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| - Burkina Faso, which holds presidential and parliamentary elections on November 22, is one of the world's poorest countries and has been in the grip of an intensifying jihadist insurgency since 2015. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the vast Sahel region, which stretches along the Sahara's southern rim from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. It is about half as big as France, its former colonial ruler, and shares borders with the Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo and Ghana. Its population of 20.3 million (World Bank, 2019) is made up of some 60 different ethnic groups, the largest being the Mossi. Sixty percent of the population is Muslim and nearly a quarter are Christian. Known in colonial times as Upper Volta, the country gained its independence in 1960. A popular uprising in 1966 toppled its first president, Maurice Yameogo. This was followed by seven military coups. In 1983, young revolutionary officers led by Thomas Sankara took power, renaming the country Burkina Faso, "the land of honest men". Sankara, then only 33, pushed for economic development but ruled with an iron fist. Blaise Compaore came to power in a 1987 coup in which Sankara was killed. But the so-called father of Burkina Faso's revolution remains a cult figure, often called the African Che Guevara. Compaore began holding multi-party elections in 1991, after 11 years of running a military regime. He was re-elected in 1998, 2005 and 2010. A wave of army mutinies swept the country over several months in 2011, alongside public protests over high food prices, unemployment and the looting of property by troops. Street protests in 2014 toppled Compaore, with the population angry at his bid to change the constitution in order to extend his 27-year rule. Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had been a part of a Compaore government, was elected president in 2015. Burkina Faso was initially spared the deadly attacks perpetrated by jihadist groups active in the Sahel, which started in Mali in 2012. But with its shared northern border with Mali and Niger, it has seen assaults and kidnappings multiply since 2015. In 2016 the capital Ouagadougou suffered a number of radical Islamist attacks including an assault on the Splendid Hotel and a cafe, which left 30 people dead, around half of them foreigners. The insurgency intensified in 2018 and became intertwined with inter-communal violence that left more than 1,200 people dead and a million displaced. Burkina Faso is ill-equipped to face the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, ranked 182 out of 189 countries on the UN Human Development Index. Its fragile economic growth could slow to 0.7 percent, according to a projection from the African Development Bank, a significant drop from the average of 6.2 percent growth it has recorded since 2016. Famine is a major concern. Between January and September the number of people in a state of food insecurity nearly tripled, to 3.3 million, according to Oxfam. In 2009 gold took over from cotton as the main export. Agriculture is also a vital sector, employing nearly 80 percent of the active population, according to the World Bank. The jihadist insurgency has ravaged the country's once-vibrant tourist industry. Ouagadougou is home to the continent's biggest film and television festival, FESPACO, which takes place every two years. As well as being a revolutionary hero, Sankara was also a nifty guitarist who contributed to the country's national anthem, "One Single Night". acm-ang-eab-fg/pgf/dl
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