In the aftermath of the military putsch that ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba from power, the President of the Commission of the African Union (AU), the Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned on Saturday 1 October "the change anti-constitutional government" in Burkina Faso.

"The president calls on the military to immediately and completely refrain from any act of violence or threats to the civilian population, to public freedoms, to human rights," the AU said in a brief statement.

The Chairman of the AU Commission finally calls for "strict compliance with electoral deadlines for a return to constitutional order no later than July 1, 2024".

After a day full of gunfire in the capital Ouagadougou, a group of soldiers appeared on Burkinabè television to announce the dismissal of Colonel Damiba, replaced at the head of the junta by a 34-year-old captain, Ibrahim Traoré.

The new junta suspended the Constitution and dissolved the government and the Assembly, without deciding on the timetable for the transition which had been the subject of an agreement with ECOWAS and provided for a return to civilian power in July 2024. 

Return to calm in the capital

In Ouagadougou, traffic resumed Saturday morning on the main axes of the capital, blocked Friday by soldiers, after a calm night, noted AFP journalists. 

However, an important security device still surrounded the national television with several pickups and armored vehicles and many soldiers on foot or on motorcycles.

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Shops and service stations were also gradually reopening, as were some shops in the large Ouagadougou market. 

And in the streets, several inhabitants welcomed this new putsch in a rather positive way. 

"Damiba has failed. Since he came to power, areas that were at peace have been besieged. He took power, then he betrayed us," said Habibata Rouamba, a trader and civil society activist. 

"On the security level, nothing is going well, there are no results. Since Damiba took power, it has only gotten worse", abounds Honoré Yonli, an official of an organization of young entrepreneurs.

“Continuous deterioration of the security situation”

Friday evening, after a day peppered with shooting in the presidency district in Ouagadougou, around fifteen soldiers in fatigues and for some hooded spoke, shortly before 8:00 p.m. (GMT and local) on the set of national radio and television. .

They dismissed Colonel Damiba - whose fate remained unknown on Saturday morning - and announced the closure of land and air borders as well as the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the government and the Transitional Legislative Assembly.

A curfew has also been put in place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. 

The soldiers invoke "the continuous deterioration of the security situation" in the country.

The new head of the junta, Captain Traoré, was until now the corps commander of the Kaya artillery regiment, in the north of the country, particularly affected by jihadist attacks. 

"These are the same young officers who were already on the maneuvers during the first coup in January. It is an intramural coup. Damiba was let go by his base who felt betrayed. Things will have to be refocused on the anti-jihadist fight", decrypts the political analyst Drissa Traoré. 

Five coups in West Africa since 2020

For the time being, the new putchists have not indicated whether they intend to respect the transition schedule on which Burkina and ECOWAS had agreed.

A civilian return to power was scheduled for July 2024. 

Friday evening, ECOWAS, from which Burkina has been suspended since the January putsch, "condemned in the strongest terms the seizure of power by force which has just taken place". 

The presence of Russian flags in a demonstration of several hundred people, Friday afternoon, to demand the departure of Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, also raised questions about the influence of Moscow in this new putsch.

"It is obvious that the Russian partisans are more and more numerous. Within the army and the populations, voices are rising to ask for a partnership with Russia. But this remains at the stage of theory. We must not expect a break with France but perhaps more cooperation with other partners such as Russia", tempers analyst Drissa Traoré. 

Colonel Damiba had come to power in January in a coup that overthrew President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, discredited by the increase in violence. 

But in recent months, attacks hitting dozens of civilians and soldiers have multiplied in the north and east, where cities are now under blockade by jihadists, who blow up bridges with dynamite and attack convoys supplies circulating in the area.

>> To see: In West Africa, "a clear desire of the jihadists to consolidate their presence"

Since 2015, recurrent attacks by armed movements affiliated with the jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, mainly in the north and east of the country, have claimed thousands of lives and caused the displacement of some two million people. .

With the two putsches in Mali in August 2020 and May 2021 and that in Guinea in September 2021, this is the fifth coup in West Africa since 2020.

With AFP

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