Burkina Faso: ruling junta expels three French diplomats accused of ‘subversive activities’

Burkina Faso has declared three French diplomats as “persona non grata”, accusing them of being involved in “subversive activities”, and ordered them to leave the country within 48 hours, the Foreign Ministry in Ouagadougou said in a note dated Tuesday (16 April).

According to the note that was sent to the French embassy in Burkina Faso, the three French diplomats were accused of having carried out “subversive activities”. Since coming to power in a September 2022 coup, the Burkinabe military junta has distanced the West African nation from France, which ruled the country until 1960. The junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, has notably nullified a military cooperation agreement between the two countries that had been in place since 1961. France has ended anti-jihadist military missions in the junta-ruled Burkina Faso and Mali and more recently began to withdraw forces from Niger in the wake of a military takeover in July last year.

Similarly, in September last year the ruling junta decided to expel the military attaché from the French embassy, equally accusing him of “subversive activities”, while in December 2023, four French officials were arrested, charged, and imprisoned in Ouagadougou. The French ambassador was recalled after the coup and is yet to return to the Burkinabe capital.

The West African country’s authorities said the three French diplomats were intelligence agents but the French source said they were IT support staff. Burkina Faso has increasingly turned to Russia, Mali, and Niger for security assistance.