Burkina Faso appoints transitional government

Military gets key posts in 26-member cabinet chosen to lead the country until elections next year.

Key ministries such as mines, communications and the interior ministry has been allocated to the army [Reuters]

Transitional leaders in Burkina Faso have agreed on a new government to guide the country to elections next year, allocating several key cabinet posts to the military.

The list was read out on Sunday evening, less than one week after longtime diplomat Michel Kafando was officially sworn in as president. Kafando will also serve as minister of foreign affairs.

Of the 26 posts available, the army claimed six, including mines, communications and the interior ministry. Isaac Yacouba Zida, who initially took control of the west African country, will head the defence ministry.

Other members were drawn from civil society groups and a medley of political parties.

Sankara investigations

Meanwhile, the interim president said on Friday he will allow investigations to be conducted on the remains of Thomas Sankara, a former president whose death nearly 30 years ago during a coup has never been fully explained.

Michel Kafando said that investigations on Sankara’s body, buried in Ouagadougou, would go forward “in the name of national reconciliation”.

Sankara, a widely admired figure across Africa, was killed under unclear circumstances in the 1987 coup that brought Blaise Compaore to power. Compaore was forced from power by mass protests last month as he sought to amend the constitution to prolong his 27-year rule.

Sankara’s widow, Mariam Sankara, has long been fighting for the right to undergo DNA tests on Sankara’s body to prove the remains are really his, but she has been blocked in the courts.

Source: News Agencies