They “are asked to leave the territory of Burkina Faso within the next 48 hours”. Three French diplomats, including two political advisers at the French embassy in Ouagadougou, were declared “persona non grata” for “subversive activities” and asked to leave Burkina Faso, according to the Burkinabe Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
These three diplomats “are declared persona non grata on the territory of Burkina Faso, for subversive activities”, writes the ministry in a note addressed to the French embassy in Ouagadougou, a copy of which AFP obtained on Thursday.
Four officials under house arrest
On December 1, four French officials – intelligence agents according to the Burkinabè authorities, computer maintenance technicians according to a French diplomatic source – were arrested in Ouagadougou, indicted and then imprisoned, according to the French source. They are today under house arrest, according to security sources in Burkina.
A year earlier, in December 2022, the Burkinabè government had expelled two French people who worked for a Burkinabè company, suspected by the authorities of being spies.
Relations between France and Burkina have deteriorated considerably since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in September 2022 through a coup – the second in eight months.
The withdrawal of French forces
A few months after coming to power, Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France, after obtaining the withdrawal of French forces. The French ambassador in Ouagadougou, recalled after the coup, has not been replaced since.
In its desire to diversify its partnerships, Burkina Faso has notably moved closer to Russia and its two neighbors, Mali and Niger, also governed by military regimes. The three countries have been facing recurring jihadist attacks for several years from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
In Burkina alone, they have caused some 20,000 civilian and military deaths and around two million displaced people since 2015.