Burkina Faso’s interim president Paul-Henri Damiba has approved a new government that includes the same defense minister who served under former president Roch Kaboré before he was ousted in a military coup, it said. Saturday an official decree.
Damiba was inaugurated on Wednesday as transitional president for three years, after leading a group of officers to oust Kaboré in January. They said they were motivated by frustration at the growing violence by Islamist militants.
The new government of 25 ministers includes Defense Minister General Barthelemy Simpore, who retained the post he held under Kabore, according to the decree.
The appointment of economist Albert Ouedraogo as the West African nation’s transitional prime minister was announced on Thursday.
Burkina Faso’s military coup was the fourth in West Africa in 18 months, after two in Mali and one in Guinea, after a period of democracy that raised hopes the region could lose its reputation of the continent’s “coup belt”.
The new authorities will have to try to contain the violent Islamist insurrection which has invaded whole sections of Burkinabe territory and drained the meager national resources.
(Reuters)
