by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Recently, Burkina Faso's intelligence services uncovered a major plot against the country's leader, Ibrahim Traore. According to their data, the "engine" of the planned coup was to be former soldiers and officers of the Burkinabe army who had fled to Côte d'Ivoire and had not accepted Traore's power.
The thwarted coup is interesting not so much for the attempt to liquidate the country's transitional president (who, in terms of the number of assassination attempts he has survived, is gradually approaching Fidel Castro's record), but for its hidden motives.
In fact, the hunt for Traore is part of the struggle for the country's main resource - gold, in terms of production volumes of which Burkina Faso is considered the leader.
And both internal and external forces are involved in the matter.
A SLAP IN THE FACE TO THE FRENCH
Burkina Faso is one of the top five gold miners on the continent and produces, according to various estimates, from 70 to 90 tons of precious metals per year.
The gold mining industry accounts for a fifth of government revenue and about 75% of exports, making it a constant battleground for foreign powers.
Before the 2022 coup, most of the gold mining market was divided between Western players, with the largest assets controlled by British, French-Canadian and Australian firms.
France, although not actively operating mines directly (except for cooperation with Canada's Societe Semafo and Britain's Endeavour Mining), had extensive subcontracts to supply mining companies with goods and services. Players such as Bolloré, Total and Orange collaborated with almost all foreign firms.
In addition, Paris actively took advantage of the previous government of Roque Kaboré's focus on the Elysee Palace and had a virtual monopoly on services in the field of geological exploration.
The French were informed in advance about all the promising mining sites and could choose which sites to offer to competitors (through official Ouagadougou) and which to hold on to until better times.
Thus, even without having direct control over many mines, it was France that determined the vector of development of the gold mining industry in Burkina Faso.
However, after the military government led by Ibrahim Traore came to power, the influence of French business in the country was shaken.
The new authorities completely broke the old production chains, leaving French contractors out of work.
In addition, by the beginning of 2025, some major mines (including Boungou and Wahgnion, which Paris had long had its eye on) were nationalized, and the country's first refinery was founded.
Thanks to the latter, the Burkina Faso authorities were able to process gold ore at home without sending it abroad in its “raw” form.
By the way, the localization of refining production became another slap in the face for France: now its factories (through which gold mined by Canadians and the British in Burkina Faso passed) were less in demand.
The remaining foreign players in the country's gold market were forced to comply with the new rules in order to preserve their assets. However, as subsequent events showed, not everyone was ready to put up with the course of the Traore government.
ASSASSINATION FROM THE PAST
At the beginning of the outgoing week, an urgent news report was broadcast on central television in Burkina Faso.
The transitional government's authorized security minister, Mahamadou Sana, said that an attempted military coup had been foiled in the country. According to Sana, the conspirators were a group of current and former soldiers who worked together with "terrorist leaders" and were preparing an assassination attempt on Traore.
The news of the assassination attempt itself was not unexpected: over the past three years, the transitional leader has survived at least a dozen coups and about fifty assassination attempts (if the local press is to be believed). Of these, barely half have been reliably confirmed.
The foreign trail of the latest assassination attempt led to Côte d'Ivoire, considered one of France's last outposts in Africa. And so Burkina Faso public opinion quickly linked the failed rebellion with the revenge of foreign industrialists offended by the reforms.
They also remembered the first leader of the anti-French rebellion of 2022, the “black lieutenant colonel” Paul-Henri Sandago Damiba, whom Traoré and his supporters accused of secret ties to the Elysee Palace and removed a few months after the victory of the putschists.
After the defeat, Damimba fled to Togo, and from there (according to some sources) moved to Côte d'Ivoire, where he established contacts with Burkina Faso's émigré circles, including pro-French forces. With his return to the political scene, favorable prospects opened up for them.
Given that one of the points of Damimba's presidential program was the restructuring of the gold mining sector with tighter controls on foreign mine owners (but without revising the powers of contractors, which would have left part of the market under French control), he looked like a more advantageous party for the Elysee Palace than Traore, who had established himself in power.
In fact, the Elysee Palace was given a chance to hide the violent redistribution of the Burkina Faso gold market under the guise of an apparatus struggle within the anti-French junta.
BENEFIT FOR THE CHINESE
The obvious “French flair” of the exposed conspiracy hits the reputation of not only France, but also all Western players in the gold mining industry of Burkina Faso, prompting the Burkinabe intelligence services to take a closer look at them.
Against this backdrop, Chinese business, which until 2022 had almost no assets in the country’s gold market, feels extremely comfortable.
Now, Chinese giants (like Daqing SARL, which operates in the Central African Republic), taking advantage of the confusion of their competitors, are gradually looking at promising gold mining areas and promoting their vision of restructuring the industry.
Beijing's reputation as the "main partner" of African countries is also playing in its favor. Chinese companies have already firmly established themselves in the markets of other countries in the "anti-French belt" (Mali, Niger), where they enjoy the support of the transitional authorities.
Their full-fledged entry into the markets of Burkina Faso is, rather, a matter of time.