Does Burkina Faso draw inspiration from Mali in its relations with France?
Colonel Assimi Goïta, on the left, and Captain Ibrahim Traoré, on the right.
© Baba Ahmed/AP and Vincent Bado/Reuters - Editing RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The spokesman for the government of Burkina Faso confirmed on Monday January 23, 2023 that the local authorities have requested the departure of the French troops based in the country, within one month.
Does the Burkinabè government draw inspiration from Mali in its relations with France?
In November 2022, for his first trip abroad, the president of the transition Ibrahim Traoré had met in Bamako his Malian counterpart, Assimi Goïta.
Advertising
Read more
With our regional correspondent,
Serge Daniel
Is the transitional government of Burkina Faso inspired by that of Mali?
In any case, he is increasingly distancing himself from France, and does not rule out a strengthening of the partnership with Russia either.
We also remember the first official trip of captain Ibrahim Traoré.
A symbol: about a month after taking power, it was his Malian counterpart, Colonel Assimi Goïta, another putschist soldier, whom he had met.
►
To read also:
Mali-Burkina: Captain Ibrahim Traoré meets Colonel Assimi Goïta in Bamako
As if he wanted to draw inspiration from the Malian experience, at the beginning of November 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré paid a friendly and working visit to Mali.
On this occasion, the two neighboring countries officially decided to strengthen their security cooperation.
But it is not at all excluded that Mali took advantage of this visit to advise its neighbor to strengthen the “Ouagadougou-Moscow” axis.
Which means less cooperation with France.
In any case, Russian flags have become increasingly visible in the streets of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, for example.
The ambassador
persona non grata
At the same time, as in Mali, authorities in Burkina Faso openly began to distance themselves from Paris.
The recall of the French ambassador to Ouagadougou has been requested.
In Mali, the French ambassador had been declared
persona non grata
.
Then, while the French troops of Operation Barkhane, under Malian pressure, packed up, as if to signify that Bamako had shown "the right path", the Burkina Faso authorities had just given the French soldiers a month to leave the national soil.
►
To read also:
L'Invité Afrique - Burkina Faso: "France has never been vilified by the authorities, as was the case in Mali"
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Burkina Faso
mali
sahel
France