Burkina Faso junta leader resigns, flees after coup
- Burkina Faso’s new self-proclaimed leaders move to restore order after ousted coup leader resigns
- Latest power grab was second military coup this year, and sparked a wave of international criticism
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba “himself offered his resignation in order to avoid confrontations with serious human and material consequences”, the religious and community leaders said in a statement on Sunday.
It followed mediation between Damiba and the new self-proclaimed leader, Ibrahim Traore, by the religious and community leaders, they added.
Regional diplomatic sources said Damiba – who himself took power in a January putsch – had fled to Togo’s capital Lome on Sunday following the unstable and impoverished West African nation’s second coup this year.
Traore announced in the evening that he had received the support of army chiefs to “reinvigorate” the anti-jihadist struggle.
In a statement Sunday, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS welcomed that the various players in the Burkinabe drama had accepted “a peaceful settlement of their differences”.