29 October 2027
Stronger protection for donkeys in Burkina Faso
Regional Director for Brooke West Africa, Emmanuel Bouré Sarr shares incredible news in our fight to end the donkey skin trade.
Over 1.3 million donkeys protected
Burkina Faso has achieved a historic victory by adopting landmark legislation to protect over 1.3 million donkeys.
Following the milestone presidential decree signed by His Excellency, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, President of the Republic of Burkina Faso, to regulate the slaughter, movement, and export of equids, Burkina Faso opened vital new doors for animal protection.
While the presidential decree established crucial new rules to curb the cruel donkey skin trade, the adoption of a new penal code took this protection a step further by shifting from basic restrictions to strict criminalisation with serious consequences.
Seventh largest donkey population
This monumental win safeguards Burkina Faso's estimated national population of over 1,300,000 donkeys - the seventh largest donkey population globally. This strict criminalisation is especially crucial because Burkina Faso serves as one of the main transit routes for donkeys originating from Mali, Mauritania, and Niger heading to Ghana, which houses illegal slaughterhouses where donkeys are brutally and barbarically killed for their skins.
Brooke West Africa, along with its local partners, Inades-Formation Burkina, APIL and the Board of Veterinarians, has been on a difficult journey to protect these wonderful animals and we hope to share these new rules with local communities and use them to ask for similar enforcement to protect rural livelihoods from devastation.
This win didn’t come from one single action. It came from years of work on many fronts including carrying out research into the role donkeys play in people’s livelihoods, engaging decision-makers, and facilitating awareness and using the power of the media.
A 'snowball effect' across the region
Looking ahead, we hope these regulations will have a snowball effect across the whole region.
Our next steps are to share these rules with local communities and use them to ask for similar enforcement in other parts of this region.
Notably, we expect to showcase Burkina Faso's new regulations as a prime example at events that are planned by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), the new block formed by Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.
We hope that states will follow this lead to safeguard these beautiful animals who are the reason we all do what we do at Brooke. 
"This strict criminalisation is especially crucial because Burkina Faso serves as one of the main transit routes for donkeys originating from Mali, Mauritania, and Niger heading to Ghana, which houses illegal slaughterhouses where donkeys are brutally and barbarically killed for their skins."