Burkina Faso [ a ] is a landlocked country in West Africa , [ 6 ] bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of , km 2 , sq mi. In , the country had an estimated population of approximately 23,, The largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso is the Mossi people , who settled the area in the 11th and 13th centuries. They established powerful kingdoms such as the Ouagadougou, Tenkodogo, and Yatenga.
In , it was colonized by the French as part of French West Africa ; in , Upper Volta became a self-governing colony within the French Community.
Since it gained its independence, the country has been subject to instability, droughts , famines and corruption. There have also been various coups , in , , , , , and twice in January and September. There were also unsuccessful coup attempts in , , and Thomas Sankara came to power following a successful coup in As president, Sankara embarked on a series of ambitious socioeconomic reforms which included a nationwide literacy campaign, land redistribution to peasants , vaccinations for over 2 million children, railway and road construction, equalized access to education, and the outlawing of female genital mutilation , forced marriages , and polygamy.
Since the mids, Burkina Faso has been severely affected by the rise of insurgencies in the Sahel. More than one million of the country's 21 million inhabitants are internally displaced persons. Approximately The country's territory is geographically biodiverse, and includes plentiful reserves of gold , manganese , copper and limestone. Their tools, including scrapers , chisels and arrowheads , were discovered in through archaeological excavations.
Various ethnic groups of present-day Burkina Faso, such as the Mossi , Fula and Dioula , arrived in successive waves between the 8th and 15th centuries. From the 11th century, the Mossi people established several separate kingdoms. There is debate about the exact dates when Burkina Faso's many ethnic groups arrived to the area.
