Burkina Faso’s strongman Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba came to power in a military coup eight months ago.

On Friday, military officials said they had removed him as head of the junta in the second coup this year.

Damiba had first-hand experience of the brutal jihadist insurgency he cited as a pretext for his seizure of power in January.

But it wasn’t enough to appease the rebellious military, who tore up his security file when they announced his dismissal in a nationally televised address.

When Damiba’s junta overthrew the country’s president-elect, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, he too was angered by his failure to contain the crisis.

Since the first jihadist attacks in 2015, thousands have died in the fighting and around two million have been displaced.

During his eight months at the head of the junta, Damiba attempted to initiate a process of dialogue with some armed groups, while at the same time stepping up “army offensive actions”.

In early September, Damiba welcomed a “relative calm” in several places.

But the attacks have remained numerous, with more than 40 percent of the country outside of government control.

Before taking power, Damiba had made no secret of his criticism of the prevailing strategies used to contain the insurgency, publishing a book last June entitled West African Armies and Terrorism: Uncertain Answers?

He was part of a group of uniformed men who staged a coup on January 24 and said they had seized power, though he said nothing, leaving the announcer’s job to a captain, Sidsore Kader Ouedraogo.

Ouedraogo read out a statement signed by Damiba as president of the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR), as the junta called itself.

The statement criticized “the continued deterioration in the security situation that threatens the very foundation of our nation” and highlighted Kabore’s “clear inability to unite the Burkinabe people to effectively address the situation.”

Like many military officers in the French-speaking Sahel, Damiba had close ties to France and was educated at the prestigious Paris Military School.

He also trained at the Georges Namoano Military Academy in Po in southern Burkina.

Many of his alumni served in the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), the former presidential guard of Kabore’s predecessor, Blaise Compaore, who was overthrown by a popular uprising in 2014.

Damiba commanded the RSP from 2003 to 2011, although he was also among those who opposed a 2015 coup attempt by Compaore’s right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere.

As regimental commander from 2019 to 2021, he gained first-hand experience of the problems faced by Burkina Faso’s poorly trained and poorly equipped security forces against ruthless and highly mobile jihadists.

Kabore stirred up the military and Damiba was sent to command the 3rd Military Region.

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