Ghana’s Ambassador to Burkina Faso has watered down fears of any diplomatic row between Ghana and Burkina Faso over claims made by Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, about the presence of Russian mercenaries in the neighbouring country.
Mr. Boniface Gambila Adagbila was summoned by the Foreign Affairs Minister of the host country, Mr. Karamoko Jean Marie Traore on Friday morning to respond to the linking of Burkina Faso to Russian firm Wagner.
During a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the side-lines of the US-Africa summit in Washington on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo described the development as distressing.
“Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there. I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for their services. Prime minister of Burkina Faso in the last 10 days has been in Moscow. And to have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana,” President Akufo-Addo claimed.
Burkina Faso has since recalled its ambassador in Ghana for consultations over the allegations.
A statement on the verified Facebook account of the Burkina Faso Foreign Affairs Ministry noted “the Burkina government’s disapproval of these statements by the Head of State of Ghana”.
But Ghana’s ambassador stated at the meeting that what President Akufo-Addo said was not intended to condemn Burkina Faso or to sow doubt in people’s minds.
Rather, he explained, the intention was above all to draw the attention of partners in order to raise their interest in Burkina Faso.
“The Ghanaian president’s speeches were conditional,” Mr Boniface Gambila Adagbila was quoted to have said.
However, recalling the historic and fraternal ties between the two countries, Mr. Karamoko Jean Marie Traore “felt that Ghana could have undertaken exchanges with the Burkina authorities on the security issue in order to be informed” .
He also noted that “It would have been more interesting to initiate a dialogue between participating and non-participating African countries in prelude to this summit of the United States of America”.
The two sides, the statement said, agreed that it is important that African countries, especially those in the sub-region, work to further strengthen their ties of solidarity and fraternity.