Burkina Faso’s junta leader on Sunday agreed to step down, religious and community leaders said, two days after army officers announced his ouster in a coup that sparked internal unrest and international condemnation.
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba “himself offered his resignation in order to avoid confrontations with serious human and material consequences,” the leaders said in a statement.
It followed mediation between Damiba and the new self-proclaimed leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, by the religious and community leaders, they added.
Photo: Reuters
Regional diplomatic sources said Damiba — who himself took power in a January putsch — had fled to Togo’s capital, Lome, on Sunday, following the unstable and impoverished West African nation’s second coup this year.
Traore announced in the evening that he had received the support of army chiefs to “reinvigorate” the country’s struggle against militants.
In a statement on Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) welcomed that the various players in the Burkinabe drama had accepted “a peaceful settlement of their differences.”
An ECOWAS delegation was yesterday to travel to Ouagadougou, the statement added.
Damiba set “seven conditions” for stepping down, the leaders said.
These included security guarantees for him and his allies in the military; and that the pledge he had given to West Africa’s regional bloc for a return to civilian rule within two years be respected.
The religious and community leaders — who are very influential in Burkina Faso — said that Traore, 34, had accepted the conditions and called for calm.
The putschists lifted an overnight curfew imposed on Friday and reopened the country’s borders.
Damiba had said on Saturday that he had no intention of giving up power, urging the officers to “come to their senses” amid a backdrop of protests.
However, a statement issued on Sunday by the pro-Traore military said he would remain in charge “until the swearing-in of the president of Burkina Faso designated by the nation’s active forces,” at an unspecified date.
The officers had accused Damiba of having taken refuge at a military base of former colonial power France to plot a “counter-offensive,” charges he and France denied.
Damiba came to power in the nation of 16 million people in a January coup, accusing then-Burkinabe president Roch Marc Christian Kabore of failing to beat back militant fighters.
Yet the insurgency has raged on and more than 40 percent of Burkina Faso remains outside government control.
Thousands have died and about 1 million have been displaced by the fighting since 2015, when the insurgency spread to Burkina Faso from neighboring Mali.
The officers said it was Damiba’s failure to quell the militant attacks that had prompted them to act.
The new self-proclaimed Burkina leaders had said they were willing “to go to other partners ready to help in the fight against terrorism.”
No country was explicitly mentioned but Russia is among the possible partners in question.
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