Burkina Faso

Your Excellency the President of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly; Your Excellency the Secretary-General of the United Nations; Distinguished personalities;

On behalf of His Excellency Captain Ibrahim TRAORÉ, President of the Transition, Head of State, please accept the fraternal greetings of the People and Government of Burkina Faso.

On behalf of the Burkinabè People, I bow respectfully to the memory of the great leaders throughout the world who inspired dreams and hope for a just and equitable human society through their commitment, determination, and spirit of sacrifice. I cite in particular:

• Fidel CASTRO of Cuba;
• Patrice Emery Lumumba of the Congo;
• Kwame N'Krumah of Ghana;
• Modibo KEITA of Mali;
• Ruben Um Nyobé and Félix Moumié of Cameroon;
• Sylvanus OLYMPIO of Togo;
• Che Guevara of Argentina;
• Martin Luther King and Malcolm X of the United States of America;
• Nelson Mandela of South Africa;
• Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya;
• Amílcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands;
• Marien Ngouabi of Congo Brazzaville;
• Captain Noël Isidore Thomas SANKARA of Burkina Faso;
• Etc.

Most of these leaders were violently executed, and others were assassinated through prison fires and poisonings. Their only crime, for each of them, was to embody the dreams, ambitions, and hopes of peoples who had been wounded, violated, brutalized, and plundered!

Mr. President;

My presence at this Honorable rostrum of the United Nations, on behalf of Burkina Faso, Land of Upright Men, is not meant to erect walls of lamentation. Nor am I here to deliver a speech of convenience. Rather, I have been mandated in sacrifice to tell you that the lies of the State, diplomatic hypocrisy, the insatiable appetite for power, the frenzied pursuit of gain, and the demonic spirit of domination and exploitation of Man by Man are the true wounds that are gangrening our life together and are driving the whole of society toward its ruin, including our own Organization, the UN.

1. His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN);
2. His Excellency Mr. Joe Biden, President of the United States;
3. His Excellency Mr. Dennis Francis, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations, elected President of the 78th Session of the General Assembly;
4. His Excellency Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil;

Allow me to recall here portions of your respective speeches delivered at this very rostrum at the opening of this 78th session:

First: "We are in a world turned upside down! Bodies litter the beaches where billionaires relax";

Second: "We are at a crossroads. We have a common cause, namely, to bequeath to our children a world with a good social climate";

Third: "Despite the difficulties, we can pull through; it is not capacity that is lacking but political will. Otherwise, we can bring progress and peace for all";

Fourth: "There is a dissonance between rhetoric and practice, between words and facts. The UN Security Council is paralyzed. The UN must fulfill its function of a united and equitable world in accordance with the principles set out in the Charter. This requires the courage to fight against inequalities."

The essence of the expressions of these four high personalities clearly means that inequalities in the world are willed, and that with a minimum of political courage and will, we could, if not eradicate them, at least reduce them to their bare minimum!

Indeed, every year speeches pour forth just as promises and commitments do. The proof of the dissonance between speeches and facts on these questions of principle contained in the UN Charter — justice, equality, dignity, integrity, the right to self-determination, the sovereignty of States, the inviolability of territory, and respect for international law — can be seen in what is happening in Libya, in the Sahel (specifically in Niger), and in the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

First, in Libya, following that catastrophic deluge, thousands of lives were swept away. To whitewash our consciences with a semblance of tranquility, every Nation rushes to express its compassion, its solidarity. This is certainly meant to give the impression that we live in a society and that we defend values. Intellectual honesty demands, and the history of consciences reflects, that we owe a sincere apology to the Libyan people for having been, collectively and individually, through reprehensible passivity or active and unacceptable complicity, standing alongside the executioners who caused the first man-made catastrophe in Libya. It was this catastrophe that brought Libya to its knees, ravaging it and killing its Guide, before the waters of the flood came to plunge it further into mourning. And unfortunately, at the head of this human catastrophe was the UN, under Resolution 1970, along with the guilty silence, indeed the complicity, of ECOWAS and the African Union. This macabre intervention, led by the France of Nicolas SARKOZY, liquidated the Libyan Guide, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, on October 20, 2011. If condolences to the Libyan people carried even a minimum of good sense, free of hypocrisy, this macabre diplomacy would never be repeated around the case of Niger to create a second Libya.

