Agency Report

Burkina Faso’s transitional assembly took office on Tuesday, two months after a coup widely condemned by the country’s neighbours and donor countries.

The assembly will be responsible for voting on the texts of reforms planned during the transition after the ousting of former president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The event at the parliament in Ouagadougou was attended by members of the transitional government appointed on March 6 by junta leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

He appointed 21 of the 71 deputies with the remainder chosen by the defence and security forces, civil society groups, and the country’s 13 regions.

Just eight were chosen by political parties.

Academic Aboubacar Toguyeni, 58, was elected to head the transitional legislative assembly.

“My mandate will be a commitment to the country in its quest for security, dignity and honour,” said Toguyeni.

“It is a transition to lay the foundations for a fairer society and the moral improvement of public life.”

The establishment of the legislative body follows the adoption in early March of a Transition Charter, drawn up after consultation between the ruling junta and groups including political parties, unions and civil society organisations.

The Charter provides for a period of three years before elections are required, with Damiba barred from running.

Damiba, 41, took power at the end of January after mutinies in several barracks, overthrowing Kabore who was accused of ineffectiveness in the face of jihadist violence plaguing the country.

After gripping Mali and Niger, the violence has claimed some 2,000 lives and displaced more than 1.7 million people in Burkina over the past seven years.

AFP