Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, Burkina Faso’s new military leader, said his country will return to constitutional order once the conditions are right.
On Monday, Dambiba spoke on national television for the first time since leading a mutiny that ousted President Roch Marc Kabore.
Damiba said he would commit to restoring a normal constitutional order after conditions are right, according to the deadline our people will set in their sovereignty.
Damiba, who was wearing a red beret and wearing army fatigues, said many sections of Burkina Faso’s society would meet to work on roadmaps to plan and carry out needed reforms.
After seizing power on Monday, the junta announced it would propose a timeline for restoring constitutional order within a reasonable time frame but provided no further details.
As part of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), the officers took over the police department on Sunday night, and on Monday they removed Kabore. They blamed him for not containing Islamist militant violence.
Damiba promised farmers and herders and people across the West African Sahel nation affected by violence from militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, and said he would take back control of those zones. His top priority was to ensure security in these areas.
Daniba’s speech comes just before the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting on Friday, which aims to tackle the coup crisis.
Following military takeovers in August 2020 and September 2021, Burkina Faso’s neighbours Mali and Guinea were sanctioned by ECOWAS.
As a result of this most recent coup in West and Central Africa and a bloody Islamist insurgency killing thousands and displacing millions across the Sahel region, the public has little confidence in democratic leaders to address the problem.
There has been a mixture of military officers and civilians in the transitional governments set up by juntas in Mali, Guinea, and Chad, where the military first took control in April 2021.
Malian and Chadian juntas have committed to 18-month transitions to democracy, whereas Guinea is yet to set a timeline.
However, the authorities have retracted their original commitment and are proposing delaying elections by up to four years.