OUAGADOUGOU— The Captain Ibrahim Traore-led military junta in Burkina Faso have dragged France into the Sept 30 coup that toppled Lt. Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

According to a statement read on national TV, RTB, a member of the new junta, Sous-Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Kabre, said the former leader of the MPSR – name of the junta, had refused to leave power quietly.

Kabre alleged that Sandaogo Damiba was planning a “counter-offensive” and claimed further that he’s doing this from a French base.

This is the second time that the new military junta has issued a statement, the first being Captain Traore’s announcement of the takeover of executive power and deposition of Damiba, barely 10 months after seizing power from democratically elected Christian Roch Marc Kabore.

The junta dissolved the government and the transitional national assembly as well as imposed a curfew and closed all the country’s borders.

The overthrow was premised on continued deterioration of the insecurity situation even as terrorists continue to launch deadly raids on security forces and the local population.

Meanwhile, the West African regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has condemned the Sept 30 coup.

In a statement issued from the ECOWAS Commission hours after the coup announcement, the bloc said it firmly condemned the incident at a time the Sandaogo Damiba-led junta was making progress on an orderly return to constitutional order by July 1, 2024.

Source: Nam News Network