Africa

BREAKING: Burkina Faso Coup Leader Sandaogo Damiba Inaugurated As President

Published

3 years ago

Feb 16, 2022.

Burkina Faso’s new military strongman, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has been inaugurated as president on Wednesday.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that Burkina Faso Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba has been inaugurated as president within the space of three weeks after he led a coup to topple elected head of state Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

In a televised ceremony, Damiba swore an oath before the country’s top constitutional body to “preserve, respect, uphold and defend the Constitution”, the nation’s laws and a “fundamental act” of key decisions approved by the junta.

Recall that Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was declared president by the country’s top constitutional body after a successful coup.

According to the statement “Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, lieutenant-colonel in the national armed forces, president of the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (the official name of the junta), is the president” of Burkina Faso.

Damiba is also head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces, it added. The move confirmed an announcement by the junta on January 31 that said Damiba would be appointed to those roles for a transitional period and would be assisted by two vice presidents.

The country had been suspended from the West African bloc ECOWAS, although it escaped sanctions following the coup and restoration of the constitution. The UN Security Council expressed “serious concern” over Burkina Faso’s “unconstitutional change of government,” but chose not to describe it as a military coup or even condemn it outright.

However, EKO HOT BLOG gathered that the constitutional body has today inaugurated Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as president of the country.

Damiba is the new head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces.

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