Burkina Faso’s ruling junta has dissolved the government and terminated the role of Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, according to a decree signed by junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré on Friday.
“The Prime Minister’s official functions are hereby terminated,” the decree stated, adding that members of the dissolved cabinet would handle ongoing duties until a new government is formed. No reason was provided for the decision.
Kyelem de Tambela, who was appointed in October 2022 after Traoré’s coup, had previously headed three successive governments under the junta. The move comes as Burkina Faso deepens its pivot away from Western influences, particularly former colonial ruler France, in favor of closer ties with Russia and its neighbors Mali and Niger, both governed by military regimes.
Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré recently emphasized the country’s strategic shift, stating, “Cooperation with Russia better suits Burkina Faso than maintaining traditional ties with France.” This realignment is part of a broader strategy by the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a coalition of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, to assert sovereignty and reject Western intervention.
Burkina Faso, grappling with a jihadist insurgency that has displaced over two million people and claimed more than 26,000 lives since 2015, has increasingly relied on Russian military assistance. The security crisis has also strained relations with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which the AES nations accuse of being influenced by France.
