interim president - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Chad interim president Deby kicks off campaign for vote set to end junta rule

CHAD'S interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby kicked off his presidential campaign for an election next month meant to end three years of military rule on a promise to strengthen security and boost the economy. Deby's government is one of several juntas that seized power in West and Central Africa since 2020, drawing concerns of a democratic backslide. Chad is the first of these to organise elections despite regional and international pressure to swiftly hand power back to civilians. "Today we are at the final turn on the road to constitutional return," Deby told a large crowd gathered in scorching weather…

Mar

2024

By MAHAMAT RAMADANE

Chad’s interim leader Deby confirms plan to run for president

NEWS

CHAD'S interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby said he plans to run in this year's long-awaited presidential race. Deby's confirmation came at the end of a chaotic week in which opposition politician Yaya Dillo was shot and killed in the capital N'Djamena. Dillo's death on Wednesday in disputed circumstances has further exposed divisions in the ruling elite at a politically sensitive time as the Central African country prepares for the promised return to democratic rule via the ballot box. Advertisement · Scroll to continue The Chadian government has said Dillo was killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces and has accused members of his party…

Feb

2024

By NYASHA NYAUNGWA

Tributes for late Namibia president, 1st woman head of state on the cards

NEWS

TRIBUTES have poured in for Hein Geingob, the Namibian president who lost his battle against cancer on Sunday. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa paid a warm tribute to Geingob both as freedom fighter and head of state. Ramaphosa said: "Today, South Africa joins the people of our sister state Namibia in mourning the passing of a leader, patriot and friend of South Africa. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Geingob family and the people of Namibia who have lost an outstanding leader in a year in which Namibia, like South Africa, is due to hold elections. “I am deeply…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Burkina junta leader: Security first before promised elections

NEWS

THE leader of Burkina Faso's military junta said promised elections would only be held once the security situation permits, as hundreds of his supporters rallied in the capital on the first anniversary of the coup. Supporters gathered at the Place de la Nation in Ouagadougou waving Burkinabe flags. Some held signs with pictures of the young interim president, Captain Ibrahim Traore. Traore grabbed power on September 30 last year, ousting the leader of another coup who had overthrown president Roch Kabore eight months earlier amid a worsening security crisis fuelled by armed groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Burkina Faso’s ousted ex-president Compaore returns for summit

NEWS

BURKINA FASO'S ex-president Blaise Compaore returned from exile, almost eight years after he was toppled in an uprising, to take part in a meeting with interim president Paul-Henri Damiba and other former leaders. Compaore, 71, has returned to the West African country despite being convicted in absentia in April to life in prison for complicity in his predecessor Thomas Sankara's murder. Lawyers for Sankara's family have demanded that Compaore be arrested on arrival, although Burkinabe media have speculated in recent days that he could be granted a pardon. Ivory Coast, where he took refuge in 2014, has repeatedly refused to…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

ECOWAS suspends Mali over coup

NEWS

PAUL LORGERIE and TIEMOKO DIALLO WEST African regional bloc ECOWAS has suspended Mali's membership in response to last week's coup and said authorities must stick to a timetable for a return to democracy, but stopped short of imposing new sanctions. Leaders of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States held an emergency summit in Ghana's capital Accra to agree on a response to the Malian military's ouster of a president and prime minister for the second time in nine months. Mali's neighbours and international powers fear the latest revolt will jeopardise a commitment to hold a presidential election next…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Retired colonel sworn in as Mali interim president after coup

NEWS

TIEMOKO DIALLO RETIRED colonel Bah Ndaw has been sworn in as Mali's interim president, tasked with presiding over an 18-month transition back to civilian rule after a military coup. Malian officials hope the inauguration will lead the country's neighbours to lift punishing sanctions imposed after the August 18 overthrow of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as president that have paralysed the landlocked country's economy. Ndaw, 70, took the oath of office in front of several hundred military officers, political leaders and diplomats. Colonel Assimi Goita, who led the coup, was sworn in as vice president during a ceremony in the capital Bamako.…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Former colonel Ndaw named interim Mali president, junta leader VP

NEWS

FORMER Mali defence minister and retired colonel Bah Ndaw was named interim president, while the leader of the junta that seized power last month, Colonel Assimi Goita, was appointed vice president, Goita said in a statement. Mali's ruling junta has come under intense pressure from leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to return power to civilians following the August 18 coup that overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. It was unclear whether the arrangement would satisfy ECOWAS, which last week threatened to step up economic sanctions and impose a total embargo on landlocked Mali if its conditions…