Burkina Faso expels French defense attache
France’s top military official in the country has been ordered to leave over “subversive activities,” various media have reported
French defense attache Emmanuel Pasquier and his team have been told to leave Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, according to Reuters. France recalled its ambassador Luc Hallade in September on orders from coup leaders.
“The government of Burkina Faso has decided… to withdraw the approval of Mr. Emmanuel Pasquier, defense attache at the French embassy in Burkina Faso for subversive activities,” the Burkinabe Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a letter to Paris on Thursday, granting “a period of two weeks to leave Burkinabe territory,” Reuters reported.
According to the letter, the French military mission in Ouagadougou will be closed and Burkina Faso is closing its defense office in Paris.
“The accusation of subversive activities is obviously fanciful,” a spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry told AFP in Paris.
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French television channels La Chaine Info and France24, as well as Radio France Internationale, have been suspended by authorities in Burkina Faso and correspondents from French newspapers Liberation and Le Monde have been expelled, local journalist Kader Nalima Bado told RT on Saturday. Nalima Bado claimed that the news has been perceived in his country as a "good sign" because of local perceptions that French media companies were one-sided in their reporting.