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Written by: Marthad Umucyaba
Canada is set to take economic losses as Burkina Faso and the Alliance of Sahel States, aka AES (Alliance des Etats de Sahel) introduce new measures to end neo-colonialism in Northwestern Africa. Burkina Faso, in particular, has introduced a new land nationalisation law under the Ibrahim Traore-led military government that will establish the whole land of Burkina Faso as state property. They will also be revoking mining permits to foreign, mainly western countries, and seizing state ownership over said resources.
Despite Canadian efforts, previously covered by The Canada Files, to limit the effects of the anti-colonial uprising of the AES on Canada’s colonial possessions in Africa, grassroots movements such as Waylyan aka Citizen’s Nightwatch, akin to the mobilisation movements in Cuba, have thus far thwarted the attempt by NATO-based NGOs to undermine the government’s anti-colonial actions.
The Canada Files spoke with Inemesit Richardson, an All African People’s Revolutionary Party member, the President of the Thomas Sankara Center for African Liberation and Unity (aka Burkina Books) and an African Stream journalist. Richardson detailed the impacts of the land nationalisation and the revocation of mining permits on Canada’s mining operations in Burkina Faso. She also explained the overall sentiment of the population in the AES and especially Burkina Faso towards the Traore government, and how that popular support has manifested itself in Waylyan.
Burkina Faso’s Land Nationalisation
On February 5, Burkina Faso’s Minister of the Economy and Finances, Abubakr Nacanabo, publicly released the policy of comprehensive land nationalisation, declaring that all of Burkina Faso’s land will be in the hands of the state. The Ministry has also forbidden foreigners from holding rural title deeds for land lease.
The program largely targets the dangerous mass purchase of farmland by private billionaires and companies like Bill Gates, who currently owns 242,000 acres of US farmland. and US and NATO member country holding companies in Ukraine that currently hold over 2,000,000 hectares worth of land lease titles. Land nationalisation and the prohibition on foreign owned rural land leases is also geared to support local food production and make the cost of local food production lower.
According to Richardson, while a popular measure, in terms of Canadian interests – which aren’t in rural land or real estate, but primarily mining – the land nationalisation policy will have a minimal impact on Canada’s operations in Burkina Faso. However, revocation of mining permits has already directly affected Canadian mining interests, and some of the mining permits that were revoked were Canadian based companies due to outrageous abuses.
Burkina Faso’s Revocation of Mining Permits
Shortly before Ibrahim Traore took power in Burkina Faso in September 2022, in April of that same year, a Canadian company came under fire. Two executives of the Perkoa mine, owned and operated by Canadian mining company Trevali, received a suspended sentence of 24 months and 12 months respectively for manslaughter after eight workers were killed due to negligence in safety protocols. The slap on the wrist ‘convictions’ were endemic of the neo-colonial government that was in place at the time. After Ibrahim Traore seized power, the Perkoa mine was liquidated and nationalised and the mining permit of Trevali was revoked.
According to Richardson, Traore also signalled that he will be revoking even more mining permits, back in October 2024. In 2023, there were 15 Canadian-based mining companies in Burkina Faso and all of their mining permits are at risk. This prompted Canada to pump millions of dollars into “women’s rights” initiatives throughout the AES, especially in Burkina Faso. The country being a noted cash cow for Canada which, by the government’s own admission, was at $1.6 billion dollars in private investment before the military coup and has since been reduced to $1.1 billion, a net loss of $500 million.
Canada is also notably still involved in allegedly supporting the Wahhabi terrorists fighting the AES. Canada still supports airlifts for the French military through Operation PRESENCE. The French military, according to Richardson, was accused regularly by the population and even the Mali government of supporting and arming the Wahhabi terrorists.
Sentiments around the new government
According to Richardson, the main reason that the NATO axis has failed to destablize Burkina Faso is the population’s formation of mass mobilisation movements in defence of the Traore government, whenever a colour revolution is initiated. The most notable movement is called the Citizen’s Nightwatch (La Veille Citoyenne) or Wayiyan.
Groups regularly monitor the country on rotation throughout the day and night for any colour revolution activities currently being financed by NATO states and Canada, in particular. In November 2024, they recently went on an exchange to Cuba to draw lessons from the Communist Party of Cuba’s mass mobilisation strategies and have gained even more experience, thus further weakening any prospect of a successful colour revolution against the Traore government.
Neo-colonial mining: a NATO project nearing its end
“The foreign policy in general and what the leaders [of the AES] have said many times is that they’re happy to work with any country around the world so long as that country is willing to respect the sovereignty and self-determination of the AES countries. They have stated that they will not collaborate with any countries that violate the sovereignty of the AES states. And so, in general they have preferred partnerships with countries like Russia, Iran, China to some extent… some south-south cooperation… with Venezuela, Nicaragua… they will slam that door shut, they will not collaborate with countries that violate their sovereignty.”
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Inemesit Richardson, African Stream Reporter and President of Burkina Books
The NATO project of resource plunder in Northwestern Africa has reached its finale. The show is over, and no encore will be entertained by the audience, regardless of the “shows” proposed, such as Trump granting permission to AFRICOM to carpet bomb and carry out commando assassinations, Canada’s “feminist” foreign policy, the support of Wahhabism, or other obscene NATO initiatives.
NATO could fail in Northwestern Africa and has a very limited chance to stem the tide of revolutionary change throughout the continent as a whole. Canada’s $1.1 billion in Burkina Faso, and investment in other parts of Africa, will crater, unless Canada can replace predatory exploitation with something the population, which is rapidly improving in education and consciousness, is willing to accept, such as the trading of a finished good for a finished good.
This in turn will lead to problems at home because Canada will be unable to trickle down shares of its plunder to the masses. Tent cities have already been normalised and teenagers are being conditioned into abandoning the idea of owning a home and instead renting at high prices.
The chickens, which began with the massacre of the Indigenous nations and continued with Canada casting its lot with the Nazi-led white supremacist and anti-communist NATO alliance, are coming home to roost. The inner conflict that is to come in Canada will not be pretty.
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Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba (formerly referred to as Christian Shingiro) is a Rwandan-born naturalized Canadian expat. He is known for his participation in Communist/anti-imperialist national and international politics and is the radio show host of The Socially Radical Guitarist.
He is also a freelance web developer in Hong Kong, China, striving to provide “Socially Radical Web Design at a socially reasonable price”.
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