COLONEL DAMIBA SWORN IN AS BURKINA FASO’S NEW PRESIDENT

Wed 16 February 2022:

Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was sworn in as the new president of Burkina Faso on Wednesday in a televised ceremony.

Damiba, head of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration, took his oath in front of the Constitutional Council to “preserve, respect, uphold and defend the Constitution, the fundamental act and the laws”.

Who is Paul-Henri Damiba

The 41-year-old officer had been promoted in December by President Kabore to commander of Burkina Faso’s third military region in what some analysts viewed as an effort by the beleaguered president to shore up support within the army.

The appointment to the strategic position followed an attack by fighters on a gendarmerie post in the northern town of Inata that killed 49 military officers and four civilians.

Reports that the troops had gone without food rations for two weeks sparked anti-government protests and calls for Kabore to step down.

Damiba studied at a military academy in Paris, obtaining a master’s degree in criminal sciences from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers.

In June, he published a book titled West African Armies and Terrorism: Uncertain Responses? in which he analysed anti-terrorism strategies in the Sahel region and their limits.

In 2015, Damiba and other officers took part in an attempted coup that briefly deposed the transitional government.

He later testified in the trial of conspirators behind the coup, according to reports from the time in Burkinabe media, discussing his contacts with some of the putschists.

Following the events in 2015, Damiba left the country to pursue further military studies, according to L’Observateur, which did not provide further details on his time abroad.

Upon his return, he took the leadership of the 30th RCAS, a regiment tasked with supporting Burkina Faso’s counterterrorism strategy.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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