The UN coordinator in Burkina Faso, the Italian Barbara Manzi, was declared “persona non grata” and “asked to leave the country” on Friday, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Madame Barbara Manzi, resident coordinator of the United Nations system, is declared persona non grata on the territory of Burkina Faso. She is therefore asked to leave Burkina Faso today, December 23, 2022”, specifies the text, without give an official reason for this expulsion.
An “attempt to influence negatively”
According to a diplomatic source, this is justified by the fact that Barbara Manzi recently “requested and obtained the withdrawal of non-essential personnel from the (United Nations) system from Burkina”. A decision which “risks placing the country in a delicate situation, at a time when Burkina Faso needs partners more than necessary to deal with the security and humanitarian crisis”, continues this source.
Another diplomatic source, for his part, told AFP that a “long list of complaints” led “Burkinabe diplomacy to take its responsibilities”. In addition to the request for the withdrawal of non-essential staff, Barbara Manzi is also accused of an “attempt to influence negatively” and to “interfere in the political affairs of Burkina”, according to this source.
This expulsion comes a few days after that of two French people who worked for a Burkinabè company and who were suspected by the authorities of being spies.
Burkina Faso still unstable
Burkina Faso has been ruled since the end of September by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, author of a military coup, the second in eight months. Its Prime Minister, Apollinaire Kyélem de Tembela, had wanted in mid-November to “diversify partnership relations until the right formula is found for the interests of Burkina Faso”.
He also said that “some partners” had “not always been loyal”, without naming countries. In July, Mali, a neighboring country of Burkina, also caught in a serious security crisis, expelled Olivier Salgado, the spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Mali (Minusma), for having published, according to the ruling junta, “unacceptable information” the day after the arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers in Bamako.