Burkina Faso: Foreign powers involved in latest coup

coup Burkina Faso | 13 October 2022

On 30 September 2022, Burkina Faso’s military leader, President Paul-Henri Damiba, was ousted in the country’s second military coup in a year. The coup leaders seem to have been assisted by Russia through mercenary organization Wagner, which would explain why supporters of the new leader have been openly waving the Russian flag.

On 30 September 2022, Burkina Faso’s military leader, President Paul-Henri Damiba, was ousted in the country’s second military coup in a year, as reported by Al-Jazeera on 5 October 2022. The September coup was led by 34 year old Captain Ibrahim Traore, who immediately dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and declared nightly curfews among other interim measures to support his seizure of power. Damiba announced his resignation, in an effort to limit further confrontation that would have had dire human consequences. In his new position as acting president, Captain Traore has reportedly agreed to guarantee the safety of the deposed leader as well as commitments made to the regional block ECOWAS to return to constitutional rule by July 2024 (Reuters, 3 October 2022).

The following assessment has been made by World Watch Research (WWR) analyst Yonas Dembele:

This military coup is the latest in a series of coups in recent years in the Sahel (Observer Research Foundation, 1 November 2021), and follows Burkina Faso’s first coup in 2022 staged by the now deposed Paul-Henri Damiba on 24 January 2022. The January coup had been a reaction to the deteriorating security situation in the country and came at a time when violent protests had broken out in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s two largest cities. According to analysis by the International Crisis Group on 28 January 2022:

For many civilians and soldiers, the security situation reached a tipping point with the attack in Inata, in northern Burkina Faso, on 14 November 2021. Fifty-three gendarmes were killed in this vicious attack, which sealed President Kaboré’s fate. As one local newspaper described it, the government ‘symbolically collapsed’ in the shock waves felt around the country after the incident, the single most lethal attack on soldiers in the country’s history ... Inata was the latest in a series of massacres, including one that took place in Solhan in June 2021 when 160 villagers were killed. The population’s outrage at these tragedies gradually coalesced into protests, as people took to the streets demanding regime change.

Since Damiba took over in January 2022, the security situation continued to deteriorate and the government repeatedly lost territory to Islamic insurgents. As a result, Burkina Faso government currently controls less than 60% of the country (Outlook India, 3 October 2022). Hundreds of people have been killed in recent months in Burkina Faso at the hands of Islamic militants; for instance, on 11 June 2022, over 100 civilians were killed in a single jihadist attack in the northern region bordering with Niger (Reuters, 13 June 2022). This is where militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group are waging an insurgency. According to the US Institute of Peace, accessed 10 October 2022:

Multiple factors are driving the rise (of coups), including economic mismanagement, corruption, poverty and the failure of overwhelmed governments to resolve grievances over resources and progress social justice.

Experience shows that coup leaders are not unsimilar (or in some cases are even worse) than the deposed leadership. They too get embroiled in corruption and other excesses. Damiba’s short-lived regime is an example of this. He toppled the president with the promise that he would push jihadists out of the country but he was unable to do so. According to Abhishek Mishra in an article published by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on 1 November 2021:

[O]rganising coups with the intention of breaking with the constitutional order to reform a democracy is an unviable justification. Coups, with all their anti-corruption rhetoric, have not been the vehicle for social revolution. Neither is there any such phenomenon of a 'good coup'. In almost all instances, coup leaders in Africa have often proved to be just as corrupt as the regimes they had replaced and failed in their attempt to better the life of ordinary citizens.

Of concern is also the rise of foreign-fueled coups - an idea that seemed once to be synonymous with the Cold War. Foreign powers have regularly been accused of aiding and abetting military take-overs. The deposed Damiba is reported to have come to power with the support of the French armed forces. In Chad, it is also claimed that the French supported the coup that replaced the fallen Idris Deby. France is also generally accused of failure to contain jihadist groups, which was the main reason French troops were welcomed into the Sahel in the first place (This Day, 8 October 2022).

The latest coup in Burkina Faso seems to have been assisted by Russia through mercenary organization Wagner, which would explain why supporters of the new leader have been openly waving the Russian flag (BBC News, 9 October 2022). The ORF article cited above notes that Russia’s “mercenary groups appear to play a deeper role in countries such as Mali, Libya, and the Central African Republic. Even the role of the United States (US) has been questioned as reports of the Malian coup plotters receiving training and assistance in the US emerged". It should be noted that, in the past, the CIA engaged in similar involvement in regime-change in other parts of the world. Criticism of Russia’s actions in the Sahel, especially by the West, is therefore sometimes met with disdain.

Russian involvement in Burkina Faso’s latest coup received harsh rebuke from the USA, warning that Russian mercenaries are exploiting natural resources in the CAR, Mali and Sudan to fund Moscow's war in Ukraine. The US ambassador to the UN, however, acknowledged that any African co-operation with Russia will almost certainly be a death knell for France and the West (BBC News, 9 October 2022, see link above).

Following the coup, Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the founder of the Wagner Group, congratulated the young junta leader, describing him as "a truly worthy and courageous son of his motherland". It appears that Russia is either involved in the coup or is at the very least cheering on the coup against a leader who was seen to be close to France. Russia’s involvement was made more likely by Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, who stated: "Our people helped the new leader [of Burkina Faso]. … Another African country will move from co-operation with France to an alliance with Russia" (BBC News, 9 October 2022, see link above).

The coup was condemned in equal measure by regional and global leaders. The Chairperson of the African Union called upon the army of Burkina Faso to immediately and totally refrain from any acts of violence or threats to the civilian population, civil liberties, human rights (Al-Jazeera, 1 October 2022). The same report included a statement released by the Economic Union of East African States (ECOWAS) saying: “ECOWAS reaffirms its unequivocal opposition to any seizure or maintenance of power by unconstitutional means.”

Burkina Faso’s latest coup has serious ramifications for the region in many aspects including Cold War-style proxy war between Russia and the West. More importantly, the coup is a prime indicator of the lack of security, democratic rules and rule of law. This will have a significant impact on Christians in the region. On the one hand, the fact that Russia and Western allies are competing against each other, means that Christians might be required to make a choice about whom they support. Secondly, as has been abundantly clear from previous coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, military take-overs have not solved any problems when it comes to fighting jihadists. In fact, the coups sent a signal to the jihadists that the government is not organized; there are massive disagreements within the government structure and this is what the jihadists are aiming to exploit. In its research, WWR has repeatedly pointed to the fact that Christians in the region have long felt unsafe due to the security threat posed by jihadists and government instability.

In conclusion, the high number of military coups in Africa, including the latest in Burkina Faso, all illustrate government failure and the failure of international allies (France in particular) in dealing with crisis after crisis in the Sahel. This failure also illustrates the complexity of dislodging the Islamists. A purely military approach, often uncoordinated and unsustainable, has not served well and is unlikely to bring peace and security in the future. This is exacerbated by the likelihood of the Sahel becoming an epicenter for a proxy geopolitical struggle between the Western powers and Russia.