Burkina Faso’s national forum on Friday unanimously declared coup leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré as the country’s transitional president, reported The Africa News.
Captain Traore will serve as the president until general elections are held in the West African country in July 2024. Notably, on Friday, around 300 delegates from political parties and several religious and social groups and security forces took part in a national forum held in the capital city of Ouagadougou.
The national forum approved a new charter that states that the head of the MPSR, the ruling military junta, is the president and supreme chief of the armed forces. But the charter also stipulates that the president is not eligible to run in elections at the end of the transition period. So, this means Traore is not eligible to contest the 2024 elections.
The 34-year-old seized power two weeks ago from Lt-Gen Paul-Henri Damiba, who staged a coup in January accusing the authorities of failing to deal with Islamist militants. The January coup ousted President Roch Kabore, who remained in power for more than six years.
After coming to power, Damiba promised to control the deteriorating security situation. However, Traore stated that he failed to counter terrorist activities of al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) fighters. Thousands of people already have been killed by jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group and some 2 million people displaced.
Earlier this week, Captain Traore agreed to respect national democratic transition timeline that was agreed between his predecessor Damiba and West Africa regional bloc ECOWAS.
He assured that Burkina Faso’s government would respect the commitments made with ECOWAS in July to restore constitutional order in 24 months. He also said the government would honour its international commitments, particularly regarding the protection of human rights, and would collaborate with ECOWAS evaluation mechanisms.
