Topic: 2024-Situation in Burkina Faso
Country: United States of America
Delegate Name: Maya Comer
Conditions in Burkina Faso have continued to deteriorate since President Kaboré was ousted in 2022. Two military governments have risen and fallen in coups, and increasingly large numbers of civilians find themselves displaced. Additionally, U.S.-backed French troops departed Burkina Faso following Ibrahim Traoré’s 2022 seizure of the presidency and subsequent collaboration with Russia’s Wagner Group. Terrorist groups, keen to turn civilians against the government, have blocked humanitarian aid. Traoré has announced July 2024 as the date for a democratic election to subsume his current military government, but regional instability throws the decree into question.
The United States has long supported humanitarian expansion in Burkina Faso, most notably by providing $63 million in medical aid, which includes over 4,300 medical kits for Burkinabe peacekeepers. However, the U.S. recognizes that direct support for Traoré’s regime would serve to legitimize it, so it has withheld military support since his ascendency to the presidency. The foremost concern in Burkina Faso is the welfare of the Burkinabe people, so the United States hesitates to enable further destabilizing violence between the current government and terrorist groups. And, taking into account historical violations of African sovereignty by Western nations, the U.S. remains wary of direct intervention. Ultimately, proceedings in Burkina Faso are within the domain of the African Union and the Burkinabe people, but the United States has always stood vigilantly to assist in providing peace, stability, and prosperity.
Going forward, the United States calls upon the member states of the Security Council to expand humanitarian capabilities in Burkina Faso, especially considering the nation’s rising tides of violence. And while Traoré holds the ultimate discretion to collaborate with the Wagner Group, the United States worries about Wagner’s flagrant and well-documented human rights abuses, and proposes a more robust support system so that Traoré may choose to collaborate with UN-backed forces. Considering Traoré himself is a former UN peacekeeper, he may not be entirely hostile to the cause. However, in the interest of national sovereignty and pan-African independence, the U.S. suggests that the African Union lead the charge on this front, with the UN willing to step in as needed. Finally, the United States would like to point to the efficacy of violence-prevention and deradicalization programs (one of which was piloted successfully in Burkina Faso in 2019 for a relatively small $13.5 million), and suggests that these programs be promptly expanded to eliminate the problems of violence at their source.
Works Cited
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