The revolving door of West African power has spun again, and this time it has spat out a former head of state.Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the man who once ruled Burkina Faso by the gun, has been handcuffed in Togo and shipped back to Ouagadougou to face charges of plotting an assassination. It is a dramatic fall from grace for a leader who thought he was untouchable.

Damiba, who seized power in a 2022 coup only to be toppled eight months later by the current junta leader Ibrahim Traoré, is now accused of orchestrating a "neutralisation" plot—a euphemism for murder. The Togolese authorities, usually a safe haven for exiled strongmen, handed him over on Saturday, signaling a shift in the region's tolerance for cross-border destabilization.

The "Security" Irony

The charges are heavy: criminal embezzlement, illicit enrichment, and masterminding a coup. But the irony is suffocating. Damiba took power promising to end the Islamist insurgency that was bleeding Burkina Faso dry. He failed. Traoré took over promising the same. Now, instead of fighting terrorists, the generals are fighting each other.

• The Assassination Plot: Intelligence indicates Damiba was running a "military wing" from his exile in Lome, actively recruiting soldiers to decapitate the Traoré regime.
• No Death Penalty: In a twist of diplomatic bargaining, Togo only agreed to the extradition after Burkina Faso promised Damiba would not face the firing squad. It is a small mercy for a man accused of trying to plunge his country back into chaos.

West Africa's fragile Spine

This extradition sends a chilling message to every exiled coup leader in the Sahel: you are not safe. The brotherhood of dictators is fraying. As Damiba sits in a military cell tonight, the people of Burkina Faso are left wondering if this game of musical chairs will ever end, or if they are doomed to be ruled by men who spend more time plotting against each other than fixing the country.