Furthermore, as proof that international relations are tainted with a deep diplomatic hypocrisy, devoid of conscience, morality, dignity, integrity, justice, and therefore peace, we see the same posturing, in a scandalously deadly alignment, agitating like beasts around their wounded prey in order to devour it. Today, we have made the unfortunate observation that, contrary to the professions of good faith made at this very rostrum of the UN calling for respect for the UN Charter and international law, the leaders representing the brotherly people of Niger have been practically barred from access to the United Nations headquarters.

Burkina Faso firmly condemns this sordid maneuver, which is reminiscent of medieval practices. This can obviously only be done by minds that have lost the essential values needed for any harmonious life in society. From the communiqué read by the authorities of Niger, it appears that France, in collusion with the Secretary-General of the UN, is behind this unspeakable situation. We therefore reaffirm that the UN must under no circumstances be an instrument in the hands of any country, be it France.

The Pan-Africanist leaders who fought for African unity, our grandparents who fell with dignity under the murderous bullets of the colonizers, the worthy sons of Africa who sacrificed themselves for the honor of the continent and who fought fiercely against the slave trade and neocolonialism, have had their warriors' rest disturbed upon hearing that a handful of Africa's wayward children are holding Niger like a ball of cotton for the invader to set alight. Yes, dear African Continent, a handful of your children have decided to humiliate and vilify you through shameless State lies, beginning with Niger. I therefore issue a vibrant and solemn appeal to the peoples of Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and all the peoples of Africa to mobilize further in African fraternity and solidarity in order to prevent the imperialists from setting Niger ablaze as they did with Libya.

Mr. President of the 78th Session of the General Assembly; Mr. Secretary-General of the UN; Distinguished personalities, with your respective ranks, titles, and stations;

I insist, from this rostrum of the UN and before the entire world, that ECOWAS, the African Union, and the UN must imperatively transform themselves into genuine organizations of the peoples, rather than structures serving a minority of Heads of State. They must not be used and instrumentalized to destabilize brotherly countries by assassinating their leaders. Only on these terms will the UN Charter and international law have any meaning!

Finally, speaking of the UN Charter and international law, a conflict between Russia and Ukraine is being sustained and desired by certain other powers.

Thus, several Western countries, notably the United States and the European Union, have poured all kinds of support into it, including military support. Ukrainian civilian populations engaged as volunteers, some of whom even pilot tanks, are praised and called patriots.

Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are facing a war imposed on them by imperialism under the guise of terrorists of every stripe (AQIM, ISIS, JNIM, etc.), sowing terror and desolation. Despite the existence of this same United Nations Charter with its principles of equality and justice, and of the same international law invoked at this UN rostrum, there is clearly an abysmal gap in the treatment of these issues. Indeed:

Taking the case of Burkina Faso, civilian populations facing the barbaric and murderous incursions of terrorists have decided to join forces with the Defense and Security Forces (FDS). These populations, thus engaged, trained, and supervised by the FDS, are called Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP). Thus, in Burkina Faso, we have 58,000 VDP, of whom 42,000 are Communal VDP and 16,000 are National VDP, fighting on every front alongside the FDS, trained, supervised, and directed by them. They act only on the instructions and under the supervision of the FDS and in accordance with regulatory texts, in order to protect their lives and property. These are the Patriots that certain Heads of State of ECOWAS and the African Union, instrumentalized by imperialist capitalist powers, are trying to portray to the international community as militias: that is the shameless lie of the State!

Mr. President;

If the international community were honest and sincere in its commitment against terrorism, it would not allow a situation to persist in which civilian populations must organize and train to ensure their own defense. Speaking of this international community's lack of candor, here are some examples:

First, when Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and other countries organized themselves along their common borders, pooling their forces to confront terrorism, France came out of nowhere to impose its own instrument, the G5 Sahel. Today, ECOWAS, which suddenly has an intervention force to restore democracies, has announced a contribution of 2 billion US dollars. But from the creation of the G5 Sahel until its own dissolution, ECOWAS was only able to disburse 25 million US dollars. So where is the seriousness in the defense of human lives championed by the Universal Declaration of Human and Peoples' Rights?

