France’s military operation in Burkina Faso is finally over, according to officials close to the junta in Ouagagoudou.
The military government on Sunday announced that the presence of French troops in the insurgent-plagued country has officially ended after a brief ceremony at a base just outside the capital on Saturday to mark the end of their operations.
It followed a notice last month by Burkina Faso’s military rulers giving French troopers one month to leave the country.
However, government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo appeared on state TV insisting that France’s troop withdrawal does not mean that relations between Burkina Faso and its former colonial power were over.
But relations between Ouagadougou and Paris have deteriorated to an all-time low since last last year as Burkina Faso strengthens both diplomatic and military collaboration with Russia to the displeasure of Western nations.
France which had at least 850 troops in the country announced in January that they will quit Burkina Faso in February and began a drawdown of its forces days after the notice was issued.
The landlocked West African nation of just over 20 million people has been plaued by a bloody jihadist insurgency in recent years, prompting calls by its citizens for Russian help in the form of mercenaries ostensbly from the Wagner Group.
Thousands of pople have died and some two million have been displaced since 2020.
WN/as/APA