Burkina Faso’s new military regime, led by Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, says the West African country will return to constitutional order when conditions are right.

“When the conditions are right, according to the deadline that our people will define in all sovereignty, I commit to a return to a normal constitutional order,” Mr Damiba said.

He spoke for the first time on national television since leading a mutiny that ousted President Roch Marc Kabore on Monday.

Wearing a red beret, army fatigues, and flanked by national flags, Mr Damiba said he would convene various sections of Burkina Faso’s society to agree on a roadmap to plan and carry out needed reforms.

The lieutenant-colonel promised farmers and herders and people across the West African Sahel nation affected by violence from militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State and said he would take back control of those zones. He said security would be the priority.

His speech comes before a planned emergency summit of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday to discuss how to respond to the coup.

The junta said on Monday after seizing power that it would propose a calendar for a return to constitutional order “within a reasonable time frame” but has not elaborated on its plans.

The officers who call themselves the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), launched a mutiny on Sunday night and removed Mr Kabore on Monday, blaming him for failing to contain worsening violence by Islamist militants.

(Reuters/NAN)