Burkina Faso's higher education minister has told students who criticised the country's universities that if Burkina Faso does not suit them, they should go back where they came from. RFI reported on Sunday that Burkinabè students who took their baccalaureate in Côte d'Ivoire, and arrived a month ago to start university at home, have posted videos on TikTok complaining of overcrowded lecture halls, difficult access to the campus and canteens far from it at Thomas-Sankara University near Ouagadougou.
The minister, Adjima Thiombiano, responded on the private channel BF1, calling the students "égarés", meaning misguided, and saying no one, wherever they come from, would be allowed to disrupt the education system. RFI does not date the minister’s remarks.
The exchange comes as the government of Ibrahim Traoré tries to curb young Burkinabè studying abroad, a drive it frames as stopping the "plundering of African minds", RFI says. The students, RFI reports, are waiting for concrete improvements to their conditions. The account concerns these students’ complaints, not a measured nationwide shortage.