How Then President Damiba Betrayed Traoré, the Soldiers Who Put Him in Power and The People

In the first ten days of September 2022, Burkina Faso was under unbearable pressure: escalating attacks, displaced families, hungry civilians, and soldiers sent to the front with too little support. Ibrahim Traoré had helped Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seize power believing a soldier-president would understand the battlefield. But as the crisis deepened, that hope began to collapse. This episode follows the mounting anger among young officers, the frontline realities Damiba was accused of ignoring, and the final chance Traoré believed Burkina Faso’s leadership still had. It is the opening chapter in the countdown to the moment Traoré took power that September.