The UN coordinator in Burkina Faso, the Italian Barbara Manzi, has been declared “ungrateful person” et “please leave the country”from Friday, by the junta in power in this Sahelian country in the grip of a serious security crisis marked by recurrent jihadist attacks.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivia Rouamba, this expulsion is justified in particular by the fact that Mme Manzi decided “unilaterally” to withdraw non-essential UN personnel from Ouagadougou. “It’s discrediting, tarnishing the image of the country and discouraging potential investors. It is inconceivable and we must take our responsibilities”she added, during an interview on national television.
“Beyond these facts, it came back to us that Mme Manzi predicted chaos in Burkina Faso in the coming months. We do not know on what basis it can do so. Great efforts are being made on the security front and the UN should constitute itself as a support structure”continued the Minister.
An “attempt to influence negatively”
Since 2015, the country has struggled to cope with deadly attacks by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization which have killed thousands and forced some two million people to flee their homes.
Mme However, Rouamba wished to make the difference between “the person of Mme Manzi and the UN »with which Burkina “always keep a very good cooperation”. A diplomatic source confirmed to Agence France-Presse that a “long list of complaints” have led “Burkinabe diplomacy to take its responsibilities”.
In addition to the request for the withdrawal of non-essential staff, Mr.me Manzi one “attempt to influence negatively” and of “to interfere in the political affairs of Burkina”, according to this source. UN representatives in Ouagadougou were not immediately available on Friday afternoon.
This expulsion comes a few days after that of two French people who worked for a Burkinabe company and who were suspected by the authorities of being spies.
Burkina turns to Russia
Burkina is not the first West African state to expel a UN official this year. In July, Mali, a neighboring country of Burkina, also caught in a serious security crisis, expelled Olivier Salgado, the spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Mali (Minusma), for having published, according to the ruling junta, of the “unacceptable information” the day after the arrest of forty-nine Ivorian soldiers in Bamako.
Mme Manzi, who was also the UN humanitarian coordinator, had been posted in Burkina Faso since August 2021. She had presented her credentials to former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, overthrown in January 2022 by a military coup. .
Burkina Faso has been ruled since the end of September by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, author of another military putsch. Its Prime Minister, Apollinaire Kyélem de Tembela, wished mid-November “diversifying partnership relations until finding the right formula for the interests of Burkina Faso”.
He also claimed that “some partners” had “not always been loyal”, without citing a country. Among the new partners envisaged, the question of a possible rapprochement with Russia has arisen in Burkina since the coup d’etat which brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power.