Second, Burkina Faso is suffering cynical sanctions following the coup d'état of September 30, 2022. This nebulous entity known as the international community, driven by France acting through its local lackeys in Africa, first attempted to have a Prime Minister appointed in Burkina Faso, in vain; then they moved to imposing ministers in strategic positions within the Burkinabè Government, in vain; and finally they negotiated the maintenance of relations so that Captain Ibrahim TRAORÉ would implement whatever they decided, as a sine qua non condition for remaining in power for as long as they wished. Having also refused this in the name of the higher interest of his People, an avalanche of repressive measures, threats, coup attempts, and immoral maneuvers are being concocted in criminal laboratories. And unfortunately, all these macabre maneuvers and missions are piloted like puppets remotely controlled by figures lurking in African presidential corridors.

This is how even that famous Accra initiative, without Mali, did not last long.

Third, in addition to cutting aid and canceling training agreements for our Defense and Security Forces (FDS), we are witnessing the blocking of our military equipment, ordered with the sweat of our compatriots, once again at France's instigation.

For example, for the aerial vehicles needed to control and defend our territory, we had a contract with Brazil, whose weapons license was to come from Belgium, with the navigation and firing system as well as cameras from the United States of America, and an engine from Canada. These resources are today being fallaciously and cynically blocked. You speak of the Defense of Human Rights at this UN rostrum; I therefore invite you to deliver our weapons to us without delay for the defense and protection of our wounded populations. In any event, you are hereby solemnly put on notice, and if nothing is done, history will hold you responsible for failing to assist persons in danger!

Mr. President of the General Assembly; Mr. Secretary-General of the UN; Dear personalities still endowed with a minimum of good sense;

Does this less-than-glowing picture of this international community — characterized by failure to assist a State beset by terrorism, international hypocrisy, the supremacy of a few powers within the UN, complicity in the plundering of Africa, etc. — not call for this international community to be brought before the ICC?

In a word, our security will be ensured by ourselves first and foremost, and not by anyone else.

On the question of the presence of WAGNER in Burkina Faso, trumpeted by a certain press remotely directed from the Élysée, I will answer as follows:

Yes, Mr. President, we are the WAGNER of Burkina Faso! Yes, these brave FDS and VDP are the WAGNER of Burkina Faso!!

Therefore, from this rostrum of the UN, which magnifies the sacrifice of every patriot in the name of the national interest, I warmly salute the memory of all those who have fallen weapons in hand, and I honor the courage and integrity of those who are still alive and who press on inexorably and sacrificially toward the victory of our people and the safeguarding of our Homeland.

Instead of helping us stop this human bloodletting, we are met with fallacious accusations, shameless State lies wrapped in a diplomacy of hypocrisy, and veiled threats meant to dictate to us which partners to associate with and how to conduct ourselves! We say no!

In the name of that same United Nations Charter and international law that you all invoke here at this rostrum, the peoples of Africa in general, and of the Sahel in particular, are resolutely committed to assuming, absolutely and fully, their total emancipation for genuine social progress. Thus, Burkina Faso will sovereignly forge its partnerships with whomever it wishes and will purchase its means of defense from whomever it wishes! Whether a country is called Russia, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Nicaragua, or North Korea, Burkina Faso will freely buy from and sell to it without intermediary, still less with anyone's authorization; and so be it, come what may!

Mr. President of the General Assembly; Mr. Secretary-General of the UN; Dear personalities still endowed with a minimum of good sense;

Still on the subject of hypocrisy and State lies, on this question of the fight against terrorism in general and in the Sahel in particular, here are other facts that you certainly are not unaware of, and I am certain of it:

First, in the Sahel we have nearly ten thousand foreign army soldiers, made up mostly of French soldiers but also American, German, Italian soldiers, etc., equipped with some of the most sophisticated weapons, flying equipment, and surveillance technology in the world, and yet, despite all this, no one ever sees columns of hundreds of terrorists moving to sow desolation and death, often with unimaginable weapons.

In Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, there are no arms or ammunition factories. So who recruits these terrorists? Who trains them? Who continually supplies them? Who feeds them, and with what means? Do you believe in this philanthropy in whose name Westerners would send their soldiers to die in the Sahel for the beautiful eyes of the Sahelian people? If so, what explains the irritation and other diplomatic posturing as soon as France is told to withdraw militarily? The real reason is the mineral resources of the Sahel's subsoil! Indeed, the French National Assembly passed Law No. 057-7-27 of January 10, 1957, published in the Official Journal of the French Republic on January 12, 1957, establishing the Common Organization of Saharan Regions (OCRS), which grouped together parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria, etc. This zone has so far had no equal in the world in terms of subsoil wealth. For example, the largest groundwater aquifer stretches from Mauritania to Somalia, passing through Mali, Algeria, Libya, Niger, etc. The newspaper Le Monde of July 23, 1957, put forward the figure of 6 to 7 million tons of oil as the Sahara's potential annual production. In addition to these natural resources, we have uranium, gold, cobalt, zinc, diamonds, lithium, copper, etc.

If you Westerners love the Sahelian peoples so much that you would send your soldiers to die there in the name of democracy, freedom, human rights, and peace, why does the entire African Continent, with its 1.3 billion inhabitants, the second most populous continent, 30,415,873 km², and 54 States, have no permanent seat with veto power on the Security Council? Is this not, beyond a crime of State, a crime of the UN itself?

So let us put an end to the crude diplomatic lie that these imperialist powers come to the Sahel to defend Democracy and Human Rights.

Speaking of Human Rights, let me remind you that the first Charter in the world on this question of Human Rights is indeed the Kurukan Fuga Charter of 1236, in the Mandé, present-day Mali.

Given this, let the expansionist moralizers keep their rhetoric of variable-geometry human rights for the terrorists they train and support.

Second, Africa does not like to compare its dead! To do so reflects a lack of upbringing! I therefore bow respectfully to the memory of all nationals who have lost their lives in Africa in general, and in the Sahel in particular. Thus, regarding the reckless, condescending, and unfortunate remarks of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, which often border on the ridiculous while glorifying a hypothetical condescension toward African peoples, I take it upon myself to give him a small history lesson about his own history. This is why classrooms exist — so that children may learn their lessons and grow up properly, rather than engage in other pursuits at the risk of losing themselves forever. But to begin, let me clarify that no African people has ever opposed the French people: there is therefore no anti-French sentiment in Africa, and there never will be, given our legendary hospitality and love for our fellow man. What African peoples refuse is condescension, arrogance, insolence, conceit, paternalism, the plundering of their resources, and organized crime.

Indeed, for your memory, Mr. Emmanuel MACRON:

First, let me recall the appeal made over the BBC in England on June 14, 1940, by your own grandfather, General De Gaulle, addressed to Africa to come and save France from the clutches of the Nazis. As a reminder, we have:

"17,000 Malians dead during the two world wars. A blood debt that France seems to have concealed," cf. the book by Bakari KAMIAN, tenured Professor at the Sorbonne University: "From the trenches of Verdun to the Saint-Bernard church: 80,000 Malian combatants to the rescue of France (1914–1918) and (1939–1945)" (Éditions Karthala, 2001, excerpts: 343–345);

"...Those who died for France (Page 343), Table 20: veterans in French West Africa, 1952 and 1959;

Page 344, Table 21: Sudanese veterans of the two wars: — Total casualties from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger: 82,208 fallen combatants; — Grand total for French West Africa: 154,519 combatants. Cf. source: Henri LIGER, End-of-mission report in French West Africa, Dakar, July 13, 1950, Archives of Senegal, reference 4 D 68 (89) — see Annex V.

Next, on November 17, 1986, François Mitterrand, then President of France, in response to Captain Thomas SANKARA, said: "Africa has been plundered. I spoke of raw materials. I should have spoken of men! For centuries, you were exploited as human beings: your men, your women, your children were stolen. You were used. I understand your refusal, your revolt, and I approve of your struggle. You are right to refuse to be a sacrificed Continent. The time has come for you yourselves to develop your economies from your own goods and your own people. And the duty of those countries that have abusively profited from African labor is to restore to Africa a portion of what was taken over the past centuries."

Indeed, Africa has always been terribly plundered, yet it remains rich in people, in values, and in mineral wealth. As proof:

Speaking of these mineral resources, Africa holds:

• 30% of the world's mineral reserves;
• 40% of gold reserves;
• 33% of diamond reserves;
• 80% of coltan reserves (used in telephones);
• 60% of cobalt reserves (used in batteries);
• 55% of uranium reserves, etc.

It is in firm defense of this Africa that African youth stand, more than ever, upright. Mr. MACRON, do you still need a little history to refresh your memory?

