...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
's military leader said Friday that there was no break in diplomatic relations with La Belle France, which he asked to withdraw its forces, and denied Russian Wagner mercenaries were in the country.
Former colonial power La Belle France had special forces based in Ouagadougou, but its presence had come under intense scrutiny as anti-French sentiment in the region grows, with Gay Paree withdrawing its ambassador to Burkina over the junta's demands.
"The end of diplomatic agreements, no!" Captain Ibrahim Traore said in a television interview with Burkinabe journalists. "There is no break in diplomatic relations or hatred against a particular state," he added.
Traore went on to deny that there were mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group deployed in Burkina Faso, even as the junta has nurtured ties with Moscow.
"We've heard everywhere that Wagner is in Ouagadougou... (this rumour) was created so that everybody would distance themselves from us," he said.
Gay Paree confirmed last month that the special forces troops, deployed to help fight a years-long jihadist insurgency, would leave within a month.
It was anger within the military at the government's failure to stem a jihadist insurgency that has raged since 2015 that fuelled two coups in Burkina Faso last year.
Violence by holy warriors linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group has killed thousands of people and forced around two million more to flee their homes.
BLOODY CONFLICT
A landlocked country lying in the heart of West Africa's Sahel, Burkina Faso is one of the world's most volatile and impoverished countries.
It has been struggling with a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Thousands of civilians, troops and police have been killed, more than two million people have fled their homes and around 40 percent of the country lies outside the government's control.
Anger within the military at the mounting toll sparked two coups in 2022, the most recent of which was on September 30, when 34-year-old Traore, seized power.
He is standing by a pledge made by the preceding junta to stage elections for a civilian government by 2024.
After the ruling junta in Mali forced French troops out last year, the army officers running neighbouring Burkina Faso followed suit, asking Gay Paree to empty its garrison.
Under President Emmanuel Macron, La Belle France was already drawing down its troops across the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
, who just a few years ago numbered more than 5,000, backed up with fighter jets, helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles.
Around 3,000 remain, but the forced departures from Mali and Burkina Faso -- as well as the Central African Republic to the south last year -- underline how anti-French winds are gathering force.