Last week, Burkina Faso President Paul-Henri Damiba was deposed by Captain
Ibrahim Traoré and his supporters in a successful coup, the second in the
country in the past year.





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Burkina Faso Sees Second Military Coup In A Year As Russia Makes Inroads
Across Sahel



(New York, N.Y.) — Last week, Burkina Faso President Paul-Henri Damiba was
deposed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré and his supporters in a successful coup, the
second in the country in the past year. Traoré cited Damiba’s lack of progress
in defeating Islamic extremists—the same justification that Damiba provided in
his own successful coup in January 2022. Supporters of Traoré, who were later
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Russian flags, then called for military support from the Kremlin after
attacking the French embassy, signaling both Russia’s growing influence in the
Sahel region and France’s diminishing influence.



To read the Counter Extremism Project (CEP)’s resource Russia: Extremism and
Terrorism, please click here
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Russia has increasingly asserted its dominance across the Sahel region after
France announced that it would end its seven-year anti-terror mission in
Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Niger, and Mauritania. Through the auspice of the
Wagner Group, a Kremlin-associated paramilitary group, Russia has reportedly
taken on a primary role in supporting Mali’s fight against the jihadist
insurgency. However, according to the BBC, the Wagner Group has been accused of
giving Russia control over mineral resources in areas where they operate.
Additionally, a 2021 U.N. report accessed by theNew York Times found
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that Russian mercenaries and allied government troops committed
“indiscriminate killings, occupation of schools and looting.” According to
scholars on the region, while Wagner will provide training to local forces and
offer security services to senior officials in partner countries, Wagner will
also spread Russian influence on the continent.



Burkina Faso had been largely free of extremist and terrorist incidents prior
to January 2016 when insurgents attacked the Splendid Hotel and Cappuccino Café
in Ouagadougou, ultimately killing 30 people. The security environment first
began to shift in 2015 when Burkina Faso began to suffer intermittent
cross-border raids targeting Burkinabe police and military outposts near the
country’s northern border with Mali. Since the January 2016 attack, Burkina
Faso has reported several terrorist incidents, including the kidnapping of
foreigners by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and two attacks by an
ISIS-inspired breakaway group. Most recently, onSeptember 26
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, militants from AQIM affiliate Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM)
ambushed a supply convoy in Gaskinde, northern Burkina Faso. The attack killed
11 soldiers and injured 28 others.



To read the CEP’s resource Burkina Faso: Extremism and Terrorism, please click
here
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.



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