Foreign relations of Burkina Faso has good relations with the European Union

Political Context

Like other countries in the subregion, Burkina Faso is experiencing increasingly challenging security conditions. Although protected for a long time, the country has entered a cycle of more frequent terrorist attacks. In December 2018, a state of emergency was declared in several provinces, and in January 2019, the ministers of defense and security were replaced following a cabinet reshuffle. The President of the Republic, Roch Kaboré, assumed the role of rotating president of the G5 Sahel in February 2019.

In July 2017, the Sahel Alliance was established by the European Union, France, Germany, the United Nations Development Programme, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank to support these countries’ efforts and help with regional stabilization. Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom also joined the Alliance.

In an effort to pool resources and combat terrorism, from February 18 to March 1, 2019, Burkina Faso hosted Flintlock 2019, a multinational military exercise involving over 2,000 service members from more than 30 African and western partner nations.