France suspends aid, budget support to Burkina Faso
KIGALI, Rwanda (AA): France has suspended its development aid and budget support to Burkina Faso, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry.
The brief statement did not give the reasons for the aid cut.
France has sponsored military operations against anti-West groups which have failed to bring security and have served to intensify anti-France sentiment in the region. The former colonial power’s interventionism is deeply resented as a form of neoimperialist control and exploitation of natural resources.
The announcement came days after Burkina Faso and Mali, both with military rulers, declared their strong backing for the junta that deposed Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum in a military coup last month, a split from the position of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS).
France’s development aid to Ouagadougou is said to be estimated at €482 million ($530 million), while budget support for 2022 amounted to €13 million.
The two West African countries, which border Niger, declared that they would consider any military intervention in Niger a “declaration of war.”
President Bazoum was detained by members of the Presidential Guard on July 26, who later that evening announced the takeover of the government.
Two days later, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the commander of Niger’s Presidential Guard, declared himself the head of a transitional government.
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