Africa

New Ministers Appointed in Burkina Faso After Two Weeks in Office

Burkina Faso's new government was formed on 26 October and declared that its priority was to tackle the jihadist threat to the country. Terrorist attacks are particularly rife in the Sahel region, where Burkina Faso is located.
Sputnik
New ministers of industry and trade, as well as lands and housing, have been appointed in Burkina Faso. Thу government reshuffle occurred two weeks after the government was formed.
Former Trade Minister Donatien Nagalo was replaced by Serge Gnaniodem Poda, an executive of Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO), a central bank serving eight nations of West Africa. Mikailou Sidibé has taken over as lands and housing minister from Yacouba Dié.
The reshuffle was prompted by opposition from the trade associations to Nagalo, as well as protests over the quality of a recently completed public housing project overseen by the former lands and housing minister, Dié.
Burkina Faso has had a new government since coup leader Ibrahim Traore was installed as interim president this October.
On 30 September, former Burkina Faso leader Paul-Henri Damiba was ousted over accusations that he was unable to cope with an escalation of violence blamed on insurgents linked to both al-Qaeda and Daesh*.
Damiba himself came to power this January as the result of a coup, carried out on the same pretext.
Terrorist activities really kicked off in the Sahel region after NATO's intеrvention in Libya and the violent murder of the country's president Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Experts believe that Gaddafi was able to control the opposing regional forces, thereby preventing the spread of terrorism.
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Terrorism in Burkina Faso has been spreading rapidly since 2015, in the wake of the defenestration of Blaise Compaore, who had ruled the country for 27 years from 1987 to 2014. He was ousted because the country had descended into dire socio-political destabilization similar to what happened in the “Arab Spring” of 2011.
From 1990 until 2014, only three terrorist attacks were recorded in the country by the Global Terrorism Database whereas in 2015 alone, the country faced at least seven terrorist attacks.
In 2019, violence spread from Burkina Faso's north, bordering Mali - where a large proportion of the terrorists come from - to the east of the country.
At present, security issues in Burkina Faso have become so febrile that the government is unable to control approximately 40 percent of the country's territory, according to ECOWAS mediator.
*Al-Qaeda and Daesh are a terrorist organizations outlawed in Russia and many other states
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