced us that his ambitions were diverting away from what we set out to do. We decided this day to remove Damiba,” it said.

National stakeholders will be invited soon to adopt a new transitional charter and install a new civilian or military president, it said.

Civilian populations have Congratulated military juntas in the hope that they may be more successful at defeating the insurgents than their democratically elected predecessors. However, their hope has faded fast.

Burkina Faso has become the epicentre of violence carried out by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and has spread to other West African countries south of the Sahara Desert.

Thousands have been killed in raids on rural communities and millions have been forced to flee. This week, at least morevthan 10 soldiers have been killed in an attack in northern Burkina Faso. Dozens of civilians are still missing.

Friday’s coup creates a conundrum for West Africa’s political bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has tried to persuade coup leaders in the region to return to civilian rule as soon as possible.

ECOWAS suspended Burkina Faso after the January coup but had since agreed to a two-year transition back to democratic elections.

“ECOWAS reaffirms its unreserved opposition to any taking or maintaining of the power by unconstitutional means,” it said in a statement.