Yearbook 2007
Burkina Faso. The ruling party, the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), received a majority of votes in the May 6 parliamentary elections. The CDP took home 73 of the 111 seats in the National Assembly, a sharp increase compared to the 2002 election when the party received 57 seats. The turnout was 56 percent. As many as 47 parties lined up, of which 13 got seats in parliament.
- According to abbreviationfinder: BF is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Burkina Faso.
According to CountryAAH, Ouagadougou is the capital city of Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso, like a number of other West African countries, suffered severe flooding in August – October. At least 51 people died and 76 were injured. In total, more than 90,000 people were affected by the floods, according to government estimates. Of these, 28,000 had become homeless.
In addition, cultivations, houses, roads and bridges were destroyed. At the end of October, the UN appealed for $ 6 million in emergency aid to the country.
Population
A very old populated country due to its very position of passage between the middle basin of Niger and the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, Burkina Faso has a centralized settlement, both rural and urban. In the first case we are dealing with villages of huts, often fortified by perimeter walls in clay, which house up to a few hundred people; in the second case of ancient transit centers and seats of important ethnic monarchies (Ouagadougou was the residence of the Mossi emperors) which today tend to present characteristics of modern cities, centers of political-economic directional activities: thus the capital and Bobo -Dioulasso, the only cities of an appreciable size, whose development has greatly intensified since they were connected to the Guinean coast by the railway from Abidjan (Ivory Coast). The urbanization of the population (18%), while growing, has not affected the overall very strong predominance of the traditional habitat. The average annual growth rate of the population (3%) has not yet stabilized downwards, and results from an always high birth rate, but above all from a marked reduction in mortality. However, the conditions of the population are not satisfactory (infant mortality above 9%, life expectancy around 48 years). Previously, the demographic structure had remained stationary for long periods due to the massive exodus of manpower towards the coastal countries, exodus which are still sensitive, especially as regards seasonal movements. The distribution of the population largely reflects the composition by ethnic groups.2) is, in fact, the central one where there is the main nucleus of the Mossi, neo-Volticists, immigrant farmers in very ancient times and making up almost 49% of the population of Burkina Faso; the density values instead drop to 30-50 residents per km 2 in the western area, where paleovoltaic groups remain (Bobo, Lobi, etc.), and 10-30 residents per km 2 in the eastern belt, with farming economy, inhabited by the Gourma (similar to the Mossi, but much less numerous) and, further north, by Peul and Tuareg. The Islamic religion is professed by 52% of the population, the Catholic one by almost 18%, while the rest is animist.
Climate
Burkina Faso is subject to a tropical climate, which is primarily influenced by the interaction of the West African monsoons and the trade wind Harmattan, which gives the regions of the country a different length but distinct division into dry and rainy seasons.
The north of the country protrudes into the Sahel zone. Here the desert is on the rise. The main rainfall occurs in summer. The precipitation decreases from south to north. In winter, the hot, dry harmattan blows from the Sahara.
Best travel time
Since some parts of the country are hardly accessible during the rainy season due to flooding, the rain-free and not yet very hot months from December to February are considered the best travel time.
Burkina Faso – Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou, Wagadugu, capital of Burkina Faso; 2. 5 million residents (2019). Ouagadougou, which is the country’s largest city, is the center of administration and trade as well as transport hub with international airport and railway to Abidjan. The city’s industry includes, among other things, the textile industry and the brewery. In Ouagadougou there are universities (founded in 1969), and the city hosts a Pan-African Film Festival, which has in principle been held every two years since 1969.
Ouagadougou, from the 15th century royal residence in the moss kingdom of Ouagadougou, was incorporated in 1896 with the French colonial empire. It was 1918–32 and again in 1947 became the capital of Upper Volta (today’s Burkina Faso).