Last Update: February 04, 2023, 07:47 IST
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
People hold a sign as they gather to show their support for Burkina Faso’s new military leader Ibrahim Traoré and demand the departure of the French ambassador at Place de la Nation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Image: Reuters)
Russia has sent thousands of Wagner mercenaries to the Sahel region of Africa to end French influence in the region and bring these areas closer to Moscow.
Burkina Faso’s military leader said Friday there was no break in diplomatic ties with France, which he told to withdraw its forces, and denied Russian Wagner mercenaries were in the country.
Former colonial power France had special forces based in Ouagadougou, but its presence came under intense scrutiny as anti-French sentiment grew in the region, with Paris withdrawing its ambassador from Burkina over the junta’s demands. Was.
“The end of diplomatic agreements, no!” said captain Ibrahim Traoré in a televised interview with Burkinabé journalists. “There is no break in diplomatic relations or hatred against any particular state,” he said.
Traore denied that the Russians stationed in Burkina Faso were mercenaries of the Wagner Group, even as the junta has nurtured ties with Moscow.
“We have heard everywhere that Wagner is in Ouagadougou … (this rumour) was created so that everyone would distance themselves from us,” he said.
Paris confirmed last month that special forces deployed to help fight the year-long jihadist insurgency would leave within a month.
It fueled anger within the military over the government’s failure to contain a jihadist insurgency that has raged since 2015, sparking two coups in Burkina Faso last year.
Violence by insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has killed thousands and forced nearly two million to flee their homes.
bloody conflict
A landlocked country located in the middle of West Africa’s Sahel, Burkina Faso is one of the most unstable and poor countries in the world.
It has been battling a jihadist insurgency from neighboring Mali since 2015.
Thousands of civilians, soldiers and police have been killed, more than two million people have fled their homes, and about 40 percent of the country is outside government control.
Anger within the military at the rising toll has led to two coups in 2022, the most recent of which took place on 30 September, when Traore, 34, seized power.
He stands by a pledge made by the previous junta to elect a civilian government by 2024.
After the ruling junta in Mali ousted French troops last year, officers from the army running neighboring Burkina Faso followed suit, asking Paris to vacate its outposts.
Under President Emmanuel Macron, France was already drawing down its troops in the Sahel region, which numbered more than 5,000 a few years ago, supported with fighter jets, helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles.
About 3,000 remain, but the forced departures from Mali and Burkina Faso – as well as the Central African Republic to the south last year – underscore how anti-French winds are gaining force.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)