Burkina Faso 2016

Yearbook 2016

Burkina Faso. President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who took office in December 2015, appointed Paul Kaba Thieba, a politically inexperienced economist with a background in the West African Central Bank (BCEAO), in January, as new prime minister. Later in the month, a government was presented with 30 ministers, the majority of whom have no links with the former dictator Blaise Compaoré. President Kaboré himself took care of the post of Defense Minister and the journalist Alpha Barry became Foreign Minister. Among the seven female ministers was Rosine Sori-Coulibaly, who was awarded the post of Minister of Finance and Development.

Burkina Faso Population 2016

According to countryaah, the current population of Burkina Faso is 20,903,284. The Islamic terrorism that plagued several of the other countries in the region also reached Burkina Faso during the year. In January, a hotel and a restaurant were attacked in the capital Ouagadougou and 30 people were shot dead, of which about half were foreign nationals. The attack showed similarities to an attack carried out in November 2015 in Mali’s capital Bamako, and at that time the al-Qaeda organizations were suspected in Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) and al-Mourabitoun. On the same day, an Australian couple was abducted who operated a surgical clinic in the north of the country. The Malian Islamist movement Ansar al-Din assumed responsibility for the kidnapping. To counter the increased terror threat, Burkina Faso and neighboring Mali decided to expand their cooperation in this area. The countries must, among other things, exchange intelligence information. In June, around ten people were suspected of being involved in the January hotel attack. In December, twelve soldiers were killed when they were attacked by Islamists at the border with Mali.

  • Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the 3-letter abbreviation of BFA stands for the nation of Burkina Faso in geography.

Domestic politics continued to be affected by the events of 2014, when President Blaise Compaoré was forced out of power, and the political turbulence that followed. In January, the situation was tense between the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso after the Burkina authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Ivorian parliament’s president, Guillaume Soro. According to thereligionfaqs, this was accused of being involved in the coup attempt in Burkina Faso in the fall of 2015. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara reacted in the form of a press release expressing the view that the problems between countries should be resolved diplomatically. The arrest warrant against Soro was withdrawn in early June. An arrest warrant had previously also been issued for Compaoré, who had already been granted citizenship in Ivory Coast as early as 2014, which was only known in February 2016.

In September, Luc Adolphe Tiao, Prime Minister 2011-14, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the protests that led Compaoré to leave the presidential post when more than 30 people lost their lives. Tiao was accused of signing an order instructing the military to quell the demonstrations by force. Tiao was arrested when he returned to his homeland after being in exile in Ivory Coast for several years.

In October, a new coup attempt was averted by soldiers who were previously part of Compaore’s presidential guard, just over a year after the last coup attempt, triggered by the decision to dissolve the guard. Thirty soldiers were arrested accused of planning an attack on the presidential palace. The suspected coup makers would also have planned to arrest important government members and release people who have been incarcerated since the 2015 coup.

In October, the new political alliance was also formed Coalition for Democratic and National Reconciliation (Coder), by Compaoré’s Party of Democracy and Progress Congress (CDP) and seven other parties.