Chapter 978 Close Cooperation

In Barron's previous life, the coup in Burkina Faso took place in October 2014.

At that time, Compaoré had been in power in Burkina Faso for 27 years. He was re-elected president three times in 1998, 2005 and 2010.

According to the then Constitution of Burkina Faso, by 2015, Compaoré would reach the limit of presidential re-election and could not participate in the general election again. For this reason, Compaoré promoted constitutional amendments at that time to lift the restrictions on his re-election.

For this reason, Compaoré's behavior was in the face of rising prices and a sluggish economy in Burkina Faso at that time. The people could no longer tolerate Compaoré's continued power. In the capital Ouagadougou, more than 100,000 people took to the streets to protest Compaoré's "constitutional amendment".

Just when Compaoré announced that the country had entered a state of quitting smoking, the military led by Traoré announced a coup and seized power by force, thus overthrowing Compaoré's rule in Burkina Faso.

It's just that now, the coup in Burkina Faso happened 10 months earlier...

According to the intelligence obtained by Barron, the reason why the coup in Burkina Faso happened earlier was more or less related to Kolo...

It's not that Kolo intervened in the domestic politics of Burkina Faso, although Barron's think tank once proposed that in order to consolidate the cooperation between the countries in the West African Free Trade Zone, the organization should be transformed from economic cooperation to all-round cooperation in economy, politics and military.

But Barron still did not intervene too directly in the internal affairs of Kolo's neighbors, especially the armed forces such as the Kolo Corps, and did not participate in the affairs of other countries-even the military training provided to countries including Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger was carried out through the Protector Military Service Company.

The reason for doing so is to show that Kolo and the West African Group behind it are different from old imperialist countries such as Britain and France. They only pursue economic cooperation and will not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

In Barron's previous life, why were Russia's Magna mercenaries able to develop rapidly in countries such as Niger and Mali, and even accepted by these countries to fight against France and help them expel French troops from these countries?

The main reason is that they can be more confident in Magna, knowing that the other party just wants to "make money". They can provide help in exchange for the mineral resources and funds in these countries, but they are not interested in the internal affairs of these countries.

Now Kolo also hopes to give these countries such an image, so that they can gain the trust of the other party, and will not be suspected, afraid that they will be controlled by them again after driving away the French.

And Barron's influence on some West African countries is mainly carried out through some cooperative projects of the Prosperous Earth Foundation. These projects are very low-key and not radical. Compared with some French NGOs, they are nothing at all.

It's just that some young officers who launched a military coup in Burkina Faso this time have participated in Burkina Faso's peacekeeping operations in Mali, and have had more contact with Kolo's peacekeeping forces.

At the same time, some officers also participated in the military training conducted by the Protector Military Service Company in Burkina Faso.

Especially when these people saw that the life of the people in Colo, a former small country in West Africa, was not much different from that of Burkina Faso, and even some people in the north of Colo lived worse than those in Burkina Faso...

But now, under the leadership of the new government of Colo, Colo has undergone earth-shaking changes. There is no longer French capital that sucks the marrow out of its bones. Their government is more efficient and pays more attention to the development of domestic economy and people's livelihood, and invests heavily in the development of people's livelihood such as culture, education, medical care, transportation and water conservancy.

The people of Colo now live the life that the people of Burkina Faso dream of, and these young officers are greatly shocked by this.

In addition to being shocked, they can't help but think about where Burkina Faso's road is. Under Compaoré's notice, they can't see any hope of Burkina Faso getting better...

And Burkina Faso has not had that kind of hopeful moment, but the person who led them to that moment has died under Compaoré's gun.

Such an idea took root and sprouted, and eventually led to the outbreak of the Burkina Faso coup.

After the transitional government of Burkina Faso took control of the domestic situation, it soon extended an olive branch to the Kolo side.

On December 27, the Kolo side announced that it would send a delegation composed of representatives from Kolo, Niger, Benin and other West African Free Trade Zone member states to Burkina Faso to discuss with the transitional government on Burkina Faso's future ruling line and cooperation with each other.

And Kolo President Thomas Kaboré will also go to Burkina Faso with the delegation to meet with interim President Traoré.

On December 30, after two days of talks, the West African Free Trade Organization issued the "Ouagadougou Declaration", which reaffirmed the economic cooperation framework among the West African Free Trade Zone member states and gave special preferential policies to investment and trade between them.

Kolo will also invest in Burkina Faso through the West African Group. Burkina Faso's domestic planting industry has been dominated by cotton planting since the French rule. Prior to that, they did not have any related deep processing and production industries in the country, and they sold cotton directly to French capital as one of their pillar industries.

The monopoly of French capital in Burkina Faso has also caused the people of this country, which ranks fourth in gold production in Africa, to be in poverty for a long time.

The West African Group will invest in the construction of textile factories in Burkina Faso to help Burkina Faso upgrade its cotton planting industry to the textile industry - this can also provide relatively cheap and stable cloth supply for the growing clothing processing industry in Kolo, thus becoming one of the production bases of the clothing sales companies controlled by Barron, including Fast Retailing Group.

The agreement reached by the two parties also includes energy cooperation.

In addition to continuing to purchase electricity from Kolo, the West African Power Group will also invest in hydropower and natural gas power stations in Burkina Faso to help Burkina Faso solve its domestic power shortage.

According to the plan of the West African Power Group, after the large-scale solar power station in Kolo is built, the area near the desert in Burkina Faso is also very suitable for building a solar power station. They will have corresponding plans in the future.

At the same time, the West African Railway Group is also negotiating with Burkina Faso and China to build the Wafa Railway (blue in the picture) connecting Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, with Fada N’Gourma, the third largest city and the capital of the Eastern Region (Est Region) of Burkina Faso.

It is expected that the Wafa Railway will be invested by the West African Railway Group, with loans from China, and constructed by China Railway Corporation...

The West African Railway Group itself is a joint venture between the West African Group, the Kolo Industrial Investment Fund, the Burkina Faso government and the Niger government, of which the West African Group holds 60% of its shares, the Kolo Industrial Investment Fund holds 25% of its shares, and the remaining 15% of the shares are held by the governments of Burkina Faso and Niger.

After completion, the Wafa Railway (blue line in the picture) will connect to the Dani Railway (red line in the picture), which has been built for the most part. Together with the Loda Railway, a major artery in Kolo that was built earlier (from Port Loti to the northernmost city of Dassau, the orange line in the picture), the capitals of Kolo, Burkina Faso and Niger will be connected by a railway network. As landlocked countries, Burkina Faso and Niger will also be able to reach Port Loti, the largest port in West Africa, directly by rail, thereby deepening the ties between the three countries and promoting trade between Burkina Faso and Niger.