Burkina Faso brutally expels French diplomats for “subersive activities”. Paris seen as an enemy

According to the Burkina Faso Ministry of Foreign Affairs, three French diplomats, including two political advisors at the French Embassy in Ouagadougou, have been expelled from the country. They have been declared “persona non grata” for “subversive activities”.

Three French diplomats, including two political advisors at the French embassy in Ouagadougou, have been declared “persona non grata” for “subversive activities” and asked to leave Burkina Faso, according to the Burkina Faso Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

These three diplomats “have been declared persona non grata on the territory of Burkina Faso for subversive activities”, wrote the ministry in a note addressed to the French embassy in Ouagadougou, a copy of which was obtained by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday, April 18. They “are asked to leave” Burkina Faso “within the next 48 hours”, says the note dated Tuesday, April 16.

On December 1 last year, four French civil servants—intelligence agents according to the Burkinabe authorities and computer maintenance technicians according to a French diplomatic source—were arrested in Ouagadougou, charged and then imprisoned, according to the French source. They are now under house arrest, according to security sources in Burkina Faso.

Two French nationals who were employed by a Burkinabe company were banished by the government a year prior, in December 2022, on suspicion of being spies. Relations between France and Burkina have deteriorated considerably since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in September 2022 in a coup—his second in eight months.

A few months after coming to power, Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France after having obtained the withdrawal of French forces. The French ambassador in Ouagadougou, recalled after the coup, has not been replaced since.