Afrigather Ibrahim Traore, the younger military captain who led the most recent coup in Burkina Faso, turned interim president on Friday, vowing to win again territory from jihadists.
Traore pledged assist for a transition resulting in elections in July 2024 as he took the oath of workplace within the capital Ouagadougou underneath tight safety.
Traore, 34, led disgruntled junior officers final month within the second coup in eight months to hit the west African nation.
The motive — as in January — was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed hundreds of lives and pushed practically two million folks from their houses.
Junta members had already introduced that he would take over the function of transitional president, however Friday was the official investiture.
After taking the oath of workplace, Traore, wearing navy fatigues and a shawl with the nation’s nationwide colors, stated: “We’re confronted with a safety and humanitarian disaster with out precedent.
“Our goals are none apart from the reconquest of territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists,” he added. “Burkina’s existence is at risk”.
The swearing-in was outlined within the transition constitution adopted final week.
The constitution’s article 4 stipulates “that the time period of the transition president ends with the investiture of the president ensuing from the presidential election” deliberate for July 2024.
“I swear on my honour earlier than the Burkina folks that I’ll protect, respect, guarantee respect for and defend the structure, the transition constitution and (Burkina’s) legal guidelines,” Traore stated, studying his oath of workplace.
Final month Traore toppled Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
Damiba himself had seized energy solely in January, forcing out Burkina’s final elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
International dignitaries have been absent from the inauguration at a well-guarded room of the constitutional council in Ouagadougou.
Traore’s takeover comes throughout a wrestle for affect between France and Russia in French-speaking Africa, the place former French colonies are more and more turning to Moscow.
Traore appears — for now — to deliver hope to many in a rustic sinking steadily within the quagmire.
Extra sources • AFP
