Burkina Faso is a country located in Africa. According to AbbreviationFinder, BF is the two-letter ISO code of Burkina Faso, and BFA is the three-letter country abbreviation for Burkina Faso.
Yearbook 1997
Burkina Faso. In January, the National Assembly adopted a number of constitutional changes. These included the repeal of the rules that hitherto limited the president’s eligibility to two seven-year terms. The opposition opposed this because it viewed the measure as an attempt to extend the incumbent President Blaise Compaore’s reign. Furthermore, it was decided to increase the number of members of the National Assembly from 107 to 111.
| Land area | 274,200 km² |
| Total population | 20.835.401 |
| Population density (per km²） | 76 |
| Capital | Ouagadougou |
| Official language | French |
| Income per capita | 1,900 USD |
| Currency | CFA Franc BCEAO |
| ISO 3166 code | BF |
| Internet TLD | .bf |
| License plate | BF |
| Telephone code | +226 |
| Time zone UTC | + 0 |
| Geographic coordinates | 13 00 N, 2 00 W. |
According to Countryaah, the national day of Burkina Faso is August 5. General elections were held on May 11. President Blaise Compaoré’s ruling Social Democratic Party The Congress for Democracy and Le Progress (CDP) increased its majority by winning 97 of the 111 seats. Compaoré appointed a new government where Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo retained the Prime Minister’s post, which also allowed several of the old government’s other ministers to hold office.
In March, a military exercise was held in Burkina Faso, which in addition to the host country included Benin, Togo and France. Over 4,000 soldiers participated in the exercise, which was part of a military agreement between the three participating African states and the former colonial power of France.
History. – With the Constitution of 1977, General S. Lamizana returned to a civil government; in 1978 he was elected President and contested legislative elections were held. In a context of severe food shortages, of exasperated conflict between factions and continuous trade union unrest, Colonel S. Zerbo assumed power with a bloodless military coup on November 25, 1980. A new civil-military cabinet tried to regulate the explosive demands of the labor unions. Attempts at mediation failed and on 7 November 1982 a bloody coup led by non-commissioned officers established a Conseil de Salut du Peuple (CSP), headed by sergeant-major JB Ouedraogo, who took radical positions in favor of the right to strike. In January 1983, Captain Th. Sankara, a former member of Zerbo’s previous government but dismissed for his radicalism, was appointed Prime Minister, but in May Ouedraogo, fearful of his growing following, attempted to arrest him, causing threatening reactions in the army.
On August 4, Sankara carried out a bloody coup d’état, arrested Ouedraogo and the moderates, and announced a revolutionary turn by taking an anti-Western stance.
Having installed a Conseil National de la Révolution (CNR) of 15 civilians and 5 soldiers (average age 30 years), Sankara gave way to his revolution, characterized more by a radical populist moralism than by doctrinal Marxism. Primary objectives were agricultural and food self-sufficiency, education and health care for peasants (90% of the population), the promotion of women. The functions of traditional leaders were taken over by revolutionary committees, while people’s courts tried politicians and bureaucrats accused of corruption. After the exclusion from the CNR of the extremists of the Marxist LIPAD (Ligue Patriotique pour le Développement) in September 1984, the purifying heat subsided. The brief border war with Mali, in 1985, ended with a mediation of the West African countries. Prominent political prisoners were released by the now strong and popular regime.
In October 1986, F. Mitterrand visited the country. Beyond the actual results of the revolution in a desperate framework of absolute misery, Sankara’s great popularity was linked to the integrity of the character and the sincerity of his dedication to indisputable principles of justice and human solidarity (strong his Christian matrix). Great emotion in the country and abroad caused the news of his killing in the ” fratricidal ” palace coup on October 15, 1987, led by his deputy, B. Compaoré. Pleasing the urban classes, Compaoré launched a review of the austerity and self-sufficiency policy, reconnecting with moderate pro-Western countries (Ivory Coast, Senegal). Two coup attempts foiled in September and December 1988,eliminated the surviving exponents of the revolutionary old guard of 1983. The first congress of the Front Populaire (FP), the formation headed by Compaoré, inclusive of numerous autonomous national political and social organizations and presented as an intermediate way between the extremes of the single party and the multi-party, was held in March 1990. The Congress adopted a definite line of ” state capitalism ” as the country’s official economic policy, decided on the launch of a new constitution (approved in June 1991) and elected the executive of the Front.