Burkina Faso govt resigns over rising insecurity

The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso and the country’s government on Wednesday resigned its position, as protests raged against officials’ inability to combat escalating security crisis caused by jihadist attacks that have led to the death of thousands.

The President of the country, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had already changed his military leadership over the security crisis, accepted Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire’s resignation, according to a presidential decree.

The resignation of a prime minister signifies the resignation of the entire government, according to Burkina Faso law.

The country, one of West Africa’s poorest, has been facing attacks by groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) since 2016, killing about 2,000 people and forcing more than one million people to flee their homes.

The case got worse in November after an attack by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, in which 49 military police officers and four civilians were killed, putting pressure on Kabore to make changes.

Following the letter of resignation, the government’s secretary-general Stephane Wenceslas Sanou, reading out the decree on public television, said the president decreed that “the duties of Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire are terminated.”

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However the outgoing government will be required to remain in a caretaker capacity until a new one is formed, Sanou said.

Dabire first became prime minister in early 2019 and was reappointed in January 2021, after the president was re-elected for his second and last term.

Burkina Faso is at the heart of a hardline armed uprising that has also hit large parts of neighbouring Mali and Niger.

Despite efforts by former colonial ruler France and other regional armies to combat the attacks, they have continued unabated.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa that covers an area of around 274,200 square kilometres and is bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest.

Meanwhile, after his resignation, Dabire in a post on his Facebook page called on citizens to “support the president and the new executive that will be put in place”.

“I remain convinced that it is through unity of action that we will be able to meet the challenges our country and our people are facing,” he said.

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