Finally, well before this regrettable and unfortunate remark by French President Emmanuel Macron, he had attacked, like so many of his fellow politicians, African fertility, and here too, I wish to remind him that:

• Germany has around 83 million inhabitants over an area of 347,000 km², compared to Congo, which has 95 million inhabitants over an area of 2,345,000 km²;
• Belgium has 11 million inhabitants over an area of 30,000 km², compared to Gabon, which has 2.5 million inhabitants over 267,000 km²;
• France has about 68 million inhabitants over 672,329 km², compared to Namibia, which has 2.5 million inhabitants over 825,000 km².

It is in light of all the foregoing that Aimé Césaire (may he rest in peace) said: "Africa is the only continent in the world where people sing, dance, and applaud those who impoverish them, starve them, and torture them. Africa's misfortune was to have encountered France!"

Certainly the West has violated, raped, and robbed Africa — but what is our share of responsibility as African leaders? Is it not we, African leaders, who expose ourselves to being trampled upon? Indeed, we have abandoned our identity to become nothing. Our names have disappeared to make way for other, imported names that do not fit our realities. We must reclaim our culture. We aped the West by adopting monogamy, and now they want to make us believe that counter-values, unnatural attitudes, fall within the scope of freedom! There will be no question of homosexuality among us!

Mr. President;

What has just been described are the deeply unfortunate labels of a UN that today is reduced to mere form, because:

• 1.2 billion people are plunged into poverty;
• 2,000 billion US dollars are spent on armaments;
• 20 times the UN's budget is spent on nuclear weapons;
• on questions of development, Africa receives 34 billion US dollars from the IMF and the World Bank, against 160 billion US dollars for the West;
• the paralysis of the UN Security Council;
• the paralysis of the World Trade Organization;
• rising tensions following geostrategic repositioning;
• the World Trade Organization (WTO) is blocked;
• the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), which operate as veritable usurers;
• the World Health Organization (WHO), which is increasingly dominated by rent-seeking pharmaceutical firms, thereby giving commercial priority over social priority to vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccine;
• the UN, which is becoming more and more a shadow of itself due to attempts to hold it hostage by a conglomerate of international powers, thereby blurring the clarity and seriousness of its decision-making;
• etc.

Consequently, the peoples of Africa in general, and of the Sahel in particular, will fight vigorously to ensure that ECOWAS, the African Union, and even the UN become institutions genuinely at the service of the peoples of the world, for their profound emancipation and genuine social progress. Because it is the failures of these organizations, their lack of sincerity, their clientelist and variable-geometry decisions, their covering up of constitutional manipulations along with the crimes that accompany them, their promotion of poor governance, plunder, social disorganization, and corruption that inevitably lead to coups d'état, which are therefore only consequences. Let us address the causes, then, and the consequences will disappear on their own. But if we continue with this ostrich game, this diplomacy of hypocrisy, this shameless State lying, these organized crimes, these constitutional manipulations, and this manufacturing of lackeys at the head of our African States, even the UN risks not escaping a coup d'état! A word to the wise!

In this spirit, and in order to take their destiny into their own hands, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have signed the Alliance of Sahel States, abbreviated as AES.

The AES is a framework for securing our countries, building on the revised treaty of the Liptako-Gourma Integrated Development Authority. Taking into account the security situation, and above all the lack of candor in partnership, it involves relying on our own resources, seeking to pool our means, and working to eliminate the discontinuities in our operational maneuvering spaces.

Mr. President;

I say to you, forcefully and firmly, in a loud and clear voice, that:

First, we, the peoples of Africa, are fundamentally democrats. As proof, our attachment to human dignity transcends democracy! What we refuse is not so much democracy itself, but rather the "trap of democracy" that is being set for us. Thus, electoralist democracy has proven to be a means of controlling our States through a game of musical chairs among leaders who are all too often impostors, corrupt, thieves, and violators of the constitution, being foreign to the sole worthwhile interest of our African States.

Second, we Africans — are we today recognized in our HUMAN DIGNITY, in the sense that "One Man equals one Man"? The answer, assuredly, is NO, beyond the circumstantial conveniences meant to lull us to sleep and better enslave us! Sad indeed for the Black continent, scientifically recognized as the cradle of humanity, yet in reality humiliated, placed under dominated control!

