Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso was once dominated by several kingdoms of the Mossi people, one of which was defeated by French forces in 1896 and declared a colonial protectorate. Two years later the majority of the territory of the present nation fell under French control; by 1904 the region was incorporated into French West Africa. Between 1915 and 1916, the French defeated armed insurgents in an uprising known as the Volta-Bani War. Subsequently, the territory of the present nation became French Upper Volta (Haute Volta) on March 1, 1919, and the self-governing Republic of Upper Volta in Demember 1958. Two years later full independence was granted.

The first president of Upper Volta was Maurice Yaméogo who, shortly after coming to power, banned all political parties other than his own Voltaic Democratic Union. His government lasted until 1966, when he was deposed in a military coup d'etat which suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly, and placed Lt. Col. Sangoulé Lamizana at the head of a government of senior army officers. A new constitution was ratified in 1970, but Lamizana remained in power as president until November 1980, when he was overthrown in a bloodless coup by Colonel Saye Zerbo. Two years later, Zerbo was himself overthrown by Maj. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, who only managed to retain power until August 1983, when yet another coup installed former Prime Minister Captain Thomas Sankara as president. The nation changed its name to Burkina Faso (Land of Honest People) under Sankara.

In October 1987, Sankara and twelve other political officials were assassinated in another coup d'état organized by his former colleague, Blaise Compaoré, who retained the presidency until he was essentially forced to resign in 2014.

The Armed Forces of Burkina Faso (Forces armées du Burkina Faso) consist of the Ground Force, Air Force, Rocket Force, Air Defence Force, National Gendarmerie, and the People's Militia (Milice du Peuple). L'Armée de Terre (LAT) or the Ground Force/Army is the largest component, composed of about 6,000 active duty personnel and augmented by approximately 45,000 members of the People's Militia. During the tenture of president Compaoré, the Régiment de la sécurité présidentielle (RSP) or Presidential Security Regiment was an indepedent praetorian guard, loyal to the president and guilty of numerous extrajudicial killings of civilians. The RSP was disbanded in 2015 following the 2014 uprising that deposed Compaoré, although under president Ibrahim Traoré a "Presidential Security Detail" was re-formed.

Camouflage Patterns of Burkina Faso

• One of the oldest documented patterns worn in Burkina Faso, and also one of the most unique, is a vertical "dazzle" pattern, which may have been limited in use to the olde Garde Presidentielle, or Presidential Guard Regiment.

• Evidence suggests a three-color brushstroke pattern worn also by Iraq and Somalia may have seen limited use by this nation in the 1980s and 1990s, possibly by the previous Garde Presidentielle, later called the Régiment de sécurité présidentielle (RSP) from 1995 to 2015. Unfortunately most of the surviving photographs only show former Prime Minister Thomas Sankara wearing the pattern.

• Seen here worn by second president of Burkina Faso (and leader of 1987 coup d'etat) Blaise Compaoré, this camouflage pattern dates back to the first years of original government of Thomas Sankara, and most photographs illustrate high ranking officers wearing it. Whether the pattern was distributed beyond this is open to speculation, although some photoraphs immediately after the 1987 coup do show enlisted personnel wear a similar design.

• An early incarnation of what would later become a standard issue design of the armed forces first appeared right after the 1987 coup d'etat that killed president Sankara. The early design is much lighter in color, incorporating less orange, but is obviously the inspiration for the later design.

• In use since at least 1981, variations of the French tenue de leópard or lizard camouflage pattern have been worn by this former French colony for decades. Early use of this design seems to have been primarily by elite units such as the Para-Commandos.

• Additional versions of tenue de leópard continued to be very popular in the armed forces and varied in coloration, type of fabric, and even occasionally in orientation of the stripes. This vertically-aligned lizard pattern was worn from around 1983 until the era of the overthrow of Sankara, circa 1987. Although similar to a pattern also worn in Uganda (first photo) the two do not seem to be exactly the same.

• Yet another version of lizard worn by the armed forces is seen here, dating to the 1990s and later.

• The brown-orange horizontal stripe pattern seen here has been in use for several decades, in its present incarnation as far back as the late 1990s or early 2000s. It is primarily worn by regular Army personnel, and no doubt has some relationship to the earlier "yellow stripe" pattern of the 1970s. Several slight color variations are documented, the differences based on the manufacturer and the type of fabric the design was printed on.

• A later variation of the tenue de leópard is seen here, quite possibly locally produced or imported. The colors are bright, but the fabric is mostly synthetic and not of high quality.

• More recently, a variation of the tenue de leópard or lizard pattern has been adopted by this nation, having bolder colors but with stripes of less fine detail. Colors are similiar to that found on recent production uniforms worn in Morocco, but it does not appear the pattern is precisely the same.

• The Gendarmerie Nationale of Burkina Faso wear a leaf pattern camouflage design with a blue-purple colorway, and having the "Gendarmerie Burkina" logo embedded within its design.

• The Mobile Brigade of the Customs Service (Douanes de Burkina Faso) began to issue a camouflage uniform in the same "grey lizard" camouflage design originally issued in Cuba and later in Angola and Yugoslavia, as far back as 2011.

• First appearing in a peacekeeping unit specially formed for deployment to Mali, this duck hunter camouflage variant is worn by the Régiment de la sécurité présidentielle, (RSP) or Burkinese Presidential Guards. There is some evidence suggesting this pattern actually dates as far back as the 1980s when it was worn by a special presidential security unit, although more research on that is needed.

• A variation of the vertical stripe pattern seen above is also issued in a desert/arid color palette, and has been observed on Burkinabe troops since 2015. The color palette incoporates sparse ochre and larger olive green stripes on a sand-colored base.

• In 2016, the Garde de Sécurité Pénitentiaire appeared in public wearing a pixelated camouflage design incorporating a light blue-grey colorway.

• Although stretching the definition of camouflage slightly, the pattern seen here, solid yellow with sparse green stripes, has appeared in parades by at least one unit of the Burkinabe armed forces.

• Circa 2021, the Police Nationale adopted a new camouflage design for general issue to its personnel. The pattern is a variation of British desert DPM, incorporating only two colors, the disruptive shapes in khaki on a sandy base.

• The Department of Water and Forests (Eaux et Forêts du Burkina Faso) issues a woodland-derivative camouflage design to its field personnel, incorporating foliage green, medium brown and sparse black shapes on a tan or khaki base color.

Other Camouflage Patterns worn by Burkina Faso

• Burkina Faso Air Force personnel training in Germany in the mid-1990s were documented wearing German Army flecktarn camouflage uniforms. It is altogether likely that the uniforms were supplied by their German military instructors, and were never officially issued as a combat uniform.

• Members of an elite unit of the Army, possibly the Combined Anti-Terrorist Forces, were documented wearing a copy of US tricolor desert camouflage during Exercise Flintlock 2018. It is unknown whether this uniform is officially in use with BF forces, or were simply provided for the exercise.