Burkina Faso Faces Second Coup In One Year Ousting Current President Damiba
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Roshan Amiri
- . October 6, 2022
- . Update: October 6, 2022 8:43 pm
The Burkina Faso soldiers have overthrown the military government; a confirmed statement has stated. A television announcement had Captain Ibrahim Traore announce that he has ousted Burkina Faso’s military leader Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Damiba.
This has been seen as the second coup in this Western African country this year. President Damiba has been overthrown. This has become a common practice, with Islamist extremists taking on battles with the governments running in the Western and Central African continent; on the pretext that governments are ill equipped to run their show. Most of these governments are not structured to fight back.
Mali, Chad, and Guinea have all had to face coups one after the other since 2020. Political analysts feel there is fear of military rule and lack of democratic representation for the people through legitimate governance.
As of now, Lt. Col. Damiba is on the run and his whereabouts remain unknown. Burkina Faso’s new leader is Capt Ibrahim Traore. In a scene that replicated Lt Col Damiba’s own power grab in the January 24 coup, Capt Traore appeared on television surrounded by soldiers and announced the government had been dissolved, the constitution suspended and the borders closed. He declared a nightly curfew.
Capt Traore said a group of officers who helped Lt Col Damiba seize power in January had decided to remove their leader due to his inability to deal with the Islamists. Lt Col Damiba ousted former president Roch Kabore for the same reason.
Civilian populations have cheered military juntas in the hope that they may be more successful at containing the insurgents than their democratically elected predecessors. But hope has faded fast.
Burkina Faso has become the epicentre of violence carried out by groups linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS that began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and has spread to other West African countries south of the Sahara.
