Burkina Faso, which for some time now has been on a campaign to rid itself of Western influence, is now looking to revoke the mining permits of several foreign miners within its borders.
This is part of its plan to control its own gold trade, as seen on Reuters.
The president of the country, Ibrahim Traore, who was commemorating his two years in power over a radio broadcast, made the revelation on Saturday, but held off on the companies whose mining permits would be withdrawn.
“We know how to mine our gold and I don’t understand why we’re going to let multinationals come and mine it,” he stated.
“In fact, we are going to withdraw mining permits,” the president added.
Some of the foreign mining companies currently operating in the West African country includes; Endeavour Mining (UK), West African Resources (Australia), Nordgold (Russia), and Orezone Gold Corporation (Canada).
Burkina Faso’s frustration with the West
In January 2022, mutinous troops commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba detained President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
Shortly after assuming office, Damiba promised to handle the country’s security issue.
Eight months later, on September 30, Captain Ibrahim Traoré declared himself president of Burkina Faso, the country’s second coup of the year.
Traoré defended his seizure of power by citing Burkina Faso’s worsening security situation.
These series of events were propelled by the country’s dissatisfaction with its state of affairs, which supposedly had a lot of Western influence.
Since the second coup, Burkina Faso has slowly severed longstanding ties with its former western partners in place of Russian ties.
In April, Burkina Faso’s communications authority announced the suspension of several Western and African media outlets due to their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report alleging the army’s involvement in extrajudicial killings.
This move followed the suspension of BBC Africa and the US-funded Voice of America for their coverage of the HRW research, which stated that the Burkinabe military massacred around 223 civilians in February.
The government announced a two-week suspension of French television network TV5Monde’s programming, as well as a restriction on access to its website.
