Luc Hallade, Ambassador of France to Burkina Faso (bf.ambafrance.org)
By Gary Raynaldo – DIPLOMATIC TIMES
Burkina Faso’s military regime has expelled France’s ambassador amid growing anti-French sentiment. Burkin Faso government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo confirmed to The Associated Press that Ambassador Luc Hallade had been asked to leave. The French foreign ministry on Tuesday said the authorities in Burkina Faso sent a letter to the Quai d’Orsay demanding the departure of the French ambassador but refused further comment.
“We did indeed receive such a letter from Burkina Faso’s transitional authorities. This is not the usual procedure and we are not commenting on it publicly.”
-France Foreign Ministry
Mali and Burkina Faso Want France Out of West Africa
Ibrahim Traoré, a 34-year-old army captain, took power in Burkina Faso September 30, forcing out Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
Ibrahim Traoré, a 34-year-old army captain, took power in Burkina Faso September 30, forcing out Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. It was the second military coup in eight months to occur in the West African nation. The military, led by Lt Damiba, took power in a January 2022 coup. Mali and Burkina Faso have rejected what they call French neo-colonialism in the West Africa Sahel region and last year saw a rise in anti-French sentiment that apparently boiled over. Last November, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane, France’s eight-year-old counterterrorism mission for the Sahel. As France pulled its troops out of Mali last year, Russia moved in to fill the void, earning the trust of Mali and Burkina Faso to help eradicate Islamist terrorism. Despite eight years of French counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel, jihadist violence rose and expanded within Mali and into parts of neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Anti-French sentiment rippled throughout all three countries. Many accuse France of trying to exploit and control Africa’s rich resources under the guise of fighting terrorism.
MALI Accuses France of Supporting Terrorist Groups in West Africa
Colonel Assimi Goïta is a Malian military officer who has been interim President of Mali since 28 May 2021
Mali coup leader Col. Assimi Goita has been president of a transitional government since 2021, solidifying his grip on power in the West African nation after carrying out his second coup there in nine months.
Last May 2022, Mali’s ruling junta announced it was breaking off from defense accords with its former colonial ruler France, condemning “flagrant violations” of its national sovereignty by the French troops there.
Some critics even accused France of duplicity in the Sahel by actually supporting the very Jihadists they say they were trying to eradicate. Mali’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdoulaye Diop, in a letter last August to the U.N. Security Council’s president, accused France of supporting “terrorist groups.” The letter said there were more than 50 “deliberate violations of Malian airspace” by foreign aircraft, “particularly operated by French forces,” and listed several incidents of alleged violations. France denied the allegations.