From sham independences to fratricidal wars, from electoralist democracy to biased aid, from wars of plunder to maliciously manufactured terrorism, sustained and injected into our African lands, notably in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, there is one constant: to dominate us, to keep "a foot on our neck," as in the case of our unfortunate brother George Floyd in the United States, right here! Is this democracy?

And there are proponents of this narrow conception of freedom who intellectually justify the enslavement and barbarity inflicted upon our peoples fighting for their dignity and sovereignty, in the name of a paradoxical principle of freedom that, in the end, assassinates freedom itself. Oh Freedom, what crimes have not been committed in your name!

That is why we have now decided to say NO! NO to all these "friends who wish us well" to the point of threatening us with war to impose their friendship! We will adapt this democracy, so loudly brandished and sung by wolves in sheep's clothing, in order to secrete, by ourselves, the political leadership appropriate for our peoples' HAPPINESS. Yes, total emancipation and genuine social progress for our peoples constitute the ultimate purpose of all action, whether political, economic, socio-cultural, and/or security-related.

Third, the peoples of Africa in general, and those of the Sahel in particular, have discovered chains of economic, security, and socio-cultural alienation embodied in secret agreements with France, and are committed to breaking them for their genuine emancipation. These include, among others:

• the colonial debt: we will not close our eyes and pay it while letting our populations die of hunger, thirst, and disease;
• the question of currency, namely the CFA Franc (Franc of the French Colonies of Africa), is not African property. Legally speaking, "property" is "the right to enjoy and dispose of things in the most absolute manner" (Article 544 of the French Civil Code). A patent is thus held by France over the CFA Franc; France is therefore the owner of the CFA Franc and rents it out to the French-speaking African States. What is amusing, moreover, is that the banknotes produced by France for West Africa differ in monetary value from those for Central Africa, under the same name of CFA Franc. The only document recognizing the CFA Franc is Decree No. 45-0136 of December 26, 1945, whose signatories were: Charles De Gaulle, President of the Provisional Government; René PLEVEN, Minister of Finance; and Jacques SOUSTELLE, Minister of Colonies;
• priority given to French interests and companies in public procurement and public tenders;
• the exclusive right to supply military equipment and to train the military officers of the colonies;
• etc.

Fourth, no one applauds a coup d'état, but if we ignore the fact that these coups are often the consequence of poor governance and constitutional manipulations aimed at securing additional terms in office, they will keep happening. Let us therefore have the clear-sightedness to fight the real causes while remaining demanding regarding respect for democratic rules and virtuous governance.

Fifth, the peoples of Africa are not opposed to the French people. Rather, it is French policy, full of condescension, that is rejected. Indeed, by refusing the repatriation of its ambassador, who had been declared persona non grata in Niger, France is violating international law, notably Article 9, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

By deciding to ban artists from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in France, it demonstrates a serious disregard for the cultural role as a driver of family, community, and even national balance. The artist is a doctor of the psyche.

By declaring that they do not want the unemployed, migrants, thieves, etc. in France, we, in Africa in general and in the Sahel in particular, say that it is the producers of unemployment and theft — through the cynical plundering of our resources — that we do not want.

My sincere gratitude goes to the peoples of the world, and to all personalities at every level throughout the world who understand and support Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger on this difficult yet sacred ascent toward full emancipation, the expression of dignity, honor, freedom, equality, prosperity, justice, and therefore peace!

Faced with the situation Burkina Faso is going through, the Burkinabè government has implemented vigorous actions through the adoption of a new development plan, the Action Plan for Stabilization and Development (PA-SD 2023-2025), with its four priority axes, which are:

• The fight against terrorism and the restoration of territorial integrity;
• The response to the humanitarian crisis;
• The refoundation of the State and the improvement of governance;
• National reconciliation and social cohesion.

These efforts aim to offer the Burkinabè population better living conditions. While saluting all the partners around the world who stand with us, we warmly invite those who remain in doubt or paralyzed by reports containing false information that they are welcome in Burkina Faso, provided that the partnership aligns with the vision of the Transition summarized in these four axes.

Long live the UN! Long live the 78th Session of the General Assembly! Long live the peoples in struggle! Long live solidarity among peoples! Long live a Free Africa! Long live the Alliance of Sahel States! Long live Burkina Faso, Land of Upright Men! HASTA LA VICTORIA, SIEMPRE! Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome!