![]() The CIA’s record dries up from this point. intelligence asset who betrayed and killed him, took over and ruled until 2014. Blaise Compaoré, the former friend and alleged French and U.S. Sankara was overthrown and murdered in 1987. The CIA feared that Sankara was too weak to stop what they called “the extreme left” from gaining power and allying with the Soviet Union. But Sankara retained economic ties to Paris. He renamed the country Burkina Faso, or Land of True Men. He imposed a program of mass education, women’s rights, localism, and infrastructure development. In 1983, Captain Thomas Sankara, dubbed “Africa’s Che Guevara” by his supporters, took power. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, about whom the CIA made little comment. Described as a “moderate” by the CIA, he was overthrown two years later by Dr. In 1980, Colonel Saye Zerbo seized power. River blindness… is endemic … As a result, large tracts of fertile land in the savannah area … cannot be opened to development. ![]() The hearts of the Nixon administration bled for the visually impaired people of the country: Upper Volta’s pro-Western orientation probably will not be affected.īy the early-‘70s, Lamizana was still in power and had received funds from the USA. The CIA’s ears pricked up when Army Chief of Staff Sangoulé Lamizana seized power in 1966 to crush a general strike triggered by Yaméogo’s public spending cuts. Central Intelligence Agency monitored French geological explorations, noting large deposits of copper, gold, and manganese.Īfter independence from France in 1960, the state was called the Voltaic Democratic Union.President Maurice Yaméogo accused the French Army of training his opponents. In the late-1880s, the French fought for control over parts of the Wassoulou Empire, including landlocked territory which they later renamed the Republic of Upper Volta. Russian flags at a pro coup rally in Burkina Faso /JgecJ8wNIQįrom French colonialism to U.S. But why does Washington wish to dominate such a small country? Many of the military men deposing civilian governments, and indeed each other, have been trained by the Pentagon. ![]() Over the last decade, Burkina Faso, which lies in West Africa and is surrounded by strategically-important countries, has endured multiple coups. But, as we shall see, it is the West that has the longest history of interfering in the country. Ibrahim Traoré as President or Interim President, depending on which report you read. The putsch has led to the swearing in of Capt. In Burkina Faso, Western media has homed in on a small number of protestors waving Russian flags in the streets following the coup, suggesting Moscow may be to blame for toppling the government. The Islamist onslaught began in the country in 2016 as a result of the U.S.-led NATO regime change war against Libya, which ultimately destabilized the neighboring country of Mali, enabling the Al Qaeda-allied Boko Haram to seize slices of territory with weapons looted from Libya’s military depots. The demonstrators’ anger centered on the French, and behind them, their American allies, for their failure to stop a ceaseless wave of Islamist militant attacks around the country.īoth countries had dispatched military personnel to train Burkina Faso’s army, but the extremist attacks continued to escalate. On September 30, 2022, yet another military coup toppled the government of Burkina Faso, with protesters surrounding and vandalizing the French embassy in the capital of Ouagadougou. Over the last ten years, the U.S.-run Africa Command (AFRICOM) has built up the nation’s military capacity to assist U.S. The landlocked country of Burkina Faso has proven itself to be a valuable diplomatic and intelligence asset in the U.S.
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