Burkina Faso's military officials, political parties and civil society leaders on Friday officially designated army captain Ibrahim Traore as the country's transitional president, two weeks after he seized power in Burkina Faso's second coup this year. About 300 delegates are meeting over two days in the capital, Ouagadougou, to outline plans to return the West African country to constitutional rule. Traore, who is now considered the World’s youngest leader is expected to lead the country until elections in July 2024, according to the transitional charter. Traore, at the head of a core of disgruntled junior officers, ousted Lieutenant-colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power just in January.
The motive behind the latest coup (as in January) was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly two million people from their homes.
A few days after the September 30 coup, Traore was declared president and "guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity... and continuity of the State."
Burkina Faso is struggling with a violent insurgency waged by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and has spread to other countries south of the Sahara Desert.
The violence has killed thousands, displaced nearly two million and fueled political instability.
Frustration over growing insecurity prompted two coups in Burkina Faso this year, and two in Mali since 2020.
