In Burkina, the military transition regime extended for five years

The military regime of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in Burkina Faso in September 2022 through a coup d’état, will remain there for five additional years as part of the transition, according to a charter adopted on Saturday, May 25, in the occasion of national meetings organized in Ouagadougou.

“The duration of the transition is set at 60 months from July 2, 2024”, announced Colonel Moussa Diallo, president of the organizing committee of these meetings, at the end of the work. The president, Ibrahim Traoré, will also be able to present himself to the “presidential, legislative and municipal elections which will be organized to end the transition”continued Colonel Diallo.

The national meetings, which were initially scheduled to end on Sunday, brought together representatives of civil society, defense and security forces and deputies from the transitional assembly, but most traditional political parties boycotted the meeting. event.

In the charter signed on Saturday by Captain Traoré, the “quotas” allocated to political parties in the transitional legislative assembly were removed and the “patriotism” is established as a condition for sitting in this assembly or in the government.

Burkina Faso, plagued by recurring jihadist violence which has left thousands dead for almost ten years, has experienced two military coups in 2022. The first, in January, brought in Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri Sandaogo. Damiba in power. He himself was overthrown in September of the same year by Captain Traoré.

A first charter was adopted during the first national meetings, establishing a president, a government, a transitional legislative assembly (ALT) and setting the duration of transition at 21 months. This process was therefore supposed to end on July 1, 2024 but, on several occasions, Captain Traoré spoke of the difficulty of organizing elections due to insecurity.

Repression and abuses

The Ouagadougou regime regularly claims to obtain military successes against the jihadist groups which bloody a large part of its territory, but the deadly attacks continue and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch have also reported abuses committed by the army against civilians, which Ouagadougou refutes.

Civil society organizations also accuse the authorities of silencing their opponents. In recent months, several personalities have been arrested, kidnapped or sent to the front to fight against the jihadists.

Since the September 2022 putsch, Burkina Faso has chosen to diversify its international partnerships. He first turned his back on France, the former colonial power, by demanding the departure of soldiers deployed on its soil at the beginning of 2023 and by expelling diplomats. Many French media were also suspended and none were accredited to Saturday’s meetings.

At the same time, Ouagadougou has moved closer to Russia, but also to Iran and Turkey and its two neighbors, Niger and Mali, also governed by soldiers who came to power through coups d’état and, also, confronted with jihadist violence.

In Burkina, these attacks which have been hitting the country for almost ten years and which are attributed to armed movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have left more than 20,000 dead and two million displaced.