The transition must continue

When Blaise Compaore resigned from office in November 2014 due to the pressure on the streets, he handed over power to the military before fleeing to Ivory Coast. A power struggle almost ignited between military officials before international pressure obliged them to hand over power to a transitional civilian government. All transitions are fragile; there is no transition without difficulties.Infact in september 2015 members of the powerful presidential guard, the RSP, still loyal to Compoare burst into the cabinet room and kidnapped the president of Burkina Faso Michel Kafando and prime minister Isaac Zida, and two ministers, Augustin Loada and Rene Bagoro. Almost exactly one week after being taken hostage by his own presidential guard, President Michel Kafando has been reinstaded. Kafando and the international community declared on Wednesday 23 September 2015  that the military coup led by Gen. Gilbert Diendéré failed. This comes after a special ECOWAS mediation team met with Diendéré to negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the political crisis. The ECOWAS team, led by Senegalese and Beninois presidents Macky Sall and Thomas Boni Yayi, identified thirteen points for a proposed peace agreement, despite this gold mining in Burkina Faso continues to grow rapidly, with more than fifteen major discoveries made since 2006. With this has come increasing amounts of merger and acquisition activity and more explorers flocking to the region. A recent report from publication AllAfrica revealed that the recent boom in the country’s gold mining industry in the last three years has made the country one of Africa’s leading producers and also asserted that it was luring a whole generation into the sector for work. Children as young as six were reported to have left school in order to work in the mines – mainly artisanal ones where they crush stones, sieve dust and transport water around the site. Children are even visiting mines on their days off from school, influenced by their parents who have made money there. According to the Ministry of Finance, gold has become the top export commodity.