Bangladesh’s Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus will lead an interim government after mass protests forced longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee, the presidency announced Wednesday.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin’s office said in a statement, “(They) decided to form an interim government with Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus as its chief.
“The president has asked the people to help ride out the crisis. Quick formation of an interim government is necessary to overcome the crisis.”
Yunus, who is currently in Europe, told AFP on Tuesday he was willing to lead the interim government.
“If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it,” he said in a statement.
Yunus wrote in The Economist that he wanted to “ensure a free and fair election is held within a few months”, calling on a new generation of leaders to step forward. “Above all, we need young people who are not obsessed with settling scores, as too many of our previous governments were,” Yunus wrote.
The appointment came after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus to lead, crediting him with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country.
Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka demanding she stand down. The military turned against Hasina on the weekend, and she was forced to flee to neighboring India.
The military has since acceded to a range of demands from student leaders, including the dissolution of parliament and the release of ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia from house arrest.
Since Tuesday, streets in the capital have been largely peaceful, but government offices remained mostly closed. Millions of Bangladeshis celebrated Hasina’s departure, and jubilant crowds stormed and looted her official residence.
