Burkina Faso and Canada have maintained diplomatic relations for about sixty years. The audience between the Prime Minister, Me Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem de Tambela, and the Canadian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Lee-Anne Hermann, was an opportunity to take stock of the cooperation between the two countries, but also of the national situation.

“We talked about the national situation and the Stabilization and Development Action Plan. We have been working together for many years. We work in several fields of activity, namely health, education, social cohesion, humanitarian work, mining. Over the past 60 years, this collaboration has evolved. We are here to support Burkina Faso on the path to sustainable development,” said diplomat Lee-Anne Hermann as she left the audience.

As a good connoisseur of Canada, having given courses in Law and International Relations at universities there, the Prime Minister took the opportunity of this meeting to invite the construction of a Canadian University in Burkina Faso in order to strengthen cooperation in higher education between the two countries .

In response to this request, the diplomat made it clear that education is not the responsibility of Canada’s central government but of the provinces.

In response, the Prime Minister countered that Canada can innovate because “it’s people who make the systems”.

He also stated that Canada could support Burkina Faso in the fight against terrorism.

“If Canada supplies arms to Ukraine, it can also supply Burkina Faso. We want guns. It’s a matter of will,” he said.

He also described Canada’s areas of intervention in Burkina Faso as “secondary”. According to him, “fighting terrorism and restoring the state is the top priority.”

“We have to save our country. Because we have a country, we speak of development. Anyone who can help us, we are takers. In trouble we recognize our true friends. Our priority is the fight against terrorism,” he said.

At this meeting, the Ambassador expressed his concern about possible human rights violations by the Volunteers for the Defense of the Party (VDP).

Faced with these concerns, Tambela’s Me Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem could not have been clearer: “VDPs can commit no more abuses than terrorists. Terrorists do not know the language of peace and social cohesion, nor that of human rights”.

When asked by the diplomat about Wagner’s arrival in Burkina Faso, the head of government replied that “we will fight ourselves, with our own means” and that what the country wants from its partners “are weapons”.

DCRP / Prime Minister