Western donors think well of Burkinabè President Blaise Compaoré. On 11 February, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French President, made Ouagadougou her first port of call as an envoy of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A month earlier, Burkina Faso's Regional Cooperation Minister, Minata Samaté-Cessouma, had signed an agreement with the French Immigration Minister, Brice Hortefeux, on 'agreed management of migratory flows', which Mali had refused to sign. A significant share of Burkina's aid from the European Development Fund for 2008-2013 (320 million euros of a total 529 mn. euros or US$403 mn. of $667 mn.) comes as budgetary support and is not subject to item-by-item scrutiny. Washington is equally friendly, allocating $480 mn. from the Millennium Challenge Account for poverty reduction projects.
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