Burkina Faso: the government confirms that it has requested the withdrawal of French troops

Several sources said in recent days that Burkina Faso had requested the departure of French troops present on its soil within a month.

It is now confirmed.

“What we are denouncing is the agreement that allows French forces to be present in Burkina Faso.

It is not about the end of diplomatic relations between Burkina Faso and France,” said government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo in an interview on Radio-Télévision du Burkina (RTB).

“French forces are based in Ouagadougou at the request of Burkina Faso and its authorities.

This denunciation is in the normal order of things, it is provided for in the terms of the military agreement", he continued, indicating that the denunciation of the agreements left "one month for the other party to access this query ".

Burkina currently hosts a contingent of nearly 400 French special forces, the Saber force.

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In a letter from the Burkinabé Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed to Paris and dated Wednesday, Ouagadougou “denounces and puts an end in its entirety to the agreement” of December 17, 2018 “relating to the status of the French armed forces intervening” in the Sahelian country.

Sunday afternoon, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was waiting for “clarifications” from Burkina Faso on a possible request for the departure of French troops.

Later in the evening, the French presidency said it was waiting for confirmation of the Burkinabe position at the "highest level".

"We don't see how to make it any clearer than that"

"At the current stage, we don't see how to make it any clearer than that," Ouédraogo said on Monday.

For him, this request for the departure of the French forces "is not linked to a particular event".

"It is linked to the desire today, of the authorities of the transition and of all Burkinabés, to be the primary actors in the reconquest of our territory", he added.

The transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in September thanks to a putsch, the second in eight months, has set himself the objective of "reclaiming territory" from jihadist groups.

Burkina Faso, particularly in its northern half, has been confronted since 2015 with increasing attacks by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization.

They left thousands dead and at least two million displaced.