Just days after dissolving the government without providing any reason, Burkina Faso’s military junta over the weekend appointed Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo as the new prime minister.
Ouedraogo, communications minister and spokesperson for the previous government was appointed to replace the former minister.
Military leader Ibrahim Traore announced a presidential decree read on state television.
A journalist by trade and a close ally of Traore, Ouedraogo was formerly editor-in-chief and then director of the country’s state television.
No reason was given for the dismissal of former Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, who was appointed interim premier soon after Traore seized power in September 2022.
The junta ousted the military rule of Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba about eight months after it had staged a coup to remove democratically elected President Roch Marc Kaboré.
The country is one of several West African nations where the military has recently taken over, capitalising on popular discontent with previous democratically-elected governments over security issues.
However, since the latest coup, military leaders have struggled to end Burkina Faso’s security challenges, the very reason it claims had prompted it to take power.
Growing attacks by extremists linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have devastated the country.
Thousands have been killed in recent years and more than two million people have been displaced, half of them children.
The country’s transitional government has been running under a constitution approved by a national assembly that included army officers, civil society groups, and traditional and religious leaders.
Under pressure from the regional bloc, ECOWAS, the junta had set a goal to conduct an election in July 2024 to return the country to democratic rule.
However, in May it extended its transition term for five more years, the duration of one presidential term.
