Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna in Lauterbourg, eastern France, July 21, 2023. FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
These announcements come in the context of tensions following the putsch in Niger.
France has decided to suspenduntil further notice all its development aid and budget support actionsin Burkina Faso, announced this Sunday evening the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This announcement is made while Burkina Faso and Mali are in solidarity with the soldiers who took power in Niger. France supports the ECOWAS countries in their efforts to restore President Mohamed Bazoum, held prisoner since the July 26 putsch attempt.
482 million euros in development aid
The ECOWAS states have threatened to intervene militarily and have given until Sunday evening to the soldiers who have taken power to restore constitutional order. Ongoing French development aid projects in favor of Burkina Faso represent 482 million euros while the budget aid programmed in 2022 amounts to 13 million, indicated the Quai d’Orsay.
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Relations between France and Burkina have deteriorated since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in a coup in September 2022. On January 18, the Ouagadougou authorities had requested the departure, within a month, of the French Saber force in Burkina Faso.
France had recorded this departure but had not suspended either its development aid or its budgetary aid as it had done for Mali. However, on July 29, three days after the coup attempt in Niger, Paris suspended all its development aid and budget support actions in Niger.