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Burkina Faso President Ousted in Military Coup - The New York Times

Burkina Faso President Ousted in Military Coup - The New York Times

Burkina Faso President Ousted in Military Coup - The New York Times
Jan 25, 2022 2 mins, 27 secs

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — The military seized power in Burkina Faso on Monday, ousting the country’s democratically elected president after mutinous soldiers stormed his home, in the latest of a series of military coups in African countries struggling to beat back a rising tide of Islamist violence.

Although the violence by the militants is part of a broader campaign in the Sahel, a vast stretch of land just south of the Sahara, many soldiers and civilians in Burkina Faso faulted their president over his failure to stop it.

A wave of public protests in recent months was accompanied by rising discontent inside the military, which moved against him on Sunday, occupying several military bases, and then ousted him on Monday.

It was the latest in a flurry of coups in sub-Saharan Africa, the greatest concentration in years, with takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso’s neighbor to the north, as well as Guinea, Sudan, and Chad.

The coup was announced on state television late Monday afternoon by a fresh-faced officer who interrupted a program about the fish trade to announce that the military had suspended the Constitution and dissolved the government, and that it was closing Burkina Faso’s land and air borders until further notice.

In the familiar language of military coups, the spokesman said the armed forces were acting out of a sense of duty, reacting to “the exasperation of the people.” Beside him sat a man in fatigues he introduced as Burkina Faso’s new leader: Lt.

Kaboré’s troubles started on Sunday when soldiers seized several military bases in the capital and at least two towns in the provinces.

But the soldiers kept control of the bases and, after demanding sweeping reforms to the campaign against the Islamist militants — including the removal of Burkina Faso’s military chief — they moved against the president himself.

Kaboré never had a strong interest in military matters, and his fate was sealed by a growing public perception that he was incapable of defeating the Islamist militant threat, said Rinaldo Depagne, an expert on Burkina Faso at the International Crisis Group.

The United States has poured millions of dollars into training and equipping the military in Burkina Faso to fight insurgents — in 2016 supplying what amounted to about two-thirds of Burkina Faso’s defense budget — with few results to show for it.

The new leader, Colonel Damiba, is not well known to most in Burkina Faso.

Two months ago, Colonel Damiba was named to command one of Burkina Faso’s three military regions — a promotion that coincided with growing disgruntlement inside the ranks.

envoy warned of a possible coup in Burkina Faso, and last week the authorities arrested another officer accused of planning a takeover.

Damiba, no relation to the coup leader, described the president as the author of his own misfortune.

After Blaise Compaore, Burkina Faso’s leader of 27 years, was overthrown in 2014, the military “said that everything would change,” he noted

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