An attempt by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri Damiba to reverse the gains of the coup which ousted him over the weekend has failed as Captain Ibrahim Traoré consolidates himself in power in Burkina Faso.
In the end, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri Damiba could not reverse the situation in his favor.
Friday’s coup was Burkina Faso’s second in 2022, the first being in January 24th when Damiba deposed civilian president Roch Marc Christian Kabore over his handling of the jihadist insurgency.
Damiba the now former president of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR) ended up capitulating to Captain Ibrahim Traore after long hours of negotiations led by religious and community leaders.
Following their mediation, Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba agreed to step down from power under conditions, the most important of which revolved around guarantees for his safety and that of his relatives as well as the continuation of the operational activities of the army.
These conditions have been accepted in their entirety by Captain Traoré.
At 34, the junior officer had managed to save his coup and install himself at the head of the restive West African nation.
But 24 hours previously, his coup which began on Friday September 30, gave the impression of falling apart given that the balance of power seemed to have been unfavorable to him after part of the army decided to side with Damiba.
But Captain Traoré made a lucid reading of the situation and developed a strategy that paid off.
For him, it was almost vital to win the battle for minds and put the other side and its allies on the defensive.
In one day, the young officer gave three interviews to national and international media.
On national television, he accused France of aiding and abetting “a counter-offensive” by Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba, a claim which the ousted junta leader denied.
Through press releases, Paris denied any involvement in the events as they unfolded in Burkina Faso on Friday. But it was too little too late.
French interests have come under attack in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country’s second city, and in the capital, Ouagadougou.
“Damiba’s fault is that he is suspected of working for the French”, observes a former correspondent for a Western media in Ouagadougou.
Hassane Koné, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) finds that “The mobilization of the population in Ouagadougou and in several cities where citizens came out to cheer the coup and demand Damiba’s resignation was decisive in the sequence of events.
According to him, “this pressure from the street added to the determination of the putschists to push leaders of religious and local communities to use all their weight to convince Damiba to go.
After dismissing Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba, Captain Ibrahim Traoré must now work to achieve unity in the ranks of the army where his relatively junior rank and young age are a real problem for some.
Moves are said to be underway to persuade him to leave the position to a higher ranked member of the armed forces.
The name of Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana, head of the so-called Cobras units arrested in January, two weeks before the putsch against Roch Marc Christian Kaboré has been floated by army officials close to the negotiations.
To this challenge, Traore must add the imperative of convincing results in the war against jihadist groups.
He seems to be aware of this and has set himself a three-month deadline to reverse the fortune of the military against the jihadist insurgency which has been raging since 2015.
The new strongman in Ouagadougou asked the secretaries general of the ministries, responsible for expediting current affairs, pending the formation of a new government, to act swiftly because to the young captain who finds himself carrying the troubles of a whole nation on his shoulders, urgency is the watchword.
AC/as/APA