Burkina Faso, a poor, landlocked former French colony in the heart of West Africa, is dying. It faces one if not two jihadist insurgencies that have seized hold over much of the countryside, accompanied by horrific violence and displacement. Its government, weak to begin with but further destabilized by two successive military coups, is largely incapable of surmounting the herculean tasks before it. Its security forces likewise are undersized, under-resourced, and ill-equipped to deal with an internal crisis of this magnitude.
