In Belgium for the third edition of Semaine de L’Afrique organized by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Burkina Faso’s president Roch Marc Christian Kabore announced, for the second time, his will to be a candidate to his own succession in 2020.

"I have the right for two terms, I will thus be a candidate and citizens will decide," the economist and banker who became the president of Burkina Faso on December 29, 2015 said to the Belgium news website Le Soir.

The president took this opportunity to express his views on the security crisis in his country. A crisis which, according to him, was caused by the ineffective resolution of the Lybian crisis and was made more complex by the slow provision of the financial support promised to the G5 Sahel.

As far as the economy is concerned, the president has achieved positive performances. According to the International Monetary Fund’s estimates following a recent visit in Burkina Faso, (End October to early November), economic growth reached 6.3% in 2017 from 5.9% in 2016. The mining and services sectors were the main drivers of this performance.

However, agriculture production declined due to drought and a plague outbreak which affected the harvest. In Late December 2017, the inflation was 2.1% and it stayed at that level this year.

Roch Marc Christian Kabore initiated numerous reforms which are taking time to become fully effective but, the management of security issues is the priority to restore investors and tourists’ trust.

Idriss Linge