Daily Times

Burkina Faso said on Saturday that a process to pick a transitional president to serve ahead of elections would be held next week, following a coup by disaffected military officers against a ruling junta. “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 said two days earlier 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”.

The meeting should 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.