On Tuesday, Paul Damiba, the leader of the coup that broke the constitutional order in Burkina Faso on Jan. 24, signed the Transitional Charter that allows the Military Junta to stay in power for three years.
This document was approved after hours of negotiations between 350 military representatives, opposition politicians, and citizen victims of jihadi attacks perpetrated in the national territory since 2015.
According to the Transitional Charter, the Military Junta will comprise 25 ministers, 71 lawmakers, and the transitional President Damibia, who will not participate in the general elections to be held at the end of the transitional period.
In early February, a technical committee set up by the Junta proposed a 30-month transition period, which was later ratified in the draft discussions of the Transitional Charter.
“We hope that this longer duration will not lead to clashes with our partners or further sanctions from other countries,” the opposition politician Eddie Komboigo said and recalled that Burkina Faso was suspended by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) after the coup.
The Military Junta drove out President-elect Roch Kabore for his mismanagement of a Jihadist insurgency, which has already killed over 2,000 people and forced 1.5 million citizens to flee their homes.
“We commit ourselves to fight terrorism, strengthen governance, ensure security, and restore the integrity of the national territory,” Damibia stressed.
