Held for a year in Burkina Faso, four French civil servants were released this week thanks to help from Morocco. The four men were accused of espionage, while relations between France and Burkina Faso are extremely tense, after the arrival of Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power.
Four French officials accused of espionage and detained for a year in Burkina Faso were released, with the help of Morocco which played the role of mediator, while Paris and Rabat recently sealed their reconciliation, French authorities announced Thursday and Moroccan.
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The release of the four men was confirmed to AFP by the French Directorate General of Foreign Intelligence (DGSE). France paid tribute to the King of Morocco for his intervention in this very sensitive issue which remained at a standstill for a long time, against a backdrop of very degraded relations between Paris and Ouagadougou.
An act made possible thanks to the good relations between Morocco and Burkina Faso
French President Emmanuel Macron “spoke yesterday (…) on the telephone with His Majesty King Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, to warmly thank him for the success of the mediation which made possible the release of our four compatriots detained for a year in Burkina Faso”, indicated the Élysée.
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“This humanitarian act was made possible thanks to the excellent relations between His Majesty the King and President (Ibrahim) Traoré and the long-standing good relations uniting the Kingdom of Morocco and the Republic of Burkina Faso,” commented the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
The four men, presented by the Burkinabè authorities as agents of the DGSE, were arrested in Ouagadougou on December 1, 2023. A French diplomatic source then indicated that they were four civil servants, holders of diplomatic passports and visas. , and had rejected “the accusations according to which these technicians were sent to Burkina Faso for reasons other than their computer maintenance work”.
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Since then, the French authorities have remained discreet about the fate of these four French people. Relations between France and Burkina quickly became execrable after coming to power in September 2022 by Captain Ibrahim Traoréthanks to a coup d’état.
A release against the backdrop of Paris-Rabat rapprochement
The French embassy has only been managed by a charge d’affaires since the Burkinabè authorities obtained the departure of ambassador Luc Hallade. In April, two political advisers at the embassy were declared “persona non grata” for “subversive activities” and asked to leave the country.
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Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France in March 2023, after obtaining the withdrawal of French forces. Burkina has since formed with Mali and Niger, which also expelled the French army from their soil, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). They are cooperating in particular to try to contain recurring attacks by jihadist groups, at the same time as they are moving closer to other powers such as Russia.
This success of the mediation of the King of Morocco comes as Paris and Rabat recently sealed their reconciliation, embodied by a state visit by the French president at the end of October to Morocco, after three years of acute crisis.
On July 30, France opened the way to bilateral warming by providing its reinforced support to a Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, considering that it was “the only basis” allowing to resolve the nearly fifty-year conflict between Morocco and the separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers.
And lasting quarrel between Paris and Algiers
During his visit, Emmanuel Macron proposed to Mohammed VI to sign a new strategic partnership in 2025 in Paris on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration which sealed Morocco’s independence from France. With this rapprochement between Paris and Rabat, France is now exposed to a potentially lasting diplomatic quarrel with Algeria.
Latest episode of this glaciation of Franco-Algerian relations, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French ambassador in Algiers at the beginning of December to send “a severe warning” to Paris, accused of having carried out “operations and maneuvers aggressive” to “destabilize” the country.
