Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore fired his prime minister on Wednesday amid an escalating security crisis that has killed thousands and led to street protests calling for him to go.

The country, one of West Africa’s poorest, has been beset by attacks carried out by groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) since 2016, killing 2,000 people and forcing more than one million people to flee their homes.

Anger has spilled over since an attack by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group last month in which 49 military police officers and four civilians were killed, putting pressure on Kabore to make changes.

He has already reshuffled his army leadership.

The presidential office said Kabore had received a resignation letter from Prime Minister Christophe Dabire.

In view of the letter of resignation of December 8, the president decrees that “the duties of Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire are terminated,” the government’s secretary general Stephane Wenceslas Sanou said, reading out the decree on public television. Burkina Faso’s struggle to contain a security crisis triggered anti-government protests in Ouagadougou last month [File: Olympia De Maismont/AFP]

The resignation of a prime minister requires the resignation of the entire government, according to Burkina Faso law.

However the outgoing government will be required to remain in a caretaker capacity until a new one is formed, Sanou said.

Dabire first became prime minister in early 2019 and was reappointed in January 2021, after the president was re-elected for his second and last term.

Burkina Faso is at the heart of a hardline armed uprising that has also hit large parts of neighbouring Mali and Niger.

Despite efforts by former colonial ruler France and other regional armies to combat the attacks, they have continued unabated.