Burkina Faso on Saturday revealed that a process to select a transitional president to serve ahead of elections would be coming up sometime next week, following a coup by disaffected military officers against the ruling junta which just seized power.
‘In view of the adoption of the transition charter, a national meeting will be convened on October 14 and 15,’ said the decree signed by Burkina Faso’s new strongman, Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power a week ago and was named interim president.
Traore, who was officially appointed head of state on Wednesday, had two days earlier diclosed that he would only deal with “current affairs” until a new transitional president, civilian or military, is appointed by a ‘national conference’, indicating that would happen ‘well before the end of the year’.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the meeting is expected to bring together representatives of political groups and civil society.
The impoverished Sahel nation plunged into renewed turmoil last weekend when Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba — who had himself seized power in January — was toppled by newly emerged rival Traore, leading a faction of disgruntled junior officers.
It was the latest putsch in the Sahel region much of which, like Burkina Faso, is battling a growing Islamist insurgency.
After a meeting on Tuesday with a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), one of its members, former Nigerian president Mahamadou Issoufou, said she was leaving feeling ‘confident’.
Traore, 34, vowed that Ouagadougou would continue to respect the commitments made under Damiba to ECOWAS, in particular the organisation of elections and a return of civilians to power by July 2024 at the latest.
Africa Today News, New York had earlier reported that the government of Togo has on Monday made some confirmations that the controversial ousted Burkina Faso leader, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba has finally fled to Togo after a military coup.
It also revealed that the West African bloc ECOWAS has made some plans to send envoys to Burkina Faso after some of the troops had toppled Damiba in the country’s second putsch in nine months.