France asked the president of Burkina Faso to intervene after a French military convoy was held up for nearly three days by protesters in the city of Kaya.
The foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said those he called “manipulators” had been stoking anti-French sentiment.
There are unconfirmed reports that French soldiers fired warning shots at the demonstrators, who are opposed to the French force fighting Islamist militants in the Sahel.
The vehicles eventually moved dozens of kilometres south from Kaya and made their way via a different route to neighbouring Niger.
