“A victory for the sovereign people of Burkina”. In Ouagadougou, the departure of French troops, recorded this week, is welcomed as a return to “sovereignty” in the fight against jihadist groups, a rhetoric that recalls the ideals of the former president and pan-Africanist icon Thomas Sankara.
French soldiers, pushed out by the ruling junta, must leave the country before the end of February.
The decision is motivated by “the will of the authorities of the transition and of all Burkinabè, to be the primary actors in the reconquest of our territory”, justified Monday the spokesman of the government, Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo.
A message visibly heard in the streets of the capital.
“We demanded the departure of French soldiers. Now that it’s been done, we must not give way to other imperialists. It’s up to us to take full responsibility because it’s now that the fight will begin Burkina Faso for true independence,” said Ibrahim Sanou, 28, a shop employee.
“It’s a victory for the sovereign people of Burkina, a free people who stand up,” says Issaka Ouedraogo, a student.
The request for the departure of French soldiers was also welcomed by supporters of Thomas Sankara, revolutionary president of Burkina between 1983 and 1987, who was assassinated and who remains an icon for many young people.
“Burkina Faso has resolutely made the choice to get back on the track of the Sankarist ideal,” declared a collective of organizations supporting the ideas of the former president.
“Today, as fervent supporters of the total liberation of our country from the yokes of Françafrique, imperialism and deadly capitalism, we mark with a white stone our refusal of governance by proxy”, they added. , welcoming “the enlightened leadership of Captain Traoré”, transitional president since a putsch at the end of September.
“It is one of the rare times since Sankara that a head of state dares to assert himself and bang his fist on the table vis-à-vis imperialism”, confirms for his part Rachid Olivier, a civil servant interviewed by AFP.
– The Wagner debate –
The question of recourse to the sulphurous Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which is already operating in certain African countries, is however animating the debates, all the more so after the diplomatic rapprochement operated by the transitional authorities with Moscow in recent weeks.
After a discreet trip to the Russian capital in early December, Burkinabe Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambela called earlier this month to strengthen the partnership between the two countries.
In the demonstrations hostile to the French presence in recent weeks, it was not uncommon to see Russian flags waved in the streets of Ouagadougou.
For Monique Yeli Kam, one of the figures of this anti-France movement, “calling on Wagner is also a form of sovereignty”.
“The powers of yesteryear used to infantilize us by saying that we do not know how to make choices. But when we are sovereign we no longer justify our choices, we make them freely, according to our interests and we assume “, continues this former presidential candidate of 2020.
But this call for a new foreign power is not unanimously desired in Ouagadougou.
“We have to be careful with Wagner. This can create problems for us on the diplomatic level, have a lot of negative effects. The financial cost of Wagner is also important”, warns Aboubacar Sango, teacher-researcher at Thomas University Sankara, during a debate on private radio Omega.
“There is no Wagner that holds! We are never better served than by ourselves,” says student Issaka Ouedraogo.
“We must be ready to stand up to liberate the country from these hordes of terrorists. We don’t even need Wagner or other forces,” adds Désiré Sanou, a civil servant.
Burkina Faso, particularly in its northern half, has been confronted since 2015 with attacks by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization. They left thousands dead and at least two million displaced.
Organizations hostile to the French presence again called for demonstrations on Saturday in Ouagadougou, this time in support of the transitional authorities.
“It is the path that Thomas (Sankara) has traced that President Traoré is following. The youth appreciate it and we are proud of that. If we do not back down and support him, together we will have victory”, assures Lassane Sawadogo, l one of the organizers.