In Burkina Faso, France wants to reassure on the post-Barkhane

By landing aboard a Falcon 2000 of the Republic at Ouagadougou airport, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian is warned by his security officers: "the visit mobilizes opponents of the French presence, that s 'agitates on social networks, the' IG '

opening their eyes ".

The head of the Quai d'Orsay, on an African mini-tour (Ivory Coast, Liberia and Burkina Faso) arrives in this Sahelian state in a tense climate.

A week earlier, a horrific massacre was perpetrated by jihadists in the north of the country, a rural region semi-abandoned by the state, where armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamist Maghreb and the organization of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. At least 160 villagers of Solhan, men, women and children alike, were killed, the houses looted or set on fire, the attackers having operated in two successive nights without the Burkinabe army or gendarmerie intervening. A trauma - "the equivalent of our Bataclan" according to a diplomat - in this country spared by Islamist terrorism until 2015. Hence the ambivalence of feeling towards Paris. “Many people feel that ultimately Operation Barkhane feeds conversions to jihadism,that France does not really protect us and retains too much influence in Africa ”, exposes a Burkinabé journalist.

"Less territorial footprint of our forces"

"I have come to express our empathy towards the Burkinabé people following this carnage, our affection and our will to continue to act together against this poison of terrorism", declared the French minister at the end of an interview. with President Roch Kaboré. Act together ? In Burkina, a stakeholder in the G5 Sahel Joint Force, the atmosphere is also troubled by the announcement by President Macron of the end of Operation Barkhane, starting with a reduction in the military presence in neighboring Mali. The question arises: "Are you going to set up a French base in Burkina? "No, there is no question of a new specific base here," replied Le Drian. In fact there is already one, the most discreet, near "Ouaga":300 to 400 men - the army never communicates precise figures concerning special forces - of the Saber Task Force, with its Transall planes and Caiman helicopters, which operates across the Sahel. During his tête-à-tête with Kaboré, Le Drian offered to help his army strengthen its special forces - "much more effective against jihadists than tanks," according to an expert.

Read alsoSahel: why Emmanuel Macron stops Operation Barkhane

It is also in line with the new post-Barkhane model of intervention: "less territorial footprint of our forces, more support for African armies to strengthen counter-terrorism", summarizes the former Minister of Defense who launched Operation Serval under François Hollande in 2013. Problem, almost everything remains to be done with the Burkinabe army, poorly trained, poorly equipped, poorly paid. "It is typical of many countries in the region, analyzes a connoisseur, the leaders are wary of armies made up of former rebels as in Mali or Côte d'Ivoire." In Burkina Faso, Roch Kaboré dissolved the formidable Presidential Guard of his predecessor Blaise Compaoré, himself a former coup leader, without reconstituting a force worthy of the name. Gold,the change of footing of France consists in making "assume" by the countries of the Sahel - and also of coastal Africa further south, won by jihadism - their own security, encouraging them to cooperate more and better in matters of intelligence , methods of action. The inauguration Thursday in Abidjan, in the presence of Jean-Yves Le Drian, of the first international Academy for the fight against terrorism, is an important step. But the jihadists are advancing ever faster.But the jihadists are advancing ever faster.But the jihadists are advancing ever faster.