Lieutenant colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the head of the junta that overthrew Roch Marc Christian Kabore on January 24 has on Wednesday been sworn-in before the Constitutional Council as Burkina Faso’s new head of state.
The president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR) was officially recognized as the new strongman in Ouagadougou after his investiture by the Constitutional Council.
In a ceremony broadcast on national television, the 41-year-old dressed in military fatigues with a scarf in the national colours and wearing a red beret, swore “before the people of Burkina Faso (…) to preserve, respect, ensure respect for and defend the Constitution, the fundamental act and the laws”.
No foreign representatives attended the swearing-in which was held in a small room at the Constitutional Council, where only the official press was invited, despite a heavy security presence.
Commander of the third military region and appointed last December by his predecessor, Damiba justified his power grab by the “manifest inability” of President Kabore to curb the terrorist attacks that have plagued the country since 2016.
With the recognition of his new functions by the Constitutional Council, he is thus the president of a transition until the return to constitutional order.
After the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the African Union suspended Burkina Faso from their bodies, without further sanctions.
They had urged the junta to put in place a “reasonable” timetable for the “restoration of constitutional order.”
On February 5, a decree by Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba announced that the country would have a draft transition charter and an electoral agenda within two weeks, “together with a proposal for the duration of the transition and the modalities for its implementation.”
ODL/cgd/fss/as/APA