APA – Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) – At the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Ouagadougou revealed the actions of Paris since Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in September 2022.
France “tried to get Burkina Faso to appoint a prime minister (…). […went on to impose ministers in strategic positions within the Burkinabe government,” denounced on Saturday the Minister of State Bassolma Bazié, representative of the President of the Transition at the UN session.
According to Bazié, Paris had “negotiated the maintenance of relations so that Captain Ibrahm Traoré would implement whatever they decided, a sine qua non condition for remaining in power as long as he wanted.”
He pointed out that these actions were carried out with the complicity of the “international community” and “local henchmen in Africa.”
Bazié claimed that Captain Traoré was the object of “reprisals, threats, coup attempts, immoral maneuvers” because he had rejected all French proposals “in the name of the higher interests of his people.”
Another stumbling block between Paris and Ouagadougou is the blocking of military equipment ordered by Burkina.
“For example, for the airborne vectors needed to control and defend the territory, we had a contract with Brazil, for which the weapons license was to come from Belgium, and the navigation and firing system and cameras from the United States of America, followed by an engine from Canada. These resources are now being deceptively and cynically blocked,” the Minister of State complained.
Diplomatic stalemate
Relations between Burkina Faso and France have not been at their best since the Captains took power in Ouagadougou.
At the end of February, the Burkina Faso government denounced the “technical military assistance agreement” with France. A month earlier, it had demanded and obtained the withdrawal of French Special Forces from the country.
The 400 soldiers of Operation Sabre had left the Kamboinsin camp on the outskirts of Ouagadougou for Niger and Chad.
Since 2015, the country has faced a wave of jihadist incursions in about 40 percent of its territory, leaving thousands dead and nearly two million displaced.
SD/ac/lb/abj/APA