Several sources said in recent days that Burkina Faso had requested the departure of French troops present on its soil within a month. This now seems confirmed. “What we are denouncing is the agreement that allows French forces to be present in Burkina Faso. It is not about the end of diplomatic relations between Burkina Faso and France,” said government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo in an interview on Radio-Television du Burkina (RTB) on Monday. . But France still says it is waiting for clarifications from the president of the Burkinabe transition.
“French forces are based in Ouagadougou at the request of Burkina Faso and its authorities. This denunciation is in the normal order of things, it is provided for in the terms of the military agreement”, declared Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, indicating that the denunciation of the agreements left “one month for the other party to access this query “. Burkina currently hosts a contingent of nearly 400 French special forces, the Saber force.
In a letter from the Burkinabé Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed to Paris and dated Wednesday, Ouagadougou “denounces and puts an end in its entirety to the agreement” of December 17, 2018 “relating to the status of the French armed forces intervening” in the Sahelian country. “We have received the note verbale sent to our embassy,” Quai d’Orsay spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre said later in the day on Monday in a written statement.
“As the President of the Republic said (Emmanuel Macron) here (sunday), we are waiting for the president of the Burkinabe transition (Ibrahim Traore) clarifies the scope of this note,” she added as the last official bilateral exchanges took place on January 10 between Captain Traoré and Secretary of State Chrysoula Zacharopoulou.
“We don’t see how to make it any clearer than that”
“At the current stage, we don’t see how to make it any clearer than that,” Ouédraogo said in his interview. For him, this request for the departure of the French forces “is not linked to a particular event”. “It is linked to the will today, of the authorities of the transition and of all the Burkinabés, to be the first actors in the reconquest of our territory. »
But Paris wants this departure request to be confirmed by Ibrahim Traoré himself before taking note of it. Concordant sources report disagreement within the Burkinabe government on whether or not to maintain French troops. “France is readjusting, in consultation with its partners, its system in the Sahel to remain alongside the countries engaged in the fight against terrorism”, also recalled the spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The fate of the French ambassador, whose departure was once again requested on Friday during demonstrations, was not sealed on Monday either. A diplomatic source said he was still in Ouagadougou.
The transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in September thanks to a putsch, the second in eight months, has set himself the objective of “reclaiming territory” from jihadist groups. Burkina Faso, particularly in its northern half, has been confronted since 2015 with increasing attacks by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization. They left thousands dead and at least two million displaced.