U.S. pauses $450 million aid for Burkina Faso

U.S. government agency said Monday that it is pausing $450 million in assistance to the West African nation of Burkina Faso, where mutinous soldiers overthrew the democratically elected president last week.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent U.S. agency that provides grants and assistance to countries that meet standards for good governance, said its decision came because of the uprising against President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

“Burkina Faso military officers claim to have suspended the constitution and dissolved the government and national assembly,” the agency said in a statement. “These actions contradict MCC’s commitment to democratic governance and upholding the rule of law, principles that underpin the agency’s rigorous criteria for selection.”

The military junta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. aid pause.

The Biden administration has not yet made a determination if the events in Burkina Faso amounted to a coup and the agency’s pause in aid was the first action taken by the U.S. in response to what happened.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. was still reviewing what happened but in the meantime had decided to put a hold on most assistance.

“It’s too soon for us to get into specifics in great detail, but we’ve called for restraint by all actors as we carefully review the events on the ground for potential impacts on our assistance,” he said.

The U.S ambassador to Burkina Faso, Sandra Clark, told The Associated Press that the U.S. was calling for the release of Kabore and others who were detained and for the return to constitutional order in the country.

AP