The president of Burkina Faso resulting from a coup d'etat, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, affirmed on Friday January 3 that there was "no rupture of diplomatic relations" with France and denied the presence of Russian mercenaries of Wagner in his country.

While protests against France have taken place regularly in Burkina since he took power in September, Captain Traoré said his wish to see French special forces leave Ouagadougou had no bearing on relations. diplomatic with Paris.

"The end of diplomatic agreements, no!", He declared in a television interview granted to Burkinabè journalists.

"There is no severance of diplomatic relations or hatred against any particular state," he added.

According to him, there was simply a break at Burkina's request for a military agreement on the presence of French special forces in Ouagadougou.

"It's just a process that has been set in motion and it has nothing to do with diplomacy."

"The French embassy is there (in Ouagadougou) the nationals are there, we have our embassy there (in Paris) so, diplomatically, nothing has been touched", he remarked, without mentioning the strained relations with the French ambassador recalled to Paris "for consultations".

“Safety is the primary mission”

He also denied the presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner company in Burkina, plagued by jihadist violence since 2015 and where violence has increased in recent months.

"We heard everywhere that Wagner is in Ouagadougou, I even asked some: 'Oh, where are they?'", he said.

"We have our Wagner, it is the VDP (Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland, civilian auxiliaries of the army) that we recruit. They are our Wagner", he underlined.

According to him, the rapprochement of Burkina with Russia is seen "necessarily in a political way, but we, we are here for a mission, it is security, it is the primary mission".

"We really want to look at other horizons, because we want win-win partnerships," he said, adding, "We don't want partnerships that are unclear, a little fuzzy or unbalanced."

He claimed that "all the people want is their sovereignty, to live with dignity".

"It doesn't mean leaving one country for another."

The partnerships sought by Captain Traoré are in particular of a military nature and "if we cannot afford to acquire military equipment in such and such a country, we will go to other countries to acquire it".

We must "allow us to be able to equip ourselves and wage war, because we are not going to sit down and watch our people die, never!"

But if a country comes "to colonize us, to dominate us, we will not agree".

"Sovereignty and Dignity"

Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in the spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali a few years earlier and which has spread beyond its borders.

Attacks by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have left thousands dead and some two million displaced.

These groups occupy about 40% of Burkinabe territory.

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president resulting from a military coup on September 30, 2022 - the second in eight months - has set himself the objective of "reclaiming the territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists".

On Friday, he ruled out any negotiations with the jihadists.

"We attack unarmed civilians, who are sitting quietly at home, or who are traveling (...) we arrest them and assassinate them. How can we negotiate with people who do this?"

According to him, "Burkina is a sovereign country, a secular country and these values ​​are not negotiated".

With AFP

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