Isaac Zida, named Saturday by Burkina Faso’s army as interim leader following the ouster of president Blaise Compaore, is a career soldier who has always been in the background.
But he won the backing of the military, beating army chief Nabere Honore Traore to the top job — at least temporarily — as the latter was considered too close to the deposed leader.
Second in command of the presidential guard, 49-year-old Zida appears to be popular with his men.
He was among few presidential guards who were spared by mutineers who launched a failed coup in 2011 against Compaore, a military source and a rights activist told AFP.
But some view him with suspicion over his ties with general Gilbert Diendere, who was Compaore’s chief of staff.
“He is part of the same network as Diendere. Some don’t trust him,” one security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
Zida, a well-built man who wears a moustache and frameless glasses, has his origins in Yako, in the centre-north province of Passore.
He was trained at the Commando Training Centre of Po — in the south of the west African country, according to one of his aides.
He also received further military training in Morocco and Cameroon.
Zida had been a UN peacekeeper in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a member of his team told AFP, without giving dates of the mission.
And during the 2011 political crisis in the Ivory Coast, he was a liaison officer in the team of Compaore, who acted then as a mediator, a UN source said.