Burkina Faso: Paul-Henri Damiba met former President Compaoré in Abidjan

Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba (L) and former President Blaise Compaoré (R) during a previous meeting, July 8, 2022. © OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP

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The leader of the Burkinabè transition, Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba was received by Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan on Monday 5 September.

The two men spoke in particular about cooperation and the electoral calendar.

But the head of the Burkinabè junta also took advantage of his visit to the Ivorian economic capital to meet the former president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré.

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With our correspondent in Abidjan,

At the end of his

for the presidency on Monday, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and his delegation did not leave for the airport immediately.

They stopped at Hotel Ivoire to meet Blaise Compaore, who has lived in Abidjan since he was overthrown in 2014. The former president was accompanied by his wife Chantal and daughter Djamila.

The meeting, which was not on the official program of the visit of the Burkinabe transitional president, lasted almost an hour.

And nothing has filtered out.

For months, Blaise Compaoré, weakened and subject to absences, has not hidden his desire to return to Burkina Faso for good.

But in April, the former Burkinabè president was sentenced by the courts of his country, in his absence, to life imprisonment for the assassination of his predecessor Thomas Sankara.

A meeting after returning for a few days in July

When in early July, Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba made him

to take part in a meeting of former Burkinabè presidents, convened as part of the "

 " process desired by the junta, many voices were in favor to denounce the impunity enjoyed by the former president.

Many saw it as a prelude to a definitive return.

Other former heads of state had also refused to take part in this meeting, a sign that the wounds of the Compaoré era are far from being healed.

►Also listen: Paul Sankara

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• Burkina Faso

• Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba

• Blaise Compaore