AU GADOUGO, Burkina Faso: More than a dozen soldiers seized control of Burkina Faso's state television late Friday night and announced the ouster of the country's president, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandogo Damiba, after nine months in power.
Captain Ibrahim Traore is the new military leader of the volatile West African nation of Burkina Faso, which is fighting a growing tribal insurgency, a junta spokesman said in a statement read out.
Burkina Faso's new military leaders said the country's borders had been closed and a curfew would be in effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The transitional government and national assembly were ordered dissolved.
On the streets of Ouagadougou, some people were already showing support Friday for the change in leadership even before the putschists took to the state airwaves.
Francois Beogo, a political activist from the Movement for the Refounding of Burkina Faso, said Damiba “has shown his limits.”
"People were expecting a real change," he said of the January coup d'etat.
Some demonstrators voiced support for Russian involvement in order to stem the violence and shouted slogans against France, Burkina Faso's former colonizer. In neighbouring Mali, the junta invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help secure the country, although their deployment has drawn international criticism.
Many in Burkina Faso initially supported the military takeover last January, frustrated with the previous government's inability to stem Islamic extremist violence that has killed thousands and displaced at least 2 million.
Yet the violence has failed to wane in the months since Damiba took over. Earlier this month, he also took on the position of defence minister after dismissing a brigadier general from the post.
"It's hard for the Burkinabe junta to claim that it has delivered on its promise of improving the security situation, which was its pretext for the January coup," said Eric Humphery-Smith, senior Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.
Earlier this week, at least 11 soldiers were killed and 50 civilians went missing after a supply convoy was attacked by gunmen in Gaskinde commune in Soum province in the Sahel. That attack was "a low point" for Damiba's government and "likely played a role in inspiring what we've seen so far today," added Humphery-Smith.
U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday that nearly one-fifth of Burkina Faso's population "urgently needs humanitarian aid."
"Burkina Faso needs peace, it needs stability, and it needs unity in order to fight terrorist groups and criminal networks operating in parts of the country," Dujarric said.
Chrysogone Zougmore, president of the Burkina Faso Movement for Human Rights, called Friday's developments "very regrettable," saying the instability would not help in the fight against the Islamic extremist violence.
"How can we hope to unite people and the army if the latter is characterized by such serious divisions?" Zougmore said. "It is time for these reactionary and political-military factions to stop leading Burkina Faso adrift."