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French soldier in Burkina Faso <\/p>\n\n\n\nFrench soldier in Burkina Faso <\/p>\n\n\n\n
OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 21 (NNN-ALLAFRICA)\u00a0— France and Burkina Faso have officially marked the\u00a0end of French military operations<\/a>\u00a0in the West African nation, the Burkinabe armed forces said. A flag-lowering ceremony at the French special forces’ camp took place on Feb 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This follows a\u00a0request<\/a>\u00a0by the Burkinabe junta on Jan 26 for French soldiers to leave the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We are terminating the agreement which allows French forces to be in Burkina Faso. This is not the end of diplomatic relations between Burkina Faso and France,” spokesperson Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo told the government controlled Radio-Television Burkina at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burkina Faso has since 2015, been grappling with a militant insurgency that killed thousands and displaced around two million people. France had 400 special forces soldiers stationed in Burkina Faso to battle insurgency, but relations deteriorated in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n France also withdrew its Barkhane forces from Mali in 2022<\/a> after the junta there allegedly worked with Wagner,<\/a> a Russian military contractor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that time, Ghana accused<\/a> Burkina Faso of hiring mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group, prompting Burkina Faso’s interim president to deny such forces were in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n