He notably trained at the prestigious Military School of Paris. Like many military officers in the French-speaking Sahel, Damiba has had close affiliations with France. Kabore shook up the military and Damiba was sent to command the 3rd military Region. The gendarmes had been due to be relieved several days earlier and had appealed for help before the attack, saying they were running short of food and ammunition. In November last year, the country was stunned when 53 gendarmes were slaughtered when their base was overrun by hundreds of assailants. Many of its 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.ĭamiba commanded the RSP from 2003-2011, although he was also among those who opposed a coup bid in 2015 by Compaore's right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere.Īs a regimental commander from 2019 to 2021, he gained first-hand experience of the problems of Burkina Faso's poorly-trained and ill-equipped security forces against ruthless and highly mobile jihadists.
The statement lashed "the continuous deterioration of the security situation, which threatens the very foundation of our nation" and singled out Kabore's "clear inability to unite the Burkinabe people to tackle the situation effectively".ĭamiba trained at the Georges Namoano Military Academy in Po in southern Burkina.
Ouedraogo read out a statement signed by Damiba as president of Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR), as the junta calls itself. 'Deterioration of the security situation' On Monday, he was part of a group of uniformed men who declared they had taken power, although he did not say anything, leaving the job of announcer to a captain, Sidsore Kader Ouedraogo. "He's an example of a good soldier, a tough commander who has been on the front line with his men," said a military source, who praised Damiba's "commitment."īefore the coup, Damiba made no secret of his criticism of prevailing strategies to roll back the insurgency, publishing a book last June called "West African Armies and Terrorism: Uncertain Answers?" In a country of 21 million, some 1.5 million people are internally displaced, according to the national emergency agency CONASUR.ĭamiba, 41, is commander of the 3rd Military Region, which covers eastern Burkina Faso - one of the worst-hit areas. Since the first jihadist attacks in 2015, some 2,000 people have died, with the army, police and a civilian volunteer militia bearing the brunt, according to an AFP toll. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.Damiba heads a junta that on Monday overthrew the country's elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who was facing public anger at his failure to stem the crisis. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive.īefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever.īefore you learn the tender gravity of kindness you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth.
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