Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso’s president Roch Marc Christian Kabore on Wednesday revamped the military by axing his army chief of staff and several other senior officers.
Kabore acted by decree two days after suspected jihadists killed 14 soldiers in an attack in the north of the country, as fresh bloodshed hit the region plagued by years of Islamist violence.
Army chief of staff General Moise Miningou leaves a post he had held since 2019 and gives way to his former deputy Gilbert Ouedraogo, with fellow colonel Vinta Some as deputy.
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Kabore also named colonel Marie Omer Herman Bambara as chief of staff of the national gendarmerie and colonel Ousmane Ouedraogo in the equivalent air force role.
In June, as a precursor to Wednesday’s restructure, Kabore had already sacked his defence and security ministers after demonstrations in reaction to several jihadist attacks.
Those attacks, along with several bouts of inter-communal violence in the country of 21 million, have cost some 2,000 lives and forced around 1.4 million people to leave their home in the past six years.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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