New Burkina Faso president names economist as prime minister

Ouagadougou (AFP) - Burkina Faso's new president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, on Thursday chose experienced economist Paul Kaba Thieba as prime minister of the west African nation, a presidential decree said.

Thieba, 55, a former central banker, who is little known to the public, now will form a government.

His nomination follows the swearing in last week of Kabore, Burkina Faso's first new leader in almost three decades who has pledged to "reform institutions and modernise the government, for more social justice, democracy and freedom."

Kabore takes over from an interim administration that followed a popular insurrection in October 2014 that toppled Blaise Compaore, who had been in power since 1987.

Thieba has a finance and banking doctorate and leaves an administrator's job in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, one of two regional bodies coordinating economic activity in nations sharing the CFA franc, which was historically pegged to the French currency.

The new premier has also held several posts in the Central Bank of West African States.

Kabore, who was elected with more than 53 percent of the votes in a presidential poll late November, also has an economic background, but turned in the 1990s from a banking career to politics.

In January 2014, he went into outspoken opposition against Compaore and played a role in the "Citizen's Broom" movement that brought down the regime, to become the first democratically elected civilian leader of the country.

Both Compaore and his predecessor Thomas Sankara were soldiers.

Kabore has pledged to build "a new Burkina Faso" by fighting youth unemployment, improving education and modernising the health system in the country of 17.4 million. More than 46 percent of Burkinabe people live below the poverty threshold.