In Burkina Faso, gold mines interest the military

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The term “requisition” should not be taken literally: the 200 kilograms of gold would have been purchased at market price, and the commercial operation would have been the subject of a contract in good and due form. The Minister of Mines, who signed the decree on February 14, evokes in a somewhat vague way a compensation “corresponding to the value of the requisitioned gold“- 200 kilos of gold represent roughly 11 million euros.

But this operation with the Semafo, a subsidiary of the Canadian group Endeavor Mining, is very unusual. Faced with questions, the government has therefore tried to justify itself: this requisition is ‘dictated by an exceptional context of public necessity which founds the State to ask certain companies to sell part of their production to it‘.

Mines close, tax revenues drop

Gold, Burkina’s first export product, is (or rather was) its wealth. But in recent years, because of the resurgence of attacks by jihadist groups, because of kidnappings and executions, because of the impotence of the authorities, the mining companies no longer jostle for the gate.
Protecting their sites, their workers and their convoys costs them too much. Last year six mines closed for these reasons. It put more than 2,000 people out of work, and deprived the state of large tax revenues. 38 million euros of shortfall.
In the east, certain sites are under the control of terrorists who sell their wealth far from the radars of the State. This is also less money. We had to find a way to recover it. The military – who have ruled the country since the coup – did not have to look very far.

Resurgence of jihadist attacks

Officially, the sale of this gold will be used to finance the fight against the jihadists. Because Burkina has become the epicenter of violence in the Sahel: 150 dead since the beginning of the year.

On February 17, the NGO Doctors Without Borders announced that it was suspending all of its activities in the country, after two of its employees were killed on February 8 during an attack in the northwest.

The junta must therefore respond to the demand for security (40% of the territory is out of control), but also to the famine which threatens and to the 2 million displaced persons.

But why buy gold? Burkina is easily financed on regional markets. On February 15, the Public Treasury even collected nearly 30 billion CFA francs from the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

Did Russia play a role? While the junta has asked the French military to leave the country by the end of the month, Burkina is ostensibly closing in on Moscow – and Wagner’s paramilitaries.
However, under the guise of a security offer, this group has turned into a veritable enterprise of predation of resources and taking control of the countries that call on it. (We have seen this in the Central African Republic and to a lesser extent in Mali). The group is suspected of also trying to establish itself in Burkina. Some evil spirits suggest that it was Wagner’s mercenaries who suggested to the military the idea of ​​this requisition of gold… to help themselves along the way.


source site-24