Following the publication of an article entitled “Two barons clash over former TotalEnergies assets” in the March 12, 2026 issue of the French media Africa Intelligence, Barka Energies expresses its astonishment at its content.
This publication portrays Barka Energies as a predator, whereas in reality it is a victim of the Participation and Investment Company (S.P.I) of Mr. Sanoh Mamady, who has taken legal action against it.
It should be noted that Mr. Sanoh Mamady’s company applied, along with many other investors, to purchase the assets of TotalEnergies Marketing Burkina, but their offer was not accepted by the TotalEnergies Group, despite having been the representative of this French group in our country for a long time.
Since then, as a sore loser, he has initiated legal proceedings against Barka Energies to hinder the transition.
Indeed, following the announcement on February 5, 2025 by the TotalEnergies Group of the sale of its subsidiary in Burkina Faso, Mr. SANOH Mamady expressed his dissatisfaction with the outcome by resigning from his position as a company director, which he had held since 2010. On April 14, 2025, he summoned the company to appear before the High Court of Bobo-Dioulasso to claim 3,214,285,000 CFA francs relating to a gas station he had purchased with the company 10 years earlier, in 2015, which was affected by the city planning scheme of Bobo-Dioulasso. (It should be noted that this station was sold to him at 464 million at the time, and TotalEnergies remained a tenant and paid him a total rent of 710,941,472 CFA francs until December 31, 2025), in addition to an advance he took for the years 2029 and 2030 for a total of 1.5 billion CFA francs on all the gas stations involved, including the one in question!
Then, on May 12, 2025, through his transport company SAHELIUM, he again summoned the company to pay him 12 billion CFA francs in a transport contract concluded 10 years earlier. A company for which he no longer has any trucks, so he is no longer a transporter for the company.
Faced with these baseless attacks, Barka Energies’ lawyers, in preparing the defense, realized that the gas station in question was part of a sale agreement for fifteen (15) real estate assets of gas stations to S.P.I., whose manager is Mr. SANOH Mamady, who at the time of the events was a director of TotalEnergies Marketing Burkina.
This operation, which falls within the framework of agreements subject to authorization because it involves a director of the selling company who is also the manager of the purchasing company, did not comply with any legal formalities required in this matter.
It was neither authorized by the board of directors of which he was a member, nor transcribed in the auditors’ reports as a regulated agreement, nor approved by the general meeting of shareholders, as required by law.
It is in light of these irregularities that Barka Energies had to file a request for arbitration with the ICC Paris Arbitration Court on January 20, 2026, in accordance with Article 16 of the sale agreement.
It follows from the above that not only was it not the arbitration court of Côte d’Ivoire (CACI) that was seized of the dispute, but also that the names of Coris Bank International and Mr. Nassa Idrissa were used intentionally for the sole purpose of harming their images, although they are not at all involved in this dispute.
We, long-time employees of TotalEnergies Burkina, watched helplessly in 2015 as the company’s assets were sold off through a game of favoritism and personal interests. We are well aware of the beneficiaries, the facilitators, and their modus operandi, but at the time it was a different political context that did not allow us to speak out. In addition, the rents “imposed” on the company at the time are such that the profitability of the gas stations concerned, despite the growth in sales, is struggling to materialize.
However, despite all of the above and in accordance with the philosophy of our current acquirer, we remain open to an amicable settlement that preserves the interests of our company.
