The sovereignty of the Sahelian state tested by the security challenge: The case of Burkina Faso

This paper seeks to explain the reasons behind the rhetoric of sovereignty observed in the central Sahel states led by military-civilian juntas, through the example of Burkina Faso. It shows that these juntas, after pledging to bring about brief periods of democratic transition, subsequently turned sovereignty into a political weapon for the conservation and absolutist exercise of state power, thus breaking, on the geopolitical level, with Western powers and democratic values.