Burkina Faso’s junta leader said on Friday that his country would not cut diplomatic ties with France, which has been asked to withdraw its troops, and denied the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries in the country.
Former colonial power France has special forces based in the capital Ouagadougou, but their presence has come under intense scrutiny as anti-French sentiment in the region grows, with Paris withdrawing its ambassador to Burkina at the junta’s request.
“The end of diplomatic agreements, no!” Captain Ibrahim Traore said in a televised interview with Burkinabe journalists. “There is no break in diplomatic relations or hatred towards any particular country.”
Traore later denied that there were mercenaries from the Wagner Group deployed in Burkina Faso, despite the junta’s relationship with Moscow.
Wagner, a prominent Russian mercenary group founded in 2014, has been involved in conflicts in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Ukraine.
“We have heard somewhere that Wagner is in Ouagadougou,” he said, adding that the rumor was “made to keep everyone away from us”.
“We have our Wagner, it is the VDP that we recruit,” he said, referring to the Volunteers for the Civil Defense of the Homeland. “He is our Wagner.”
He said, “All the people want is sovereignty, to live with dignity. It does not mean leaving one country for another.
Paris confirmed last month that special forces troops, tasked with fighting the years-long jihadist insurgency, would leave within a month.
Blood conflict
A landlocked country in the heart of West Africa’s Sahel, Burkina Faso is one of the most volatile and impoverished countries in the world.
It has struggled with a jihadist insurgency that invaded from neighboring Mali in 2015.
Thousands of civilians, soldiers and police have been killed, more than two million people have fled their homes, and about 40 percent of the country is outside government control.
Anger in the military at the rising toll led to two coups in 2022, the most recent in September, when 34-year-old Traore seized power.
He stood by the promise made by the previous junta to hold elections for a civilian government in 2024.
After the ruling junta in Mali forced French troops out last year, army officers marching in neighboring Burkina Faso followed suit, asking Paris to vacate its garrison.
Under President Emmanuel Macron, France has withdrawn its forces in the Sahel region, which only a few years ago numbered more than 5,000, supported by fighter jets, helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles.
About 3,000 remain, but forced departures from Mali and Burkina Faso – as well as the southern Central African Republic last year – underline how anti-French winds are gathering strength.