Burkina Faso to hold talks on new transition president

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso’s military officials, political parties and civil society leaders are set to begin talks on Friday to designate a new interim president and adopt a political transition charter two weeks after its second coup this year.

About 300 delegates will meet over two days in the capital, Ouagadougou, to outline plans to return the West African country to constitutional rule.

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 fuelled political instability.

Frustration over growing insecurity spurred two coups in Burkina Faso this year, and two in Mali since 2020.

The captain who led the Sept. 30 coup, Ibrahim Traore, is likely to be named head of Burkina Faso’s interim government.

He has made a commitment in statements to a democratic transition timeline agreed between his predecessor, Paul-Henri Damiba, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional order by July 2024.

The new junta’s proposed transition charter is aligned with the previous one, approved during a similar meeting after Damiba seized power in January.

It states that the interim president will not be eligible to run in presidential, legislative and municipal elections marking the end of his or her mandate.

ECOWAS is struggling to facilitate a return to constitutional order in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali, all of which have seen military takeovers since 2020.

The coups, including one in Chad, have raised concern of a backslide in democracy in West and Central Africa against the backdrop of rampant Islamist insurgency.

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