Burkina Faso’s new military leader, Lt.- Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has been declared president by the country’s top constitutional body.

The Constitutional Council on Wednesday determined that “Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, lieutenant-colonel in the national armed forces, president of the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (the official name of the junta), is the president” of Burkina Faso.

Damiba is also Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, it added.

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

In a statement issued later Thursday, the Constitutional Council said that Damiba’s formal swearing-in would take place on February 16 in the capital Ouagadougou.

ALL NEWS reports that disgruntled officers led by Damiba,  had on January 24, 2022, forced out the Burkina Faso elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had faced a wave of public anger over his handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Facing pressure from West African bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the continental body,  the African Union (AU), the junta last week reversed its suspension of the constitution and scrapped an overnight curfew.