Burkina Faso: France, rise and fall

In Kaya, north of Ouagadougou, demonstrators who have been on the roads since last Wednesday have definitively prevented a convoy of French forces from Barkhane, from Côte d'Ivoire, from crossing Burkina Faso towards Niger and Mali .

"France is no longer welcome" in Burkina Faso. The image of Paris is increasingly tarnished in Africa. For several days in the West African country, demonstrators tried to block a convoy of soldiers part of Operation Barkhane. Composed of 90 trucks and more than a hundred soldiers, Barkhane's supply convoy left Côte d'Ivoire last Tuesday to reach Niamey in Niger and then go to Gao in Mali. Arrived in the capital of Burkina Faso on Wednesday, the French soldiers were blocked by hundreds of demonstrators demanding the departure of French troops from the Sahel.

Following the first intervention, Thursday, of the Burkinabe army - which dispersed the crowd with tear gas - and the French soldiers who fired warning shots, the convoy ended up advancing. But the gunshot wounds, the origin of which remains unknown, suffered by demonstrators, escalated the situation. Thus, when the convoy arrived in Kaya on Friday, an even larger crowd, including the mayor of the city Boukaré Ouédraogo, tried to block the way to the French soldiers.

The demonstrators are, in majority, young Burkinabés from all over the country. And faced with the deadlock in negotiations between the local authorities and Ouagadougou, the French soldiers, in desperation, finally turned back, and would find themselves in Kombissiri, on the outskirts of the capital.

As who, as what does the French army allow itself to carry out warning shots (which caused 2 injuries, which was the “reporter”) against the populations of Burkina Faso on the lands of Burkina Faso Faso? This filthy occupation army must clear. https://t.co/dmXfHDGi6Z

- Nathalie Yamb (@Nath_Yamb) November20st

"France is no longer welcome"

On the side of the French military authorities, we point to “disinformation”. The French general staff ensures that the convoy to Niamey was "not a convoy to transport weapons to jihadists, as we can read on social networks". But do the protesters really think this is it?

Indeed, on social networks, nothing of the kind is advanced by the organizers of the demonstrations. The spokesperson for the Coalition of African Patriots in Burkina Faso (COPA-BF), Roland Bayala, indicates that he has "decided to block, because despite the agreements signed with France, we continue to record deaths and our countries remain under-armed ”. It would therefore not be disinformation that poses a problem, but the residue of "Françafrique".

And in a country that she thought her own, France is now very badly embarked on. Because the Brukinabe state has other things to think about: two days after the terrorist attack in the north of the country, which left 53 dead including 49 gendarmes, demonstrators in Ouagadougou demanded the resignation of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused of failing "to end the terrorist attacks". The latter will therefore have a hard time coming to the aid of his French allies.

With the armed forces trying, as best they can, to resolve the situation of the French convoy, and faced with the exasperation of the populations, which strangely recalls the context in neighboring Mali, the State is between a rock and a hard place. The timing chosen by Barkhane to make another foray into Burkinabé territory is ill-chosen, with the country in mourning. A situation for which France is partly responsible.

#BurkinaFaso France not welcome blocking of the French military convoy in Bobo (from the CI), blocking at the entrance to Ouaga (boulmiougou) and then blocking in Kaya since yesterday. The convoy turned back today. He was on his way to Nigerpic.twitter.com/x7qaI79Xum

- 𝓐𝓓𝓘𝓜𝓑𝓞𝓛𝓐 (@Adimbola) November19st

France, a scapegoat? Not really

Despite the lack of communication surrounding recent events in Burkina Faso, the French army in the Sahel bears a heavy responsibility. In addition to the ineffectiveness of his intervention, which the demonstrators deplore, it is also the lack of respect for the mourning of Burkinabés victims of deadly terrorist attacks that disturbs.

It should be remembered that after the Solhan attack, the deadliest in the history of Burkina Faso, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was already at the bedside of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré to try to save this who can be. The French diplomat, without any finesse, sought to capitalize on the attack which shocked the entire country, calling on Burkina Faso to suspend negotiations with the terrorists and to create a division between President Kaboré and his Minister of Reconciliation and former presidential rival, Zéphirin Diabré.

But the roots of anti-French sentiment in Burkina Faso go back further. Should we recall the French role in the assassination of the hero Thomas Sankara? The monetary seigniorage of France with the CFA franc ? Or the organization, by Emmanuel Macron, of an Africa-France summit which was a simple operation to rehabilitate Paris with hand-picked African populations?

Anyway, if "France has positioned itself as a scapegoat" in Burkina Faso, as researcher François Giovalucchi reminds us, it is not for nothing. The Burkinabé case describes events in Mali, where everything French is ostracized. And the interminable war "against terrorism", launched in 2012 by France, from which civilians in the Sahel only suffer the consequences, causes hundreds of deaths and refugees.

#BurkinaFaso
He brings down a drone of the French army using his slingshot. The man is carried in triumph by the demonstrators.
Hmmmm pic.twitter.com/EdLbCyqhSF

- Calixte (@SergesCalixte) November20st