Almost six weeks after a coup, Burkina Faso has a new interim government.
At the end of last week, the new military government appointed economist and university professor Albert Ouedraogo as prime minister.
His cabinet of 25 ministers is made up almost entirely of technocrats.
Members of political parties are excluded.
The former defense minister under ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, a general, is given the post again.
At the end of January, mutinous soldiers led by Lieutenant General Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba arrested the democratically elected Kaboré and seized power.
They had accused him of failure in the fight against Islamists and rebels in Burkina Faso.
This was preceded by months of demonstrations against the president, who critics in Burkina Faso also accuse of corruption and mismanagement.
According to media reports, Kaboré is still under house arrest in the capital Ouagadougou and is said to be fine.
The coup in Burkina Faso is one of three in the crisis-ridden Sahel region in the past 18 months.
Military leaders have also taken power in Mali and Guinea.
Swearing in without foreign representatives
In mid-February, Damibia was officially sworn in as interim president.
No foreign representatives attended the ceremony.
After the coup, the junta initially suspended the constitution entirely, but then largely reinstated it.
According to a plan recently signed by the junta, democratic elections are to take place in three years, and neither Damiba nor the new prime minister are allowed to run under the transitional charter.
The coup was celebrated by many in Burkina Faso, condemned internationally and called for a faster transition to democracy.
The African Union and the West African community of states Ecowas suspended the country's membership, and the American government suspended development aid for the time being.
In the Sahel region, the fight against radical Islamists continues unabated.
Almost 30 Malian soldiers were killed in an attack by extremists in Mali on Friday in the town of Mondoro near the Burkina Faso border.
According to the army, more than 30 soldiers were injured.
Previously, 47 attackers were "neutralized" and 23 others killed.
The government has declared three days of national mourning.
France recently announced the withdrawal of its troops from Mali, and other European governments are also withdrawing special forces from the Takuba Task Force.
At the same time, the number of Russian instructors and mercenaries in the Russian Wagner group is estimated to have increased to 700.
France, the United States and numerous European governments have protested vehemently against the use of the mercenaries.
Diplomatic relations between Mali and these countries are also heavily strained because the Malian military government has decided on a five-year transitional period before democratic elections.
Ecowas has therefore imposed harsh sanctions on the country, including air traffic and international bank transfers.
According to United Nations estimates, almost 15 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will need humanitarian aid this year, four million more than in 2021. In Burkina Faso, at least 1.5 thousand people have been killed in the conflicts with Islamists and other groups Millions had to leave their homes.