Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister and cabinet resigned on Wednesday amid widespread protests over officials’ failure to address the country’s worsening security situation, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.
According to a presidential decree, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had previously changed his military command due to the security issue, accepted Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire’s resignation.
According to Burkina Faso legislation, the resignation of a prime minister entails the resignation of the entire government.
Since 2016, bombings linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) have killed over 2,000 people and forced over one million people to flee their homes in the country, which is one of West Africa’s poorest.
The situation deteriorated in November after an al-Qaeda-linked organization carried out an attack in which 49 military police officers and four civilians were murdered, putting pressure on Kabore to make changes.
Following the resignation letter, the president ruled that “the duties of Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire are terminated,” according to the government’s secretary-general Stephane Wenceslas Sanou, who delivered the decree on public television.
The outgoing administration, however, will be compelled to act as a caretaker until a new one is created, according to Sanou.
Dabire first took office as prime minister in early 2019 and was re-elected in January 2021 after President Donald Trump was re-elected to his second and final term.
Burkina Faso is at the epicenter of a hardline armed insurgency that has engulfed much of Mali and Niger.
The attacks have persisted uninterrupted despite efforts by erstwhile colonial ruler France and other regional troops to stop them.
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with borders to 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. It 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, upon his resignation, Dabire urged citizens to “support the president and the new executive that will be put in place” in a Facebook post.
“I remain convinced that only by working together will we be able to meet the challenges that our country and people face,” he said.
