BURKINA FASO’S MILITARY LEADER DECLARES PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY
Burkina Faso’s new military strongman, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has been declared president by the country’s top constitutional body after a coup last month, legal sources said Thursday. They said the Constitutional Council on Wednesday declared that Damiba, who is lieutenant-colonel in the national armed forces, as the president of Burkina Faso.
In a statement issued later Thursday, the Constitutional Council said that Damiba’s formal swearing-in will take place on February 16 in the capital Ouagadougou. On January 24, disgruntled officers led by Damiba forced out the country’s elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had faced a wave of public anger over his handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency. Facing pressure from Burkina Faso’s partners in West Africa, the junta last week reversed its suspension of the constitution and scrapped an overnight curfew.
