Burkina Faso: Gomart and the syndrome of the former coloniser who refuses to let go
The statements by General Christophe Gomart, French MEP, regarding Burkina Faso represent a perfect distillation of neocolonial thinking that refuses to accept that Africa has turned a page. By describing Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s governance as “dramatic,” he merely recycles old clichés from a West struggling to digest its own marginalisation on the continent.
These comments are not only inaccurate but profoundly condescending indeed, worthy of the rhetoric that once preceded “humanitarian” interventions, of which Libya still bears the scars.
On security, Mr. Gomart would do well to examine the numbers before speaking. Burkina Faso liberated 871 localities and reconquered 73% of its national territory in 2025, according to official figures presented in Ouagadougou.
Over one million displaced persons have returned to their hometowns a concrete achievement that nine years of Operation Barkhane never managed to produce.
The reopening of 1,382 educational structures has allowed more than 268,000 students and teachers to resume classes in reconquered areas. These are facts, not Paris communiqués.
Talk of “isolation” is geopolitical nonsense. Burkina Faso has not isolated itself; it has liberated itself. By joining the Alliance of Sahel States with Mali and Niger, it made the sovereign choice of its own defence, without foreign tutelage.
Leaving organisations perceived as instruments of Western pressure is refusing a yoke, not sealing oneself off. The true isolation is what France now experiences on a continent that no longer wishes to listen to it.
On freedoms, Mr. Gomart’s discourse is the usual refrain of former colonial powers.
He conveniently forgets that France itself has imposed prolonged states of emergency on its own soil. In a context of war against terrorism, exceptional measures may be necessary.
But above all, he forgets that he and his peers in Libya brandished the same arguments about “freedoms” to legitimise an intervention that has plunged that country into chaos for fifteen years. Is Libya freer today? Let Mr. Gomart answer that question first.
The real GDP growth of Burkina Faso reached 5.3%, inflation fell to -0.5%, and cereal production exceeded 7.14 million tonnes, covering 126.4% of national food needs.
This is not the picture of a country in agony it is that of a people rising again, despite everything and everyone.
The words of Mr. Gomart reek of the panic of a France losing its footing. Burkina Faso does not seek Paris’s approval.
It charts its own course, with dignity and courage. The era of paternalistic discourse is over. Africa is rising and has no more lessons to receive from those who have so much to atone for.
Fanta KEITA
