A rising jihadist threat may force Burkina Faso into accepting outside help – and its partnership options are limited

Nearly a year after Burkina Faso’s latest coup, the west African country’s problems with jihadist militants seem to be intensifying.

On 4 September, 17 soldiers and 36 volunteer fighters were killed in clashes with militants, in Burkina Faso’s worst attack in months.

But the government, led by 34-year-old army captain Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in September last year – the second of two coups in the country in 2022 – is in an increasingly tight position.

Having exhausted domestic options for stemming the militant threat, Traoré has also narrowed his choice of international partners. Now he is left with only one alternative: Russia and the Wagner Group, a private military company.

One of Burkina Faso’s problems is that the Burkinabè army has played an auxiliary role to French military contingents since 1987, when a coup led to the assassination of Thomas Sankara, an army officer who had seized the presidency for four years. This is true of the armies of most other Francophone countries; the structure of the relationships between France and its former colonies does not allow for stand-alone militaries, which has affected the size, equipment and training of domestic armies.

Opposing the Burkinabè military is an insurgency trained not only in the practical use of weapons, technical communication devices, surveillance, and reconnaissance but also in guerrilla warfare. Insurgents attack Burkinabè government forces not to control territory or capture weapons and vehicles, but to weaken them and create fear.