Tensions are rising between Burkina Faso and the United States after the West African nation refused to accept deportees from the US. In response, Washington has suspended visa services in the country, forcing applicants to travel to Togo instead.

Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré accused the US of “blackmail” after rejecting repeated proposals to take in migrants from third countries. The move comes as Donald Trump’s administration ramps up its immigration crackdown, seeking to deport thousands of undocumented migrants.

Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has positioned himself as a pan-African figure defying Western pressure, declaring that his nation “is a place of dignity, not expulsion.”