Burkina Faso’s counter-coup leader, 34, set for self-inauguration as President

The Constitutional Council on Wednesday announced the swearing in of the counter-coup, Captain Ibrahim Traore, as interim President of Burkina Faso on Friday,

The military regime had earlier announced that Traore as transitional president, the  Friday inauguration will give legal backing to his leadership of Burkina Faso.

The constitutional council on Wednesday stated that the council “officially notes the vacancy of the presidency,” and 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.

Traore led the military to overthrow Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in a counter coup.

Damiba had overthrown President, Roch Marc Christian Kabore in January.

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.

AFP