The head of the Burkinabe junta who was overthrown last weekend has ended his silence with two audiovisuals on Monday authenticated by APAnews.
Less than 24 hours after his fall, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba is heard on a video and an audio of 6mn21, saying he left power “in view of the risks of divisions and fissures” within the army and to preserve “the higher interest of Burkina Faso.”
The day after his forced departure from Kosyam, the presidential palace in Ouagadougou, he had negotiated his safey and the future of the transition with his adversaries.
For him, Captain Ibrahima Traoré and his companions had taken undue advantage of “certain frustrations and claims” by troops and accused them of being “driven by individualistic motivations.”
The former junta head believes that when his adversaries converged, with civilian and political sympathisers in and around “sensitive areas” of the Burkinabe capital, “the stated objective was clear: to interrupt the transition”.
Damiba adds: “Their actions caused two deaths, nine injuries and material damage in our areas”.
Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba also reflects on the reasons for his fall.
“The advent of the MPSR in January 2022 had raised hopes among all segments of our population to the point of blinding us to the hard challenges of the reality of our country, the enormous efforts and sacrifices to be made collectively to put the country back on the path of progress and renewal,” he says.
The other reason, according to him, is the attack on the food convoy in the town of Djibo which served as a “ferment”.
The attack, which took place on 26 September 2022 on the Bourzanga-Djibo road in Soum province, more than 200 kilometres north of Ouagadougou, left 11 soldiers dead, 28 wounded and more than 50 civilians missing.
DS/ac/lb/as/APA