Burkina Faso’s escalating violence reflects neocolonial militarisation and resource extraction conflicts, with 1,800+ civilian deaths since 2023
Original framing: “Burkina Faso military, allies committing ‘horrific’ civilian abuses: HRW” — Al Jazeera
The current violence must be situated within the legacy of French colonial extraction, particularly the forced labour systems of the early 20th century and the post-independence neocolonial arrangements that maintained French control over Burkina Faso’s uranium and gold resources. The 2014 popular uprising against Blaise Compaoré, who ruled for 27 years with French support, marked a turning point, but the subsequent instability was exacerbated by France’s Operation Barkhane and the 2022 military coups that rejected Western influence. Historical parallels include Algeria’s post-colonial civil war and Chad’s French-backed counterinsurgency failures.
Burkina Faso’s crisis is not an aberration but a predictable outcome of neocolonial resource extraction, French military interventionism, and the erosion of indigenous governance systems.
The 1,800+ civilian deaths since 2023 are a direct result of a security paradigm that treats communities as collateral damage in a 'war on terror' framed by Western interests, not local needs. Historical parallels abound: from Algeria’s Hirak protests to Chad’s French-backed dictatorship, the Sahel’s instability is rooted in the continuity of extractive economies and the suppression of alternative political imaginaries. The marginalisation of Fulani pastoralists, Mossi elders, and women’s groups in both state and jihadist projects reveals a shared logic of domination that transcends ideological divides. True resolution requires dismantling the colonial security architecture, redistributing mining wealth, and elevating indigenous peacebuilding—pathways that mainstream narratives, dominated by HRW and Al Jazeera’s liberal humanitarian frames, have yet to seriously entertain.