OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso
The leader of Burkina Faso's new military junta
called for international support in his first major public intervention
Thursday on the eve of a regional summit that could seek to sanction
Ouagadougou.Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba
"Burkina Faso more than ever needs its
international partners," Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba said in televised
comments days after leading the overthrow of president Roch Marc Christian
Kabore.
"I call on the international community to
support our country so it can exit this crisis as soon as possible."
Heads of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) are to confer on Friday over how to respond to Monday's
military coup.
Damiba, 41, is a rising star in the military who
commands an eastern region that has been badly hit by jihadists.
On Wednesday, he met ministers of Kabore's
government, which like the parliament has been dissolved.
The junta has also suspended the constitution, vowing
to re-establish "constitutional order" within a "reasonable
time".
"I will listen to all women and men," he
said.
"I have begun consultations with certain
components of the nation, including the personalities of the outgoing regime,
in order to identify the main lines that will lead us, in the long term, to
consensual and inclusive decisions for the refoundation and restoration of
lasting peace."
Since taking over, the junta has spent the last few
days trying to shore up support from religious and community leaders, security
forces and unions.
During the twelve minutes speech, he explained the
country was facing an unprecedented crisis and the junta's priority would be to
restore security by renewing the will to fight among its soldiers and by
listening to people to form a path forward.
Damiba asked ministers not to leave the country
without authorisation, and also said he hoped to include all the country in the
management of the transitional period, political sources told AFP.
The coup is the latest bout of turmoil to strike
Burkina Faso, a landlocked and poor state that has suffered chronic instability
since gaining independence from France in 1960.
On Tuesday, ECOWAS issued a statement to say the
bloc "firmly condemns" the coup, accusing the military of forcing
Kabore to resign "under threat, intimidation and pressure".
Burkina Faso joins two other ECOWAS countries --
Mali and Guinea -- where there have been coups in the past 18 months.
Those two countries have been suspended by the
15-nation bloc, which has also imposed an array of sanctions on them, including
measures against individuals.
Clement Sawadogo, deputy head of Kabore's People's
Movement for Progress (MPP) party, said "the junta has to do its utmost to
prevent international sanctions on Burkina Faso."
He called for a "wise solution, to prevent an
ongoing security crisis... from intertwining with a socio-economic
crisis".
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