BURKINA FASO’S Defence Minister, Colonel Kassoum Coulibaly, has accused an ‘international coalition’ of being lined up against the country, while also alleging that there have been violations of the country’s airspace. Coulibaly, who was appointed by the military junta that runs the country, denied allegations that the Russian mercenary force Wagner was operating there, echoing the denials of the new regime’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore.
Coulibaly denied that Russia was setting the rules in Burkina Faso, stating that the country did not need foreign soldiers and that ‘the Burkinabe aren’t children.’ He suggested that the international coalition aligned against the country was responding to its closer ties with Russia since the September 2020 coup that brought the military to power. Burkina Faso only asked for what it needed, he added.
Speaking at a meeting with union representatives and leaders of other civil society groups in Ouagadougou, Coulibaly asserted that the people of Burkina Faso were contributing to the war effort against the militant insurgency in the country. ‘There is no Wagner here,’ he said, referring to allegations that Russian mercenaries were operating in the country.
He suggested that the international coalition aligned against the country was responding to its closer ties with Russia since the September 2020 coup that brought the military to power. Burkina Faso only asked for what it needed, he added. ‘We don’t need anyone to send us a single foreign soldier. We have our VDP,’ he said, referring to the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland [VDP], an auxiliary force.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Colonel Francois Yameogo acknowledged that 136 bodies had been buried last week at Karma, in the north of the country, after a massacre that witnesses say was carried out by men in military uniform. However, the national intelligence agency blamed the militants for the killings, accusing them of sometimes wearing Burkina’s military uniforms.
