This time, it is the expulsions of three French diplomats which are added to the numerous complicated files which are poisoning relations between the two countries. The Burkinabé Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a note, Thursday April 18, that these three diplomats, two of whom are registered as political advisers, are declared “persona non grata” on Burkinabe territory. Officially, Ouagadougou blames them for “subversive activities”, which means everything and nothing. They are accused of having held meetings with members of civil society.
Already on December 1, 2023, four French officials – intelligence agents according to the Burkinabe authorities, computer maintenance technicians, according to a French diplomatic Source – were arrested in Ouagadougou, then indicted and incarcerated. They are now under house arrest. A year earlier, in 2022, the Burkinabe government had expelled two French people who worked for a company in Burkina Faso, suspected by the authorities of being spies.
In March 2023, we remember the denunciation of the 1961 military agreement by Burkina Faso, which resulted in the departure of French soldiers who were based near the capital. We can also add the suspension of the direct Air France Paris-Ouagadougou link, or the suspension also of the French media which broadcast in Burkina including Le Monde, Radio France Internationale, France 24, Jeune Afrique, and LCI.
This incident should not change much in the “non-relation” that exists between the two countries, but for now, France explains that this decision is simply unjustified. The spokesperson for the Quai d’Orsay, Christophe Lemoine, regrets this expulsion of “French personnel, some of whom were assigned to the French embassy in Burkina Faso” : “We reject the unfounded accusations made by the Burkinabe authorities against our agents”, he declares. Defending a presence and activities that are part of “fully within the framework of the Vienna Conventions on diplomatic and consular relations”the spokesperson adds: “The decision of the Burkinabe authorities is not based on any legitimate basis. We can only deplore it.”
France stops there in its comments, a way of saying that this does not deserve more, the matter is so ridiculous. Especially since Paris really no longer expects much from the Burkinabe authorities. Paris knows that the country has turned towards the Russians, in line with what is happening in Mali or in Niger and generally in the Sahel.
For French diplomacy, the question is whether the country will sink into outright dictatorship, or whether the population, sensing the danger, will have the strength to react and confront the military and the junta, who have taken over. power after the coup of January 2022.
But one thing is certain, there are no elections in sight and the string of the authorities, which consists of waving the French rag to say that everything is bad, will begin to be worn out because France has really left the country . It’s been a year now, and it is clear that since then, the country has been sinking despite the military’s total takeover. The massacres continue throughout the country and the promises of peace promised to the Burkinabés by the junta are anything but a reality.
