OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) -Burkina Faso’s new military leader Ibrahim Traore on Friday named jurist and author Appolinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela as interim prime minister, Traore said in a statement.
Army captain Traore seized power in a coup on Sept. 30 and was officially designated transitional president of the West African country on Oct. 14.
He was sworn in on Friday, after which he named Kyelem de Tambela as the prime minister of the interim government that will oversee the transition to elections scheduled for July 2024.
The new prime minister is relatively unknown on the political scene. He is a jurist by training, worked as a television presenter for a private TV channel, and has written books about politics and his country’s history.
Traore led the second military takeover in Burkina Faso this year. Both coups were spurred by frustrations at growing insecurity caused by an Islamist insurgency that has spread to the country’s north from neighbouring Mali.
Traore on Friday reiterated commitments to restore safety and recover territory lost to the militants.
(Reporting by Anne MimaultWriting by Sofia ChristensenEditing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)
