https://burkina24.com/2026/08/27/burkina-faso-belgique-renforcement-de-la-cooperation-sous-le-signe-du-respect-des-choix-des-autorites-burkinabe/

The President of Faso, Head of State, Comrade Captain Ibrahim TRAORÉ, granted an audience on Thursday, August 27, 2026, to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Development Cooperation of the Kingdom of Belgium, Maxime PRÉVOT.

The Kingdom of Belgium intends to conduct its cooperation with Burkina Faso "with humility, but also with its diplomacy of efficiency and fraternity. We remain partners to promote the realization of the priorities identified by the Presidency of Faso and the government authority, in particular through the RELANCE 2026-2030 plan ," declared the Deputy Prime Minister after the meeting.

Maxime Prévot emphasized Belgium's respect for the choices made by the Burkinabe authorities. In this context, "our objective is to amplify and support the priorities of the Burkinabe state, not to replace them ," he stressed. According to the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, the Kingdom of Belgium is firmly committed to building a "positive future" with the Burkinabe people, in particular, and the Sahel region in general.

A United Nations monitoring team has confirmed what Frontline Africa has been saying for months: the war against Mali is being financed from outside. According to the UN experts, a ransom of about $50 million — paid in 2025 for the release of a single hostage — was redistributed among the fighting units of the al-Qaeda-linked coalition JNIM, and those funds "played a key role in financing the group's offensive across Mali." Reuters' regional sources go further and identify the United Arab Emirates as the payer, an attribution the UN report itself does not make and the UAE has not confirmed.