DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Burkina Faso’s military rulers have dissolved the country’s independent electoral commission, authorities said.
Since taking power in a 2022 coup, the West African country's military leaders have launched sweeping reforms, including postponing elections that were expected to restore civilian rule.
The government passed a law late Wednesday abolishing the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is responsible for organizing elections, citing its high cost, Minister of Territorial Administration Emile Zerbo said after a Cabinet meeting.
Abolishing the electoral commission will reinforce the country's “sovereign control on the electoral process” and "limit foreign influences,” Zerbo added.
The state run television broadcaster RTB said the interior ministry will take control of future polls.
The junta in Burkina Faso seized power in Sept. 2022 by ousting the military rule of Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba about eight months after it staged a coup to remove democratically elected President Roch Marc Kaboré.
The country is one of several West African nations where the military has taken over in recent years, capitalizing on popular discontent with previous democratically elected governments over security issues.
The junta had initially set a goal of conducting elections to return the country to democratic rule by July 2024 but last year it signed a new charter that allows the country’s leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré to remain in office until July 2029.
The transitional government has been running Burkina Faso under a constitution approved by a national assembly that included army officers, civil society groups and traditional and religious leaders.
FILE - Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore is seen at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Angelos Tzortzinis/Pool Photo via AP, File)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
