Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, said the 80th anniversary of the United Nations is akin to looking at an “embarrassing fiasco, a collective disappointment and a structural failure.”  He asked: “How can we understand the fact that Africa, the cradle of humanity and where there are so many conflicts, and which represents more than one billion human beings, remains excluded from the Security Council’s decision-making bodies?”  Peacekeeping missions, financed with billions of dollars, leave their countries with more frustration and suffering than tangible results.  “What is even worse is that this Council, whose role today is misused, is in fact a troublemaker, as a result of tacit, underhand and sometimes active complicity of some of its permanent members, who are themselves major actors and financiers of the crises of our time,” he continued, describing it as “a pernicious body” with “predatory behaviour” among some of its permanent members.  He called for bold reforms “without which the Security Council will remain an anachronistic institution.”

He said his country, like other Sahel nations, is going through one of the most testing times in its history.  “For almost a decade now, Burkina Faso has been attacked by terrorists supported by dark forces – these groups are coveting our resources, they are trying to shatter our sovereignty and impose the law of chaos,” he emphasized, adding that more than 72 per cent of his country’s territory has been recovered, thousands of internally displaced persons are returning home, schools are reopening and social services are resuming.  “This is why we are astonished by the condescending stance of certain UN agencies who feel it is within their rights to meddle in our national debate using biased narratives that are debossed from the reality on the ground,” he said, firmly rejecting the report entitled "Children and Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso" whose very title demonstrates semantic manipulation.

While Burkina Faso is confronted with terrorists who are troops of predatory foreign armies, some States are publicly proclaiming their support to these criminals, he stressed. “The Macron regime’s public media, in addition to the daily disinformation it offers, has become a mouthpiece for the communication of these criminals, perpetrators of cowardly, barbaric attacks committed against our peaceful citizens,” he stated, adding that some members of the Security Council continue to flout the binding resolution 1373 (2001) mandating the suppression of terrorist financing, the strengthening of border controls, and enhanced international cooperation.

He noted that for eight decades, Africa has legitimately demanded its rightful place on the Security Council.  “It is high time to deeply reform our Organization,” he said, deploring the blockade against Cuba, the sanctions against Venezuela and the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  “The UN is now in the same situation as the defunct League of Nations,” he underscored, calling on the Secretary-General to make the UN a true guarantor of peace and security worldwide, instead of an instrument of domination in the hands of the most powerful nations.