Burkina Sees No Break With Paris, Denies Wagner Presence

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.

"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.

A landlocked country lying in the heart of West Africa's Sahel, Burkina Faso is one of the world's most volatile and impoverished countries.

It has been struggling with a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

Thousands of civilians, troops and police have been killed, more than two million people have fled their homes and around 40 percent of the country lies outside the government's control.

Anger within the military at the mounting toll sparked two coups in 2022, the most recent of which was on September 30, when 34-year-old Traore, seized power.

He is standing by a pledge made by the preceding junta to stage elections for a civilian government by 2024.

Under President Emmanuel Macron, France was already drawing down its troops across the Sahel region, who just a few years ago numbered more than 5,000, backed up with fighter jets, helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles.

Around 3,000 remain, but the forced departures from Mali and Burkina Faso -- as well as the Central African Republic to the south last year -- underline how anti-French winds are gathering force.