Burkina Faso’s military leader Ibrahim Traoré: ‘No more red tape’

Burkina Faso’s new military leader, Capt Ibrahim Traoré, has urged cabinet ministers to “move faster” to fix the country’s “urgent” problems, including an insurgency by Islamist militants.

The man he ousted in a coup on Friday has formally agreed to step down, religious and community leaders said.

They said Capt Traoré had accepted Lt Col Paul-Henri Damiba’s resignation and conditions he had set.

Unconfirmed reports say he has now fled to Togo.

On Sunday Capt Traoré said the country was facing an emergency in every sector, “from security to defence, to health, to social action, to infrastructure”, and it was time for government to “abandon the unnecessary red tape”.

He wants fast solutions to big problems, which some fear signals a turn towards Russia.

Russia and France are engaged in a battle for influence in several former French colonies in West and Central Africa.

At the weekend there were attacks on French institutions, after it was reported that Lt Col Damiba was sheltering at a French military base in the capital, Ouagadougou.

France’s foreign ministry said they were the work of “hostile demonstrators” who had been “manipulated by a disinformation campaign against us”.

Some in Ouagadougou chanted pro-Russian slogans and waved Russian flags as they greeted the new junta leader and his convoy on Sunday.

He regards former colonial power France as an ally of the man he ousted, and has spoken of his willingness to work with new partners to fight Islamist insurgents – and analysts believe that could mean hiring Russian mercenaries.