The tension in Burkina Faso has subsided. Businesses and schools have reopened. On October 3, 2022, the Togolese government put an end to rumours. Togolese Communications Minister and Government Spokesman Akodah Ayewouadan said that the lieutenant colonel had found refuge in Togo after the coup on Friday, 30 September. Meanwhile, a recording of the latter circulates on the web in which he announces his resignation as head of state and wishes good luck to the new forces.
In a video, visibly recorded this Sunday, October 2, 2022, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba announces his resignation to avoid an escalation: “[…] considering the best interests of Burkina Faso, I gave up my position as Head of State, as President of the Transition.” For him, a tug of war would be tantamount to “increasing the risk of division within our military”. This is contrary to the commitments his government made to ECOWAS. He did not fail to take stock of this putsch admits the intentions of the “new authorities”: “Before our dead could be buried (…) some units of our military forces, with civilian and political sympathizers, driven by individualistic motives, The European Parliament, in its resolution of 27 November 1989 on the European Union’s role in the fight against racism and xenophobia in the European Union and in the United Nations Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Middle East. The goal was clear: to stop the Transition. Their actions resulted in two deaths, nine injuries and property damage.”
The attack on the Gaskined convoy was only a pretext for the new forces to «interrupt the Transition. (…)» , says Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. At the end of his recording, he addressed: «To the new authorities of Faso»: «his wishes for success.» and urged them to “work, especially to unite rather than disperse and carry out their responsibilities as a priesthood.” In an interview given to RFI, Captain Traoré announces that he is also in continuity and gives the commitment that there will be no “witch hunts” in the army.
Things, we can say, have settled down. On Tuesday, 4 October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guinea-Bissau, Suzy Carla Barbosa, will lead a delegation. She will be accompanied by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Aliou Touré of the Gambia, but especially by Mahamadou Issoufou, the former head of state of Niger, as mediator.
