Burkina Faso鈥檚 government decided on January 18 to ask French military forces to leave the country within a month.
This decision was made by the government of Captain Ibrahim Traor茅, who the second coup of 2022 in Burkina Faso in to remove Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power in a coup d鈥櫭﹖at in January.
Traor茅, now the of Burkina Faso, said that Damiba, who is in in Togo, had not fulfilled the objectives of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration, the name of their military group. Traor茅鈥檚 government accused Damiba of not being able to stem the insurgency in the country鈥檚 north and of colluding with the French (alleging that Damiba had taken in the French military base at Kamboinsin to launch a strike against the ).
France the Sahel region in to prevent the southern movement of jihadist elements strengthened by the war in Libya, prosecuted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In the past few years, has deepened in North Africa and the Sahel. It was this sentiment that provoked the coups in Mali ( and ), Guinea (), and then in Burkina Faso and ).
Mali鈥檚 government ejected the French military in February 2022, French forces of committing atrocities against civilians and colluding with jihadi insurgents. Burkina Faso has now joined Mali.
The ejection of France does not mean that there will be no NATO countries in the region. Both the United States and Britain have a large from Morocco to Niger, with the US trying to draw African countries into its contest against China and Russia. Regular trips by US military leaders 鈥 US Marine Corps General Michael Langley (commander of US Africa Command) to Gabon in mid-January 鈥斅燼nd by US civilian leaders 鈥 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to 鈥 are part of a full-court press to ensure that African states forge closer ties with the US and its allies over China.
The designation of Russia鈥檚 Wagner Group 鈥 which is to be operating in the Sahel 鈥 as a 鈥溾 by the US and the , held in mid-December, are both attempts to draw African states into a .
Almost half of the Burkinab茅 population lives the poverty line, and 鈥渕ore than 630,000 people are on the brink of starvation鈥, to the United Nations. The country is, however, not poor with its gold export reaching US in 2020. These gains do not go to the Burkinab茅 people but go to the large mining companies. Ejection of the French military will not be the answer to these deep-seated problems faced by Burkina Faso.
[This article was produced by . Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of and the director of .]