A day after dissolving the government without providing any reason, Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta on Saturday appointed a new prime minister
Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, communications minister and spokesperson for the previous government, has been named as the country’s new premier.
Military leader, Ibrahim Traore, made the announcement in a presidential decree read on state television on Saturday.
A journalist by trade and a close ally of Traore, Ouedraogo was formerly editor-in-chief and then director of the country’s state television.
No reason was given for the dismissal of former Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, who was appointed interim premier soon after Traore seized power in September 2022.
The junta ousted the military rule of Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba about eight months after it had staged a coup to remove democratically elected President Roch Marc Kaboré.
The country is one of several West African nations where the military has recently taken over, capitalising on popular discontent with previous democratically-elected governments over security issues.
However, since the latest coup, military leaders have struggled to end Burkina Faso’s security challenges, the very reason it claims had prompted it to take power.
Growing attacks by extremists linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have devastated the country.
Thousands have been killed in recent years and more than two million people have been displaced, half of them children.
Analysts believe around half of Burkina Faso’s territory remains outside of government control.
The country’s transitional government has been running under a constitution approved by a national assembly that included army officers, civil society groups, and traditional and religious leaders.
Under pressure from the regional bloc, ECOWAS, the junta had set a goal to conduct an election in July 2024 to return the country to democratic rule.
However, in May it extended its transition term for five more years, the duration of one presidential term.
Alongside Niger and Mali, which have also experienced coups, Burkina Faso has severed ties with long-standing Western and regional partners, including ECOWAS, which they all quit early this year.
The three countries have banded together to form the Alliance of Sahel States and are battling jihadi violence that first erupted in northern Mali in 2012.
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