APA-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) The West African nation and former colonial power France are on the verge of a diplomatic meltdown.
The Burkinabe authorities have not accepted the proposed appointment of a new French ambassador to the country, reports Le Monde.
According to our confreres, Ouagadougou has rejected the appointment of Mohamed Bouabdallah, who was proposed to replace Luc Hallade, who was expelled by the junta last year.
Diplomatic sources told APA that Paris will submit the name of the current ambassador to Chad, Bertrand Co-chery, to head the French embassy in Ouagadougou.
The charge d’affaires of the French embassy in Burkina Faso, René Consolo, will also left his post at the end of July without a successor.
The reasons for the refusals remain officially unexplained.
However, relations between Burkina Faso and France have deteriorated considerably since Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who is more sympathetic to Russia, came to power.
Diplomatic stalemate
Last January, the authorities demanded and obtained the withdrawal of the 400 French soldiers of the Sabre Task Force stationed on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, before renouncing in early March the military assistance agreement signed with France in 1961.
By the end of January, the transitional authorities had already requested the departure of Luc Hallade, former ambassador of Paris in Ouagadougou.
The French media also bore the brunt of the diplomatic crisis between Ouagadougou and Paris. At the end of December 2022, RFI’s antennas in the country were suspended, as were those of France24. Correspondents for the French dailies Libération and Le Monde, Agnès Faivre and Sophie Douce respectively, were expelled last March.
Earlier this month, the military authorities renounced double taxation agreements between Burkina Faso and France, estimating that Ouagadougou loses between 40 and 50 billion CFA francs, although the country has no companies based in France.
SD/ac/lb/as/APA