Geography Archives: Burkina Faso

WEST Africa, which had been largely under French colonial rule, never saw decolonization of the sort that India did.

Burkina Faso will nationalize two gold mines at a cost of about US$80 million.

These are dark days for the empire.

Land area under ECOWAS, which is condemned by West Africa’s popular movements as an agent of French imperialism, has been reduced to less than half after their withdrawal.

Journalist Nick Turse has shown that terrorist attacks have spiked exponentially as a result of the growing U.S. military presence in the Sahelian region.

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are charting a new course—one of increased economic and security sovereignty.

The military governments of three African states, which all deposed their Western-backed leaders in recent years, have agreed to assist each other, individually or collectively, in case of external aggression or internal threats to their sovereignty.

Thomas Sankara, radical leader and martyr of Burkina Faso, understood that the problem of ecological destruction was rooted in capitalism and imperialism.

Of late however there has been a popular anti-imperialist upsurge in several countries of Francophone Africa. In Guinea, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, new anti-imperialist governments have come to power in the last couple of years that want French troops out of their countries; and in Mali they have even succeeded in getting French troops out.

Niger is shaping up to be the surprising frontline of the new Cold War.

Burkina Faso and Mali have declared their willingness to defend Niger with armed force if France, Nigeria, or ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) were to intervene in Niger following the recent change of power.

Nigeria’s Senate refuses to support ECOWAS plan for West-backed military intervention. A day after ECOWAS chiefs of staffs finalized plans for a military intervention, Nigeria’s Senate refused to support President Bola Tinubu’s proposal to deploy soldiers. Tinubu is the current chair of ECOWAS. Meanwhile, Niger has seen multiple demonstrations in support of the coup that overthrew Mohamed Bazoum

On the second day of the Russia–Africa summit, the president of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, delivered an anti-imperialist address and employed slogans identified with the Cuban Revolution.

Burkina Faso’s new President Ibrahim Traoré has vowed to fight imperialism and neocolonialism. Pledging a “refoundation of the nation”, invoking revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, and quoting Che Guevara, his government has allied with Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who leads the Burkinabé government, came to power through a coup d’état in September 2022. He ousted Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had himself come to power through a coup in January 2022. Neither of these coups was a surprise.

On 30 September 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré led a section of the Burkina Faso military to depose Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power in a coup d’état in January.

These are deeply upsetting times. The COVID-19 global pandemic had the potential to bring people together, to strengthen global institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), and to galvanise new faith in public action.

Canadian mining companies own $2.5 billion of Burkina Faso’s gold, and the country is one of the most poverty-stricken in Africa.

The United States government has continued attacking Cuban medical internationalism right up to the current pandemic, making wild allegations against the program that disparage the medical workers.