Burkina Faso’s junta chief, Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who seized power in a coup in January, has sacked his defense minister and taken over the role himself after a series of jihadist attacks, according to decrees released on Monday .

The first decree, read on national television, removed General Barthelemy Simpore as Secretary of Defense, while the second said the “President has assumed the duties of Secretary of National Defense and Veterans.”

Damiba led a group of officers that staged a January 24 coup, overthrowing elected leader Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had failed to contain the jihadist insurgency that first surfaced in Mali in 2012.

Much of the Sahel is now fighting the insurgency, having spread to Burkina Faso and then Niger in 2015. In recent years, violence has also spilled over into the West African coastal states of Ivory Coast and Togo.

The mini-shuffle in Burkina Faso is the first since a transitional government was installed in March. At that time, Damiba decided to keep Simpore, who had been appointed by Kabore.

In another change, Major-Colonel Silas Keita was appointed Minister Delegate for National Defense and promoted to Brigadier General. He was the only new minister introduced.

The shuffle follows a series of deadly jihadist attacks this month in the landlocked West African country, where the insurgency has claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced some 1.4 million people to flee their homes.

Attacks have increased since the beginning of the year, despite the junta’s vow to make security its top priority.

September was particularly bloody.

The army said two soldiers and a dozen “terrorists” were killed in an attack on a military unit in northern Burkina Faso, which was hit by jihadists, on Monday.

Less than a week earlier, security sources said nine people, mostly civilians, had been killed in separate attacks by suspected jihadists in the north.

On September 5, at least 35 civilians were killed and 37 injured when an improvised explosive device struck a convoy transporting supplies between Djibo and Bourzanga.

At the beginning of September, Damiba welcomed a “relative calm” in several places. He said the army’s “offensive actions” had intensified and claimed that a dialogue process with certain armed groups had prompted “dozens of youth” to lay down their arms.

But the attacks remain numerous.

More than 40 percent of the country is outside of government control.