Day: February 16, 2022

Burkina Faso strongman Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was inaugurated as president on Wednesday, just over three weeks after he led a coup to topple elected head of state Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

In a televised ceremony, Damiba swore an oath before the country’s top constitutional body to “preserve, respect, uphold and defend the Constitution”, the nation’s laws and a “fundamental act” of key decisions approved by the junta.

Damiba was dressed in camouflage uniform and a red beret, and wore a sash in the colors of Burkina’s national flag.

The press, but no foreign representatives, attended the ceremony in a small room at the offices of the Constitutional Council.

On January 24, Damiba, 41, led disgruntled officers to force out Kabore following public anger over his handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Last week, the Constitutional Council formally determined that Damiba was president, head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces.

The move confirmed an announcement by the junta on January 31 that Damiba would be appointed to those roles for a transitional period, and be assisted by two vice presidents.

Burkina Faso is one of the world’s poorest countries and one of the most volatile in Africa.

The landlocked Sahel state has experienced repeated coups since gaining independence from France in 1960.

Since the first jihadist attacks in 2015, more than 2,000 people have died, according to an AFP tally, while the country’s emergencies agency says more than 1.5 million people have fled their homes.

‘Tough commander’

Damiba has had first-hand experience of the insurgency.

Before seizing power, he was commander of the 3rd Military Region, which covers eastern Burkina Faso — one of the worst-hit areas.

A military source after he seized power said he was “a tough commander who has been on the front line with his men”.

Before the coup, Damiba criticized prevailing strategies to fight the jihadists, publishing a book last June called “West African Armies and Terrorism: Uncertain Answers?”

The junta suspended the constitution immediately on taking power on January 24, but later reversed this in the face of pressure from neighbors in West Africa demanding a return to civilian rule.

The military authorities have promised to re-establish “constitutional order” within a “reasonable time” but the issue of a date for elections remains unsettled.

On February 5, the junta announced that a 15-member commission would be tasked with “drawing up a draft charter and agenda, together with a proposal for the duration of the transition period.”

Burkina has been suspended from West African bloc ECOWAS, although it has so far escaped further sanctions, unlike Guinea and Mali.

The UN Security Council on February 9 expressed “serious concern” over the country’s “unconstitutional change of government,” but chose not to describe it as a military coup or even condemn it outright.

Source: Voice of America

Rights groups Amnesty International says Tigrayan fighters have committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity as they were withdrawing from Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

Amnesty International’s report released Wednesday says fighters affiliated with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) killed scores of Ethiopian civilians in northern Amhara region, looted property, and gang-raped women and girls as young as 14.

Amnesty says the Tigrayan forces committed the atrocities around Chenna and Kobo last August and September after taking control of the areas.

The rights group says interviews with survivors indicate the Tigrayan forces were acting in revenge against Amhara militias that were fighting alongside Ethiopian federal forces to push them back.

Sarah Jackson, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes, said in a press release that evidence was mounting of a pattern of Tigrayan forces committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in areas that were under their control.

Jackson called on the TPLF leadership to put an immediate end to the atrocities and remove from its forces anyone suspected of war crimes.

Fisseha Tekle, a Nairobi-based researcher for Amnesty International, told VOA’s Amharic Service that Amnesty had interviewed roughly 30 people who allegedly were raped in September in Chenna, a village north of the regional Amhara capital of Bahirdar.

The victims included a 14-year-old and her mother, who reported that their rapists claimed to be retaliating for attacks against Tigrayans, Fisseha said. The daughter claimed their attackers said, “Our families were raped, and now it is our turn to rape you.”

The rapes and killings could constitute both crimes against humanity and war crimes, Fisseha said.

Pledge of accountability

VOA could not reach the TPLF for comment about Amnesty’s accusations.

But “we take the allegations seriously and will hold anyone involved responsible,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Redda wrote in a Twitter exchange Wednesday with a person identified as Goodluck, a human rights activist who does not appear to be affiliated with Amnesty.

The Amnesty report appears to support a December Human Rights Watch report that said Tigrayan forces executed scores of civilians in Amhara in late August and early September.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch released a joint December report that accused Amhara security forces of killing ethnic Tigrayan civilians in western Tigray region.

Throughout Ethiopia’s 14-month war rights groups have accused both sides of gross rights abuses and war crimes, including raping and killing civilians.

Amnesty called on the international community to investigate crimes committed by both sides and try to bring those responsible to justice.

Source: Voice of America