Burkina Faso: President Dissolves Government

Burkina Faso’s President, Roch Marc Christian Kabore has dismissed Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire and dissolved the government. “The functions of the Prime Minister are terminated, the government is dissolved,” a presidential decree read over the national television by the Secretary General of the Government, Stephane Wenceslas Sanou states. The SG adds that the outgoing government will be required to remain in a caretaker capacity until a new one is formed.

Dabire first became Prime Minister in early 2019 and was reappointed in January 2021, after the President was re-elected for his second and last term. He has previously been Burkina Faso's representative at the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and in the 1990s served as Minister to former President Blaise Compaore, partly at a time when Kabore himself was premier.

The dissolution of the government comes on the heels of incessant protests in the capital Bamako and other major cities calling on the government to act fast against increase insecurity in the country. Though the decree which was made public on Wednesday, December 8, 2021 does make any indication as to when a new head of government and his cabinet will be appointed, there had been several signals that some major changes were in the pipe especially after a drastic overhaul of the military a few days ago.