In an effort to “defuse” the political crisis, the leader of Burkina Faso’s ruling junta met with the president who was deposed by a coup earlier this year.
During the meeting at the presidential palace, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the elected president until his overthrow in January, was joined by Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo, who served as president from November 1982 to August 1983.
Lieutenant colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and Mr. Kaboré shook hands and appeared to be conversing in a casual manner.
The three men talked on “security matters, the management of the transition, and other areas of national importance,” according to a statement from the presidency.
It was further said that this was the “first in a series of moves with a view to defusing the political situation.”
According to the statement, the meeting showed the incoming president’s “will for peace” and for “a united, determined, and supportive Burkina in the fight against the terrorist monster.”
Burkina Faso is mired in a cycle of violence, much of it attributed to jihadists associated with the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda, like Mali and the neighboring Niger.
Kabore has been blamed by the new government, led by junta commander Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, for not doing enough to push back against armed Islamist organizations. The new government has sworn to restore security.
It claims that before it can hold democratic elections, the country needs three years to rebuild in the face of the terrorist insurgency.
But the country’s carnage has persisted.
In the nation’s second-deadliest attack ever earlier this month, more than 80 civilians were slain in the commune of Seytenga in the north.
Following the January coup, Kabore was transferred from house detention to his own residence in the capital, Ouagadougou, in early April.
This is his first public appearance since his supporters, the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the UN, and the African Union repeatedly called for his release in April.
