Rebirth of England.

Chapter 978 Close Cooperation
In Barron's previous life, the coup in Burkina Faso took place in October 2014.

At that time, Compaore 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 Burkina Faso constitution at the time, by 2015, Compaoré would have reached the presidential re-election limit and would not be able to run in the general election again. For this reason, Compaoré pushed for constitutional amendments at the time to lift the restrictions on his re-election.

For this reason, at a time when prices were rising and the economy was sluggish in Burkina Faso, the people could no longer tolerate Compaoré's continued power. In the capital, Ouagadougou, more than 10 people took to the streets to protest against Compaoré's "constitutional amendment."

Just when Compaoré announced that the whole country was entering a state of abstinence, the military led by Traoré announced a coup, seized power by force, and thus overthrew Compaoré's rule in Burkina Faso.

Only now, the coup in Burkina Faso has happened 10 months earlier…

According to the intelligence Barron obtained, the reason why the Burkina Faso coup happened ahead of schedule was more or less related to Kolo...

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

However, Barron did not interfere too directly in the internal affairs of Kolo's neighboring countries, especially armed forces such as the Kolo Legion, 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 Services 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 Baron's previous life, why were Russia's Magna mercenaries able to develop rapidly in countries such as Niger and Mali, and even be accepted by these countries to fight against France and help them expel French troops stationed in these countries?

The main reason is that they can feel more at ease with Magna, knowing that the other party just wants to "make money". They can provide help in exchange for the domestic mineral resources and funds of these countries, but they have no interest in the internal affairs of these countries.

Now Colo also hopes to give these countries such an image so that he can gain their trust and not be suspected, fearing that they will be controlled by the French again after driving them away.

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.

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

At the same time, some officers also participated in the military training of Burkina Faso by the Protectorate Military Service.

Especially when these people saw that the life of the people in Kolo, a former small country in West Africa, was not much different from that in Burkina Faso, and some people in northern Kolo even 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 is exploiting it. Their government is more efficient and pays more attention to the development of the domestic economy and people's livelihood, and it has invested heavily in the development of culture and education, medical care, transportation, water conservancy and other people's livelihood.

The people of Kolo now live the life that the people of Burkina Faso have always dreamed of, and these young officers are deeply shocked by this.

In addition to being shocked, they could not help but wonder where the future of Burkina Faso lies. According to Compaoré’s announcement, they see no hope for Burkina Faso to get better…and Burkina Faso did have those hopeful moments, but the people who led them to those moments had died at the hands of Compaoré’s gun.

This idea took root and sprouted, eventually leading to the outbreak of the Burkina Faso coup.

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

On December 12, Kolo announced that it would send a delegation composed of representatives from Kolo, Niger, Benin and other member states of the West African Free Trade Area to Burkina Faso to discuss with the transitional government on Burkina Faso's future governing direction and mutual cooperation.

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

On December 12, after two days of talks, the West African Free Trade Organization issued the Ouagadougou Declaration, which reaffirmed the economic cooperation framework among the member states of the West African Free Trade Area and granted special preferential policies for 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 remain 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 will also provide a relatively cheap and stable supply of fabrics for the growing clothing processing industry in Colo, thus becoming one of the production bases for the clothing sales companies controlled by Barron, including Fast Retailing Group.

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

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In addition to continuing to purchase electricity from Kolo, the West African Power Group will also invest in hydroelectric 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 Electricity Group, after the completion of their large-scale solar power station in Kolo, the area near the desert in Burkina Faso will also be a very suitable location for building a solar power station, and 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 Ouagadougou Railway (in blue in the picture) connecting the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, with its third largest city, Fada N'Gourma, the capital of the 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 Government of Burkina Faso and the Government of Niger. 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.

(End of this chapter)