Burkina Faso’s ruling military government has issued a decree dissolving all political parties and political formations in the country and scrapping the laws that governed their activities. 

Under the decree, adopted during a meeting of the council of ministers on Thursday, 29 January, all existing political parties have been formally disbanded and their assets will be transferred to the state, Interior Minister Emile Zerbo told Reuters reporters. Authorities said the move is aimed at rebuilding the state and addressing what they describe as “abuses and dysfunction” in the multiparty system. 

Zerbo said a recent government review found that the proliferation of parties had fostered divisions and weakened social cohesion in the West African nation. Political activities had already been largely suspended since the military took power in a coup in September 2022, but this decree goes further by eliminating their legal status entirely. 

Before the coup, Burkina Faso had more than 100 registered political parties, with 15 represented in the National Assembly following the 2020 general election. Those parties are now dissolved, and a draft law repealing statutes on party financing, political party roles and the status of the opposition leader will be sent to the Transitional Legislative Assembly, according to cabinet minutes. 

The decree also repeals the legal framework that once regulated how political organisations operate, effectively eliminating formal opposition structures. All assets previously held by the dissolved parties are to be taken over by the state, Reuters reported. 

The government said the dissolution is intended to strengthen national unity, improve the coherence of government action and support reforms to the political governance model, although critics say the measure further restricts political freedoms and civic space in a country that has already seen elections postponed indefinitely. 

Since the 2022 coup that brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power, Burkina Faso has been grappling with widespread security challenges, particularly violent insurgencies linked to groups affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State, which have killed thousands and displaced many more across the Sahel region.