The latest military coup d’état would seem to be the least of Burkina Faso’s problems. Over the weekend, a small group of soldiers led by 34-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore overthrew the military junta of Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Damiba had occupied Burkina Faso’s Kosyam Palace for all of nine months, having assumed power in January following the deposition of democratically elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The Traore coup is the country’s ninth since...

Blaming external actors for the country’s woes accomplishes little for the Malian people. Among the more notably undiplomatic events at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, the remarks of Mali’s interim Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga, an appointee of the military junta that seized power over two years ago, stood out. Predictably, France was attacked for alleged “subversive actions,” and criticized for transferring its military forces from Mali to Niger. The same Malian junta had repeatedly criticized...