Three weeks after taking power in a coup, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was sworn in as President of Burkina Faso on Wednesday February 16 by the Constitutional Council. “I swear before the people of Burkina Faso (…) to preserve, respect, enforce and defend the Constitution, the fundamental act and the laws” of Burkina, declared Mr. Damiba while taking the oath before the Council, during a ceremony broadcast by national television.
He was dressed in a military fatigues surrounded by a scarf in the colors of Burkina, his head wearing a red beret. No foreign representative attended the swearing-in ceremony which was held in a small room in the Constitutional Council where only the official press was admitted.
Several hours before the swearing-in, access to the Council was filtered by an important device of the security forces erected within a radius of 100 m around the headquarters of the institution, in Ouagadougou, noted a journalist from Agence France -Press (AFP).
Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba, 41, took power on January 24 in Ouagadougou after two days of mutinies in several barracks in the country. He overthrew the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused in particular of not having put an end to the jihadist violence which has struck Burkina for nearly seven years. He set up a junta called the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR), which prioritizes ” Security “.
In the wake of Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist movements, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization, which have killed more than 2,000 people in the country and forced at least 1.5 million people to flee their homes. During the taking of the oath, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the civilian and military victims of the jihadists.
Transition Agenda
Suspended from the authorities of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Burkina Faso and the members of the junta have so far escaped additional sanctions. A West African ministerial mission that came to Ouagadougou was delighted that Mr. Damiba was ” open “ to dialogue.
ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) have asked the junta for a timetable ” reasonable “ for the “return to constitutional order” and the release of ousted President Kaboré, who was still under house arrest in a villa in Ouagadougou on Wednesday.
In his only public address three days after the coup, Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba said he needed international partners. He quickly consulted the living forces, political parties, trade unions and civil society organizations, which were rather lenient towards him.
Following these consultations, Mr. Damiba issued a decree on February 6 announcing the creation of a commission composed of fifteen members with a view to“develop a draft charter and agenda, together with a proposal for the duration of the transition and the methods of implementation” in one “two week delay”.
Anti-jihadist struggle
His swearing-in took place a few hours before the announcement by France and its European partners of their withdrawal from neighboring Mali, due to the hostile attitude towards them of the military in power in Bamako, also resulting from a coup. ‘State.
Paris, however, intends to continue the anti-jihadist fight in the region, where jihadist groups have retained a strong power of nuisance despite the elimination of many leaders. Niger, but also other countries in the region, should play a leading role in the reorganization of the fight.
Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba has not taken a position on the French and European military commitment in the Sahel, but since he came to power the French force “Barkhane” has been able to carry out anti-jihadist operations in Burkina.
He reshaped the structures of the fight against jihadists and recently visited northern Burkina, the most affected by the attacks. In a book published in 2021, he was critical of anti-jihadist policies, deploring local armies that were too weak, with “redhibitory flaws”and Western partners ” required “ most “hidden”.