Burkina Faso's military government has broken off all relations with France. On June 26, 2026, it expelled three French diplomats and ordered out a military official from the French embassy. This is the clearest split yet between the country and its former colonial ruler.

The government said the French officials were working against the country's interests. France denied the charge. On June 27, Reuters reported that France was thinking about how to respond, but hadn't decided on specific actions yet.

This didn't happen out of nowhere. Mali kicked out France's ambassador in 2022. Niger did the same in 2023. Now Burkina Faso has followed. All three countries are run by military juntas unhappy with France's presence and influence. Burkina Faso has already cancelled military deals with France and started working with Russian security companies instead.

To understand why these countries are so frustrated, you need to know something about how France has operated in Africa. For decades, France kept troops in the Sahel region and controlled how several African countries manage their money through the CFA franc — a currency tied to the French economy. Many people across Africa see this as France acting like a colonial power even though these countries are officially independent. The military governments have seized on this anger and used it to justify pushing France out.

France now has to decide how to respond. When Mali and Niger kicked France out, France cut off aid and eventually withdrew its troops. France might do the same here, or it might try something different. Whatever it chooses will show how much it has learned from the past few years of losing ground in this region.

These three countries — Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — are now working together as a bloc and have turned to Russia for military help. Each time they push France further away, this group gets stronger and France gets weaker. Without an embassy or soldiers on the ground, France has much less power to shape what happens in Burkina Faso.

There's a real problem at the heart of all this: the region is caught in a severe conflict. Armed groups linked to terrorist organisations control parts of Burkina Faso, and millions of people have been forced to flee their homes. Russian military help hasn't made things safer. Cutting ties with France doesn't fix the violence — it just changes which countries have influence over a region that remains deeply unstable.