Taking office as interim president on Friday, Ibrahim Traore, a young army captain who orchestrated the most recent revolution in Burkina Faso, promised to retake lost territory from jihadists.
As he took the oath of office in the capital Ouagadougou amid strict security, Traore vowed support for a transition up to elections in July 2024.
The second revolution to hit the west African nation in eight months was conducted by Traore, 34, and a group of angry junior officers last month.
The driving force behind it, as it was in January, was resentment over the inability to quell a seven-year Islamist insurgency that has taken thousands of lives and forced close to two million people from their homes.
Although Junta members had already declared that he would assume the position of interim president, the official investiture took place on Friday.
The transitional president of Burkina Faso will be inaugurated on Friday.
We are facing a security and humanitarian crisis without precedent, Traore stated after taking the oath of office while wearing military fatigues and a scarf with the country’s colors.
The reconquest of the areas that these hordes of terrorists have occupied is our only goal, he continued. “Burkina’s survival is in jeopardy.”
The transition charter that was approved last week included details about the swearing-in.
Article 4 of the charter states that the inauguration of the president following the presidential election, which is scheduled for July 2024, marks the end of the transition president’s mandate.
“I swear on my honour before the Burkina people that I will preserve, respect, ensure respect for and defend the constitution, the transition charter and (Burkina’s) laws,” Traore said, reading his oath of office.
Traore ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba last month.
Damiba had just recently taken control after Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Burkina Faso’s last elected president, was ousted.
The inauguration took place in a well guarded room of the constitutional council in Ouagadougou without any foreign dignitaries.
Traore’s coup comes at a time when France and Russia are competing for influence in French-speaking Africa, where former French possessions are increasingly looking to Moscow.
Many people in a nation that is rapidly slipping into the mud appear to find hope in Traore for the time being.
