Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore announced his resignation in a statement on Friday and called for a 90-day transition to “free and transparent” elections in the West African country, local radio and television said.
“I declare a vacancy of power with a view to allowing a transition that should finish with free and transparent elections in a maximum period of 90 days,” said the statement, read on local radio and television by presenters.
Lieutenant-Colonel Issaac Zida of the presidential guard had earlier announced Compaore’s departure in the central Place de la Nation in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou to cheering from tens of thousands of protesters.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Burkina Faso on Thursday and Friday to press president Blaise Compaore to step down, a day after the army dissolved parliament and announced a transitional government in the face of violent mass protests.
Compaore has ruled the landlocked West African country since he seized power in a 1987 coup but events on Thursday - when he appeared on the point of being toppled by a popular uprising - have left it unclear who is in charge.
Long a bastion of stability in the turbulent Sahel region, Burkina Faso’s crisis is being closely watched by military allies France and the United States, and by governments in the region where several long-standing rulers are approaching the end of their mandates amid rumbling of popular discontent.