A Burkina Faso army captain on Friday announced the ouster of military leader Paul-Henri Damiba and the suspension of the country’s constitution and transitional charter in a statement read on national television.
Army Captain Ibrahim Traore said a group of officers had decided to remove Damiba due to his inability to deal with a worsening Islamist insurgency.
He announced that Burkina Faso’s borders were closed indefinitely and that all political and civil society activities were suspended.
Earlier Friday, gunfire rang out in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou and the state broadcaster went off air amid fears of a coup. Soldiers were seen at the city’s main crossroads, especially in the Ouaga 2000 neighbourhood, but also outside the state television centre.
Violence has long wracked the landlocked west African country where Damiba took power in a January coup, ousting elected leader Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
Damiba has pledged to restore civilian rule within two years and to defeat the armed factions.
As in bordering countries, insurgents affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have stoked the unrest.
Thousands have died and about two million have been displaced by the fighting since 2015 when the insurgency spread into Burkina Faso, which has since become the epicentre of the violence across the Sahel.
Damiba earlier this month sacked his defence minister and assumed the role himself.
The mini-shuffle, the first since the appointment of a transitional government in March, saw only one new minister introduced — Colonel-Major Silas Keita was named minister delegate in charge of national defence and promoted to brigadier general.
More than 40 percent of Burkina Faso, a former French colony, is outside government control.
Attacks have increased since mid-March, despite the junta’s vow to make security its top priority. (France24)