Military leaders from Burkina Faso have inked an agreement with Russia to construct a nuclear power plant aimed at bolstering the nation’s electricity supply. The Burkina Faso government made this announcement, revealing that they had signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of the nuclear facility. The deal was finalized during the Russian Energy Week in Moscow, where Burkina Faso’s energy minister, Simon-Pierre Boussim, was in attendance.
This development fulfills a previous request by Burkina Faso’s President, Captain Ibrahim Traore, who had expressed the desire for such an agreement during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in July. Russia’s state atomic energy agency, Rosatom, also confirmed the historic nature of this memorandum, emphasizing that it represents the first document regarding the peaceful utilization of atomic energy between Russia and Burkina Faso.
This nuclear power plant is expected to provide Burkina Faso with the capacity to meet its energy requirements. The agreement was formally signed by Burkina Faso’s energy and mines minister, Simon-Pierre Boussim, and Nikolay Spasskiy, Rosatom’s deputy director general. Notably, this deal follows a request made by Burkina Faso’s military junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg in July.
Traore’s decision to forge closer ties with Russia comes as relations with former colonial power France have soured, while Russia aims to expand its influence in Africa, seeking to break Western isolation stemming from the Ukraine conflict.