In Burkina Faso, the Burkinabe government welcomes the “courageous decision” of the Malian neighbor, after Bamako’s request for the “immediate withdrawal” of the UN mission in Mali on Friday, June 16, 2023, announced on Sunday, June 18, 2023, the UN-ledThe transitional government announced this in a press release. Burkina Faso’s transitional government has called on the international community to “strictly respect the choices made by Mali.”
In the statement signed by its spokesman, the Burkinabe government first «congratulated Mali for this assumed choice». He “encourages the government and brother people of Mali to affirm the sovereignty of the Malian state,” he continues.
This decision, according to Burkina Faso government spokesman Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, “is in line with the Malian State’s strategic vision in the fight against terrorism and for the restoration of peace and security in the Sahel.”
Like its Malian neighbour, Burkina Faso is ruled by putschist soldiers and has been caught in a spiral of terrorist violence for several years.
In the same communiqué, Ouagadougou calls on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to «please take the necessary steps to withdraw Burkinabe troops engaged in Mali in the framework of the MINUSMA» for ten years.
Burkina Faso is one of the main contributing countries in terms of personnel in the context of this stabilization mission in the country: according to official figures, currently about a thousand military, police and gendarmes are deployed there.
