Macron Waiting For Burkina Faso To Clarify Reports On French Troop Withdrawal

(@FahadShabbir)

Macron Waiting for Burkina Faso to Clarify Reports on French Troop Withdrawal

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2023) French President Emmanuel Macron says he is waiting for clarifications from the Burkina Faso leadership following reports that authorities in the West African country have ordered French troops to leave Burkina Faso within one month.

"We are waiting for clarifications on the part of Mr. (Ibrahim) Traore (head of the transitional government)," Macron said during a Sunday press conference in Paris, as quoted by Le Monde, adding that there was "great confusion" over the remarks reported in the media.

The official Agence d'Information du Burkina (AIB) news agency said on Sunday, citing sources, that Burkina Faso's government had pulled out of a 2018 agreement with Paris, under which the French military contingent was stationed in the West African nation. The 2018 accord was unilaterally denounced by Burkina Faso this past Wednesday, the news agency said, adding that the move gives the French troops one month to leave the country's territory.

On Friday, hundreds of people participated in a protest in Burkina Faso's capital of Ouagadougou, called by the Pan-African Leaders Collective, which supports Ibrahim Traore, who was sworn in as head of the transitional government of Burkina Faso in front of the country's constitutional council in October, 2022.

According to AIB, Burkinabe citizens have been holding regular demonstrations demanding the departure of the French military contingent from the Kamboinsin military base. French media reported earlier this month that France could withdraw its special military forces stationed at the Kamboinsin base over stalled defense cooperation.

In September of last year, media in Burkina Faso reported that Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the leader of an interim government who came to power through a coup earlier in 2022, was ousted by a group of military officers led by Traore in what became the second military takeover in the country in eight months.

Damiba overthrew elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in January, 2022.