According to the official news source Agence d’Information du Burkina, the Burkina Faso military government has ordered that French troops leave the nation (AIB).
According to the provisions of the 2018 agreement, France has exactly one month to withdraw its troops from Burkina Faso, according to information cited by AIB.
According to AIB on Saturday, the military administration “denounced last Wednesday, the agreement which has controlled since 2018, the deployment of the French Armed Forces on its territory.”
After years of conflict in the area, France continues to station 400 special soldiers in Burkina Faso to aid in the fight against Islamist extremists affiliated with al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Residents of the nation’s capital Ouagadougou went to the streets on Friday to demonstrate against the presence of French troops there.
On January 20, 2023, demonstrators called for the withdrawal of French troops from Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou.
On January 20, 2023, demonstrators called for the withdrawal of French troops from Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou.
Reuters/Vincent Bado
In footage from the demonstration, demonstrators can be seen holding posters that read “Friendship Burkina Russia” and “French army get out of our house.”
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Several protestors carried the flags of Russia and Burkina Faso.
The military regime in Burkina Faso allegedly invited mercenaries from the Russian private military company Wagner, according to Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana.
Following the government’s summons of the Ghanaian ambassador, the Burkinabe deputy minister for regional cooperation, Jean Marie Traoré, described the allegations as “extremely serious” in a press conference on December 16.
At Mali’s request, France, a former colonial power, initially entered the Sahel region in January 2013 and began Operation Serval, a land and air operation against Islamist extremists that was authorized by the UN.
Operation Barkhane, a larger French anti-terror effort aimed at Islamists throughout the Sahel, including in Burkina Faso, succeeded the mission in August 2014.
The operation would be replaced by a more global effort, French President Emmanuel Macron declared in June 2021. Western troops started leaving Mali in February of last year, while they are still present in Burkina Faso.
The former president of Burkina Faso, Roch Kaboré, was overthrown by the army on January 24, 2022, and the government and parliament were dissolved.
The military shut down borders and suspended the constitution. The nation’s new commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, was installed.
However, Damiba’s reign as president was short-lived because he was overthrown from office in a coup in October 2022. Ibrahim Traoré, an army captain, was subsequently chosen to lead the nation.
