Burkina ends technical military cooperation with France

Burkina Faso no longer wants French military support personnel in its administration.

More than a month after the departure of Operation Sabre, the Transition is ending all military cooperation with France. The government denounced the “technical military assistance agreement” between Burkina Faso and France, in a note signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivia Rouamba, yesterday, 28 February 2023, a copy of which was sent to APA.

The Transition requires a “final departure of all French military personnel serving in the Burkinabe military administrations” within one month, it says. Minister Rouamba, who is addressing the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is asking it to act quickly to meet this
deadline.   The “Technical Military Assistance Agreement” was concluded in Paris in April 1961 between France and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso).

In January, the government had requested and obtained the departure of French Special Forces from its soil. The 400 soldiers of Operation Sabre left the Kamboinsin camp on the outskirts of Ouagadougou for Niger and Chad, according to sources.

Demonstrators have repeatedly called for the departure of French troops from the country. But the diplomatic de-escalation between the two countries has been exacerbated since the arrival of Captain Ibrahim Traore in power in September 2022, against a background of rapprochement with Russia.

Since 2015, the country has faced a wave of jihadist incursions, in about 40 percent of the national territory, leaving thousands dead and nearly two million displaced.

DS/cgd/fss/APA