34-Year-Old Set To Be Sworn In As President In Burkina Faso

34-Year-Old Set To Be Sworn In As President In Burkina Faso
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The young army captain who led the latest coup in Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traore will on Friday be inaugurated as interim president, according to a statement made public by the constitutional council. 

The 34-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore, was the one that led the disgruntled junior officers last month in the second coup in eight months to hit the jihadist-torn west African country.

Junta members had already disclosed that he would take over the role of transitional president, however, the official investiture will happen on Friday.

Read Also: Coup: Fromer Burkina Faso Leader Damiba Flees To Togo

The constitutional council had on Wednesday disclosed that it ‘officially notes the vacancy of the presidency,’ adding that Traore had been designated as ‘president of the transition, head of state, supreme chief of the national armed forces’ by a national meeting of the country’s forces.

Africa Daily News, New York recalls that sometime last month Traore toppled Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

In its statement on Wednesday, the council said it took note of Damiba’s “resignation”.

Damiba himself had seized power only in January, forcing out Burkina’s last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The motive for the latest coup — as in January — was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly two million people from their homes.

Meanwhile,

The government of Togo has on Monday made some confirmations that the controversial ousted Burkina Faso leader, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba has finally fled to Togo after a military coup.

It also revealed that the West African bloc ECOWAS has made some plans to send envoys to Burkina Faso after some of the troops had toppled Damiba in the country’s second putsch in nine months.

Akodah Ayewouadan who is Togo’s Minister of Communication and government spokesman had revealed that Damiba was in Togo as part of the country’s commitment to ‘peace in the sub-region.’

“Togo, like ECOWAS, welcomes the fact that the spirit of peace has prevailed,” the official said in a response to questions from AFP.

“The reception of… Damiba is part of this spirit.”

The streets of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou had been quiet on Monday after a two-day showdown between military rivalsa and Damiba on Sunday had agreed to step down after new self-declared leader Captain Ibrahim Traore declared he had been forced out.

Africa Daily News, New York

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