US Suspends Financial Aid To Burkina Faso

A US government agency said on Monday it was suspending $450 million in aid to Burkina Faso, where mutinous soldiers overthrew the democratically elected president last week.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent US agency that provides grants and aid to countries that meet good governance standards, said its decision was due to the uprising against President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

“The soldiers of Burkina Faso claim to have suspended the Constitution and dissolved the government and the national assembly,” the agency said in a statement. “These actions are at odds with MCC’s commitment to democratic governance and respect for the rule of law, principles that underpin the agency’s rigorous selection criteria.”

In today’s briefing, @StateDeputySpox took questions on Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine & the situation in Burkina Faso: “We condemn the actions by military officers who claim to have dissolved the government/national assembly and suspended the constitution.” https://t.co/FBmkZI9He0

— Department of State (@StateDept) January 29, 2022

Unconstitutional means

The Biden administration has yet to decide whether events in Burkina Faso amount to a coup, with the suspension of agency aid the first action the United States has taken. Under U.S. law, if the State Department determines that a democratically elected government has been ousted by unconstitutional means , all non-humanitarian assistance from the United States must be suspended.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was still assessing the situation, but in the meantime had decided to suspend most aid. “It is too early to go into specifics, but we have asked all actors to exercise restraint as we carefully review events to determine potential impacts on our aid.”

Military assistance

U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Sandra Clark, told The Associated Press that the U.S. is calling for the release of Roch Marc Christian Kabore and other detainees and a return to constitutional order in the country . .

The United States is the largest international donor, with nearly $213 million in 2020. In addition to humanitarian and development assistance, it provides military assistance such as air support, surveillance and intelligence to French forces, which have intervened against jihadists in the Sahel, and intermittent training to Burkina Faso’s security forces.

Institution building

“The situation is very unstable at the moment and the putschists are unlikely to gain the approval or support of the international community,” says Elizabeth Shackelford, US foreign policy fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former diplomat. American.

Saying that military support has not improved the situation, she believes that the United States and its partners should spend more time and money on institution building to foster democracy in a region plagued by coups.

The freezing of this financial aid comes after the suspension of Burkina Faso from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU).

Jihadist violence

An ECOWAS delegation visited the country earlier this week to ask military leaders to quickly return to constitutional order. Further decisions from the organization are expected after a summit scheduled for Thursday in Ghana.

Burkina Faso’s new strongman, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, came to power promising to stem jihadist violence that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced nearly 1.5 million people. However, he did not detail his plans to fight jihadists better than the previous government.