These 31 Burkina Faso Facts Are Worth Remembering
Learn and remember 31 random history, land, people and more interesting facts about Africa’s 29th largest country Burkina Faso. French is the official language of Burkina Faso.

These 31 Burkina Faso Facts Are Worth Remembering
Explore and Understand Africa Through Her Food and Culture
If
you want to become smarter about Burkina Faso in Africa, you have to create a
healthy memory mindset. We tend to think that learning is a matter of putting
new facts into our memory banks but really when we work hard to understand
information, we recall it better; the extra effort signals the brain that this
knowledge is worth keeping. Below are 31 facts about Burkina Faso worth keeping
in your memory banks.
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31 Burkina Faso Random Facts |
31 Burkina Faso Random Facts Worth Remembering and Will Make You
Smarter
1. In the year 896, Kingdoms now making up
Burkina Faso becomes a French protectorate, later known as Upper Volta.
2. The name of Burkina Faso was Upper Volta until
1984.
3. Burkina Faso name translates as "Land of
the honest men"
4. Burkina Faso earned independence August 5,
1960 from France.
5. Burkina Faso is a landlocked savanna.
6. Burkina Faso is located in Western Africa,
north of Ghana.
7. Burkina Faso is the 75th largest country in
the world by area; the United States is 36 times bigger than Burkina Faso.
8. Burkina Faso has three main rivers the Mouhoun
or Black Volta, the Nazinon or Red Volta and the Nakambé or White Volta.
9. The longest river in Burkina Faso is the
Mouhoun or Black Volta River 1,352 kilometers/840 miles.
10. Lowest point in Burkina Faso is Mouhoun or the
Black Volta River 656 / 200m.
11. Mount Tenakourou is the highest point in
Burkina Faso 2457 ft / 749m.
12. About 80% of the population of Burkina Faso
is engaged in subsistence farming and cotton is the main cash crop.
13. Population with electricity in Burkina Faso
is 56% in urban areas and 1% in rural areas.
14. People of Burkina Faso are called Burkinabe.
15. French is the official language of Burkina
Faso however; native African languages belonging to Sudanic family are spoken
by 90% of the population.
16. Ethnic groups in Burkina Faso are Mossi
52.5%, Fulani 8.4%, Gurma 6.8%, Bobo 4.8%, Gurunsi 4.5%, Senufo 4.4%, Bissa
3.9%, Lobi 2.5%, Dagara 2.4%, Tuareg/Bella 1.9%, Dioula 0.8%, unspecified/no
answer 0.1%, other 7%.
17. More than 65% of the population of Burkina
Faso is under the age of 25.
18. The average age is 17.2 years old of Burkina Faso
resident.
19. Burkina Faso Government type is a
presidential republic.
20. Capital name of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou.
Apart from the capital city of Ouagadougou, the major towns in Burkina Faso are
Bobo Dioulasso, Koudougou, Banfora, Ouahigouya, Pouytenga, and Kaya.
21. Burkina Faso geographic coordinates 12 22 N,
1 31 W.
22. Burkina Faso has 13 régions; Boucle du
Mouhoun, Cascades, Centre, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Centre-Ouest, Centre-Sud,
Est, Hauts-Bassins, Nord, Plateau-Central, Sahel, and Sud-Ouest.
23. Burkina Faso flag has two equal horizontal
bands of red (top) and green with a yellow five-pointed star in the center; red
recalls the country's struggle for independence, green is for hope and
abundance and yellow represent the country's mineral wealth.
24. The national symbol of Burkina Faso is a white
stallion.
25. National colors of Burkina Faso are the
Pan-African colors of red, yellow, and green.
26. The national anthem of Burkina Faso is"Le
Ditanye or Anthem of Victory.
27. Lyrics
and music of the national anthem are by former president Thomas Sankara adopted
1974 an avid guitar player and was also known as Africa's Che Guevara.
28. In 1990, Blaise Compaore, who assumed power
when he ousted and killed Thomas Sankara in 1987, introduces limited democratic
reforms.
29. Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore
remained in power for 27 years.
30. Marc Kabore, who served as prime minister and
speaker of parliament under veteran President Blaise Compaore, won the November
2015 presidential election, easily beating his main rival.
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Burkina Faso children and families |
Three Burkina Faso Terrorist Attacks
Nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015
Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa,
is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with
Mali, which has long battled armed groups.
Burkina Faso has suffered from increasingly
frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of armed groups - including
the Ansarul Islam group, the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in the Greater Sahara.
A January 2016, three attackers at another cafe
left 30 people dead. The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign
origin, according to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed
responsibility in the aftermath along with the armed group known as Al
Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown,
experts say.
The northern border region is now the home of a
local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed recent
deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is
now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.
In August 2017 an assault on the terrace of the
Turkish Aziz Istanbul restaurant in the center of the West Africa Burkina Faso the capital city of Ouagadougou two young males on a motorcycle, armed with AK-47
assault rifles.
They attacked citizens from Burkina Faso, Kuwait,
Canada, Libya, Senegal, Nigeria, and Turkey. Five defense and security personnel
were among 22 people wounded during the incident, she said, with 40 people
eventually freed.
In May 2019, around 9am armed attackers burst
into a Catholic church in Dablo Burkina Faso during
Sunday prayers, killing a priest and five worshippers. The attackers numbering
between 20 and 30 trap some of the people inside then set fire to the church.
Several shops neighboring the church were also
torched before the attackers headed to the local health center, which they
looted and then torched cars in the parking lot.
Did you know?
Société Nationale d'électricité du Burkina Faso or La Sonabel is the national electricity company of Burkina Faso. Their slogan is La Sonabel est à votre écoute Sonabel is listening to you.
Société Nationale d'électricité du Burkina Faso or La Sonabel is the national electricity company of Burkina Faso. Their slogan is La Sonabel est à votre écoute Sonabel is listening to you.
