BASSOLMA BAZIÉ, Minister of State of Burkina Faso, stressed that his country, Mali and Niger are dealing with a war imposed on them by imperialism under the pretext of terrorism.  While these countries and others organized along their common borders and pulled together forces to combat terrorism, France “came out of nowhere” to impose the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5-Sahel).  He noted that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced a $2 billion contribution to establish an intervention force to re-establish democracy, but only $25 million was allocated until its dissolution and the creation of the G5- Sahel.  He urged other countries to deliver weapons that Burkina Faso needs to defend and protect its people from being killed, and he asserted that Burkina Faso will work in a sovereign manner with the partners it wants and buy from the countries it wants. The Russian Federation, Iran, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Burkina Faso will buy and sell their goods freely, he stressed, without any intermediary or authorization from whomever.

“To take our destiny in our own hands,” he affirmed, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso formed the Alliance of Sahel States, securing their countries through a treaty with revised authority for development.  “We have decided to say no to all these so-called friends who want our so-called good or who threaten us with war to impose their friendship.”  Niger is en route to becoming a second Libya, he said, strongly condemning the “underhanded manoeuvre” of forbidding Niger’s leaders from accessing United Nations Headquarters.  He also denounced Africa’s lack of permanent membership or veto rights in the Security Council as a “State crime” and “a crime of the UN”.  ECOWAS, the African Union, and the UN must become “true organizations of peoples instead of structures used by a minority of Heads of State”.  Inequality throughout the world is deliberate, he emphasized, condemning the true wounds that poison coexistence as the lies of States, diplomatic hypocrisy, thirst for power, the frenetic quest for profit, the diabolical spirit of domination, and exploitation of man by man.

In Burkina Faso, his Government has vigorously adopted a new action plan for stabilization and development with four priorities:  fighting terrorism and restoring territorial integrity, responding to humanitarian crisis, restoring the State and improving governance, and national reconciliation and social cohesion.  The Government seeks to provide the Burkinabe population with better living conditions and invites partners, with the condition that the partnership fits the vision of a transition represented by these four pillars.  “We African peoples,” he affirmed, “are profoundly democratic” and “our attachment to human dignity goes beyond democracy”. Rather, “what we refuse is the lesser democracy, this trap of democracy,” he said, “which turned out to be a way of controlling our States through playing musical chairs with the leaders who are often impostors and corrupt, who steal and rape.”