Africa-Press – Malawi. The Constitutional Council of Burkina Faso has declared the new military strongman, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, president after a military coup last month.
Legal sources in the country disclosed the news in a statement adding that the lieutenant-colonel in the national armed forces, will be sworn in as the head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces soon.
The president of the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (the official name of the junta), Damiba, 41, was the commander of the 3rd Military Region, which covers eastern Burkina Faso.
On January 24, he headed a junta that overthrew the country’s elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who was facing public anger at his failure to stem the crisis.
He vowed to re-establish constitutional order within a reasonable time following the coup, AFP reported. Damiba commanded the RSP from 2003-2011, although he was also among those who opposed a coup bid in 2015 by Compaore’s right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere.
As a regimental commander from 2019 to 2021, he gained first-hand experience of the problems of Burkina Faso’s poorly-trained and ill-equipped security forces against ruthless and highly mobile jihadists.
The country is one of the world’s poorest and most volatile countries. Since the first jihadist attacks in 2015, some 2,000 people have died, with the army, police and a civilian volunteer militia bearing the brunt. In a country of 21 million, some 1.5 million people are internally displaced, according to the national emergency agency.
For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press
