Burkina Faso\u2019s military junta has broken off diplomatic ties with France, accusing Paris of persistently acting against its national interests.<\/p>\n
Relations between Burkina Faso and its former colonial ruler worsened after\u00a0Capt Ibrahim Traore\u00a0seized power in a coup in 2022 and pursued largely anti-Western policies.<\/p>\n
In a televised statement on Friday, communications minister Pingdwend\u00e9 Gilbert Ou\u00e9draogo said France was guilty of \u201cceaseless activism\u201d against his country and accused it of \u201cneo-colonial ambitions\u201d.<\/p>\n
The French foreign ministry called the decision \u201chostile and unfounded\u201d and said it \u201cillustrated the troubling drift by the Burkinabe government\u201d.<\/p>\n
France also urged nationals in the country \u201cto exercise heightened vigilance\u201d.<\/p>\n
Burkina Faso, like its neighbour Mali, has been battling an Islamist insurgency for over a decade, often alongside French forces deployed in the region.<\/p>\n
Soon after he took power, Capt Traor\u00e9 expelled French troops. His government has accused France of having a \u201csecret agenda\u201d and pivoted towards China and Russia.<\/p>\n
The latest Burkinabe statement says conditions for mutual respect no longer exist between the two countries. It alleges French support for \u201csubversive networks and an intent to marginalise\u201d Burkina Faso on the international stage.<\/p>\n
The statement adds that the decision to sever ties \u201cconcerns exclusively the institutional framework of relations\u201d but \u201cin no way calls into question the historical, human, cultural and social ties that unite the Burkinabe and French peoples\u201d.<\/p>\n
The junta pledged to restore democracy in 2024, but reneged on this promise and formally dissolved political parties in January this year.<\/p>\n
In January 2025, Burkina Faso, along with two neighbouring military-led states \u2013 Mali and Niger, officially broke away from the regional West African bloc, Ecowas, to form a new group, The Alliance of the Sahel States.<\/p>\n
France has had no ambassador in Burkina Faso since January 2023.<\/p>\n
In 2024,\u00a0the country expelled three French diplomats, accusing them of \u201csubersive activities\u201d. France denied the claims.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Burkina Faso\u2019s military junta has broken off diplomatic ties with France, accusing Paris of persistently acting against its national interests. Relations between Burkina Faso and its former colonial ruler worsened after\u00a0Capt Ibrahim Traore\u00a0seized power in a coup in 2022 and pursued largely anti-Western policies. In a televised statement on Friday, communications minister Pingdwend\u00e9 Gilbert Ou\u00e9draogo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}