France has not had an ambassador in Burkina Faso since the transitional authorities requested the departure of Luc Hallade whose successor will be named in the next few months.
The new French ambassador to Ouagadougou will be appointed to replace Hallade in July 2023, announced Rene Consolo, the chargé d’affaires of the French embassy in Burkina Faso at the end of a meeting with the Burkinabe minister in charge of security, Boukare Zoungrana last month.
According to him, he has been in Ouagadougou since the beginning of January 2023, following the departure of former Ambassador Hallade, and will remain there until the arrival of a new diplomat, in July 2023.
In the midst of a diplomatic row, Rene Consolo said that France would always stand by Burkina Faso in the fight against terrorism.
“Terrorism is everyone’s enemy. That’s why we also have an interest in taking advantage of the experience of the Burkinabe authorities in the fight and identification of armed groups that threaten us as much as them,” he said.
Diplomatic dispute with Paris
Since the September 2022 putsch that brought Ibrahim Traore to power, there have been increasing protests against France.
Last January, the authorities demanded and obtained the departure of 400 French soldiers from Operation Sabre, based on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, before renouncing, at the beginning of March, the military agreement signed in 1961 between the country and its former colonial power France.
French media are also bearing the brunt of the diplomatic crisis between Ouagadougou and Paris. At the end of December 2022, the RFI broadcast antennas were suspended as were those of France24 last week.
On Friday, March 31, correspondents for the French dailies “Liberation” and “Le Monde,” Agnes Faivre and
Sophie Douce respectively, were expelled from Burkina Faso.
DS/ac/fss/as/APA