In Burkina Faso, the French ambassador is no longer welcome. According to an official French source, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sahelian country, the scene of two coups since January 2022, asked for the replacement of Luc Hallade, in office since the end of 2019, in a letter sent at the end of December to the Quai d’ Orsay and which leaked on social networks, Monday January 2. Information confirmed at Monde by a Burkinabe government source.
If the authorities do not detail, in this missive, the reasons which motivated their request, several sources maintain that they are partly linked to a letter sent by Luc Hallade to the French nationals of Koudougou on December 12. In this letter, which also leaked on the Web, the ambassador invited ” insistently ” people residing in this city, located 100 kilometers west of Ouagadougou, to “relocate” in the capital or in Bobo Dioulasso, in the south-west of the country.
The jihadist threat has continued to grow in Burkina Faso since 2015, to the point that more than 40% of the territory today escapes state control. Koudougou, the third most populated city in the country, “has gone into the red zone (and therefore formally advised against French people by the Quai d’Orsay) since the coup of September 30, 2022″, explained Luc Hallade, before emphasizing that “staying in Koudougou represented a significant risk”.
According to our information, after having read this letter, the Burkinabé Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French Ambassador, as is customary when a dispute arises on the diplomatic level, before finally postponing the meeting, citing scheduling issues. The interview will never take place.
At the end of July 2022, a first dispute broke out between the French ambassador and the junta, then led by Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Hearing by representatives of the French Senate on the political and security crisis in Burkina Faso on July 5, Luc Hallade had estimated that “lack of results” of the government in the fight against terrorism provoked “increasing frustrations in the country”. He also described the violence that is ravaging the country as “endogenous conflict” and of ” civil war “. A “misreading” and words “fairly serious” according to a press release from the Burkinabe Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on July 21, inviting Luc Hallade to “more shades”.
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