Souratie Fatoumata

With a degree in Biochemistry, she is a member of the National Coordination governing body of the grassroots political movement Le Baloi Citoyen (The Civic Broom), Burkina Faso’s civil society movement for democratic culture, social justice, and transparency in public administration. Balai Citoyen, founded in 2013 and now present in twenty-eight cities around the country, aims to achieve the conscious involvement of citizens in the spheres of political decision-making, to make political leaders accountable to their electors, and to enable new democratic alternatives. In the group’s efforts to achieve the latter goal, it became a prime mover in an opposition movement against president Blaise Compaoré who had led the country since 1987 after a coup d’état in which Thomas Sankara was assassinated. After the Burkinabé uprising, a mass revolt against his regime in 2014, Compaoré was forced to leave the country and go into exile on Morocco.