Departments of Burkina Faso

The provinces of Burkina Faso are divided into 351 departments (as of 2014 and since local elections of 2012), whose urbanized areas (cities, towns and villages) are grouped into the same commune (municipality) with the same name as the department (the department also covers rural areas, including national natural parks, that are not ruled locally at municipal level, but by the state at departmental level). The 351 communes created in those departments have three kinds of status :

• 49 urban communes (including 2 urban communes with special status, the Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso departments that are further subdivided into "arrondissements"), are grouping their main city/town (subdivided into urban sectors) and all other administrative villages in their department; in these 49 urban communes, the main city or town is subdivided into urban sectors (within the two communes with special status, each urban sector of the capital city belong to only one arrondissement, which may also include other surrounding villages outside the capital city) — these 49 urban communes include the capital town (or city) of each one of the 45 provinces, and the commune of 4 additional departments, whose capitals are now large towns covering their respective urban areas (subdivided into urban sectors rather than former separate villages) : Bittou, Garango, Niangoloko and Pouytenga.
• 302 rural communes are grouping all administrative villages in their department.[1][2]

The 351 departments (or communes) of Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Burkina Faso
Constitution Human rights
Government President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré
Parliament National Assembly President: Alassane Bala Sakandé
Administrative divisions 13 regions 45 provinces 351 departments
Elections Recent elections General: 2015 2020 Political parties
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Alpha Barry Diplomatic missions of / in Burkina Faso Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy
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Departments (or communes) generally have the same name as their capital city or town, with a few exceptions (for historical reasons). For the local elections in 2012, communes were created in each department that still did not have one (village councils were kept but operate at advisory level under the supervision of their commune: each administrative village or urban sector elects at least 2 seats in the municipal council of their commune; for other elections at regional or national level, the smallest electoral circonscription is the whole department). The departments (or communes) are listed below, by province: