Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso’s military leader said Friday that there was no break in diplomatic relations with France, which he asked to withdraw its forces, and denied Russian Wagner mercenaries were in the country.
Former colonial power France had special forces based in Ouagadougou, but its presence had come under intense scrutiny as anti-French sentiment in the region grows, with Paris 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.
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“We’ve heard everywhere that Wagner is in Ouagadougou… (this rumour) was created so that everybody would distance themselves from us,” he said.
Paris 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 insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has killed thousands of people and forced around two million more to flee their homes.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/ @AfricaFactsZone
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