'Media pollution': Burkina Faso says security threat is manipulated

Reporting of an attack on an army base in Burkina Faso has been manipulated to misrepresent the security situation, the country's foreign minister told CGTN.

Speaking at an interview at the Crans Montana Forum in Brussels, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said progress in reopening hundreds of classrooms and returning thousands of people to their homes had been ignored in order to present a distorted narrative.

The SITE intelligence group reported that a group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed to be behind the attack and said they had killed more than 100 soldiers. Subsequent coverage in the global media cited rumours of unrest resulting from an apparent deterioration in the security situation.

However,  Traoré said that since taking power in 2022, the military government had reclaimed huge areas of the country. Violence from Islamist goups had prompted the closure of 6500 schools, but almost a quarter of those have since been able to reopen, the minister revealed. Similarly at least 700,000 of around 2 million displaced people had been able to return to their villages.

"We were a bit surprised. Of the reaction following the shooting incident in Burkina Faso, which prompted such a media offensive. I would say media pollution," Traoré said. "Social media has been used in the last few days, deliberately, to overshadow the concrete results that are being achieved on the ground."

After coming to power Burkina Faso's military rulers ordered French troops who had been charged with supporting the fight against insurgency to leave and turned to Russia and other partners for military backing. Traore said the French had tried to impose inappropriate and ineffectual solutions on his country.

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