OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso
As a heavily armed convoy drove through a cheering crowd in Burkina Faso's capital on Sunday morning, the boyish face of the country's latest military ruler, Captain Ibrahim Traore, emerged from the turret of an armored personnel carrier.
Sporting fatigues and a red
beret, the 34-year-old smiled and raised his thumb as onlookers welcomed him,
some by waving Russian flags.
Traore, a relatively
low-ranking officer who days earlier was running an artillery regiment in a
small northern town, has been catapulted onto the world stage since he and a
group of soldiers overthrew President Paul-Henri Damiba in a September 30 coup.
Little is known about Traore
and his colleagues, who since Friday have delivered statements on national
television brandishing guns, ammunition belts and masks.
They face gigantic challenges
to alleviate hardship in one of the world's poorest countries where drought,
food shortages and creaking health and education systems provide daily
challenges for millions.
Yet the initial focus has been
conflict and politics.
In an interview with Radio
France International on Monday, Traore, a career soldier who has fought on the
front lines against Islamist militants in the north, insisted he would not be
in charge for long.
A national conference will
appoint a new interim ruler by the end of the year.
That leader, who could be
civilian or military, will honor an agreement with West Africa's regional bloc
and oversee a return to civilian rule by 2024, he said.
"We did not come to
continue, we did not come for a particular purpose," he said. "All
that matters when the level of security returns is the fight, it's
development."
Still, an early picture has
emerged of what Traore's junta intends to do with its time in power.
Their moves, which may include
army reform and ties to new international partners such as Russia, could alter
politics in West Africa and change how Burkina Faso fights an Islamist
insurgency that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee.
Army officers initially
supported Damiba when he took power in his own coup in January, promising to
defeat the Islamists.
But they quickly lost
patience. Damiba refused to reform the army, Traore's junta said. Attacks
worsened. Just last week, at least 11 soldiers were killed in an attack in the
north.
Meanwhile, Russia has
expressed support for the coup just as regional neighbors and western powers
condemned it.
"I salute and support
Captain Ibrahim Traore," read a statement from Russian businessman Yevgeny
Prigozhin, founder of private military company Wagner Group, which has
operations across Africa, including in Burkina Faso's neighbor Mali.
Ties with Russia would put a
further strain on relations with former colonial power France, which has
provided military support in recent years but has become the target of
pro-Russian protests.
Its embassy in Ouagadougou was
attacked in the aftermath of Friday's coup.
Wagner's entry into Mali last
year spelled the end to France's decade-long mission to contain Islamists
linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State who have since spread into Burkina Faso.
Wagner and the Malian army
have since been accused by rights groups and witnesses of widespread abuses,
including the killing of hundreds of civilians in the town of Moura in March.
Burkina Faso's new leaders on
Saturday stoked anti-French rioting when they said in a statement on television
that France had sheltered Damiba at a military base and that he was planning a
counter-offensive.
The French Foreign Ministry
denied the base had hosted Damiba.
Traore is on a crash course in
diplomacy. He downplayed the link between Damiba and France, and called an end
to the protests. About ties with Russia, he was vague.
"There are many partners.
France is a partner. There is no particular target," he told RFI.
Meanwhile, he must juggle
everyday problems. On Sunday, he arrived in military fatigues to a meeting with
ministerial officials which was streamed online.
Can the junta guarantee the
safety of schools that reopen this week, they asked their new leader. What is
being done about a tender for a railway link to Ghana?
Traore, who had to consult
with advisers, did not have all the answers.
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