Burkina Faso: Former transitional president arrested

The former transitional president of Burkina Faso, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has been arrested in neighbouring Togo, as reported by RFI and agencies on January 19th.

According to a source close to the military, Damiba was arrested and detained at his villa in Togo’s capital, Lomé, on January 16th, where he had lived in exile since being deposed by a military junta in Burkina Faso’s September 2022 coup.

Burkina Faso experienced two military coups in 2022, with Damiba being appointed as the transitional president, a role he held for eight months before being deposed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré in September of the same year.

Damiba was transported to the Court of Appeal, where a judge ruled on his case and granted an extradition request made by Burkinabe authorities; he was escorted by soldiers to the airport on January 17th, although a destination was not confirmed.

No official statement regarding Damiba’s arrest has been made, although he has been accused by the junta of wanting to overthrow the regime, which is led by Traoré.

It is unclear if Damiba’s arrest is linked to an alleged coup attempt that Burkinabe authorities claim was foiled on January 3rd, although Damiba has repeatedly been accused of plotting coups by the junta.

The junta claims that many conspiracies to overthrow the government have been attempted, the suppression of which they use to justify the crackdown on perceived opposition voices.

Similarly, the junta reportedly uses silencing dissent to further consolidate its power, including its failure to fulfil its Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) obligation to hold elections within 2 years of its establishment; as a result, military rule has continued. 

Furthermore, Traoré often cites national security concerns to suppress criticism of the increasingly authoritarian junta, which has been accused of mass killings of civilians under the guise of fighting Islamic insurgents.

Upon seizing power in 2022, Traoré vowed to restore stability amid jihadist insurgencies that had overwhelmed Burkina Faso; however, his government has been unable to counter this growing regional threat.

In January 2025, Burkina Faso, along with neighbouring Mali and Niger, withdrew from ECOWAS and formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), supposedly to counter jihadist insurgencies.

Since 2015, jihadist violence linked to groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State has killed over 2,000 people in Burkina Faso; despite the junta vowing to fight the extremist threat, analysts believe violence has worsened since the 2022 coup.

RFI and agencies, Maghrebi.org