They are “persona non grata”. Three French diplomats, including two political advisers at the French embassy in Ouagadougou, were asked to leave Burkina Faso due to “subversive activities”. This is a new sign of the strong tension between this country and France.
They “are asked to leave the territory of Burkina Faso within the next 48 hours,” specifies the note dated this Tuesday addressed to the French embassy in Ouagadougou.
The three diplomats are Gwenaëlle Habouzit, Hervé Fournier and Guillaume Reisacher, according to the Burkinabe ministry. Asked in Paris by AFP, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not able to react immediately.
Four officials already arrested in December
On December 1, 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 two weeks later and imprisoned, according to the French source. . They are today under house arrest, according to security sources in Burkina.
A year earlier, in December 2022, the Burkinabe government had expelled two French people who worked for a Burkinabe company, suspected by the authorities of being spies. Relations between France and Burkina have only deteriorated since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in September 2022 in a coup - the second in eight months.
A few months after coming to power, Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France in March 2023, after obtaining the withdrawal of French forces. The French ambassador in Ouagadougou, recalled after the coup, has not been replaced since. Burkina Faso has also suspended several French media outlets including Le Monde, Radio France Internationale, France 24, Jeune Afrique, and LCI.
Reconciliation with Moscow
In its desire to diversify its partnerships, Burkina Faso has particularly moved closer to Russia. In addition to strengthening security relations, Russia has also promised to build a nuclear power plant in Burkina.
The Burkinabé military regime has also moved closer to its two neighbors, Mali and Niger, also governed by soldiers resulting from coups d'état in 2020 and 2023 and who have also decided to cut their ties with the former French colonial power and to diversify their partnerships, in particular with Moscow.
The three countries have faced recurring jihadist attacks for several years from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. In Burkina alone, they have caused some 20,000 civilian and military deaths and around two million displaced people since 2015.
These countries have grouped together within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which has announced its intention to create a joint armed force to combat jihadist groups. They also left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), accused of being subservient to France and of not having supported them in the anti-jihadist fight.