Burkina Faso

Executive Profile (BLUF)

Burkina Faso has experienced two coups in 2022 and is governed by a military junta (MPSR-II) under Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who expelled French forces, terminated the ECOWAS relationship, and contracted Africa Corps (Wagner Group successor) for security assistance. The country faces the most severe jihadist insurgency in the Sahel — JNIM and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) control significant territory, triggering mass displacement and a humanitarian crisis of regional magnitude. Burkina Faso’s pivot completes the “AES bloc” with Mali and Niger, forming a contiguous Russia-aligned zone across the central Sahel.

Key Relationships

• Africa Corps | Wagner Group — Russian security partnership; mining concessions
• France — expelled 2023; end of Sahelian French military presence
• Mali | Niger — Alliance of Sahel States (AES); anti-France mutual defense pact
• JNIM | Al-Qaeda — primary jihadist actor; significant territorial control in northern and eastern Burkina Faso
• Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) — secondary jihadist threat
• ECOWAS — suspended; sanctions imposed
• Russia — diplomatic patron; arms supplier; mining partnerships