Traore Officially Name As President Of Burkina Faso After Coup

According to an official statement, Captain Ibrahim Traore was appointed as president of Burkina Faso on WednesdayBurkina Faso on Wednesday, according to an official statement, after the West African country’s second coup in less than nine months.

Recalled that Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power in January, only to be toppled last weekend by newly emerged rival Traoré, at the head of a faction of disgruntled junior officers.

The statement said that Traore would now be the “guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity and continuity of the State.”

Damiba fled to Togo following the two-day standoff, which was defused by religious and community leaders.

Burkina is struggling with a seven-year-old jihadist campaign that has claimed thousands of lives, forced nearly two million people to flee their homes and left more than a third of the country outside government control.

Swelling anger within the armed forces prompted Damiba’s coup against the elected president in January.

Appointing himself transitional head of state, Damiba had vowed to make the security of the country’s top priority, but after a brief lull the attacks revived, claiming hundreds of lives.

Wednesday’s military communiqué said that Traoré would now be the “guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity and continuity of the State.”