The leader of Burkina Faso’s military junta, Ibrahim Traoré, has hinted at an expansion of anti-terrorist operations in the coming days and has advanced that thousands of ‘volunteers’ will be deployed on the ground from early February to fight jihadist groups.
Traoré stressed during an event with students that the fight against terrorism is now focused on «small operations» and said that military capabilities are being reinforced. «The war will start in the days to come,» he explained.
«The terrorists are waiting for us to lose heart, but that will not happen. We have an iron morale,» he has pointed out. «I am convinced that if we decided to call up a million men today, they would answer that they are ready,» he has added, Burkina Faso news portal Burkina24 has reported.
He also indicated that «some of the volunteers will complete their training at the end of January and will be deployed on the ground in February, with a view to help ensure security in the territory», while defending that these people need to be trained before going into combat.
«We are equipping ourselves with five to seven times more firepower than the terrorists. The security issue is a personnel issue and an equipment issue that is being resolved,» he argued, as reported by Burkina Faso’s state news agency, AIB.
The Patriotic Defense and Surveillance Brigade Command claimed in November that the recruitment campaign for ‘volunteers’ had resulted in more than 90,000 sign-ups, amid deteriorating security in the country due to the expansion of jihadist networks.
Burkinabe military authorities indicated at the launch of the recruitment process that the aim was to recruit 15,000 ‘volunteers’ at the national level and another 35,000 at the community level to fight jihadist groups.
Traoré has also appealed to the population to avoid hate speech and ethnicity-based discourse. «When they sense that we are going to win this fight, suddenly the ethnic issue comes up. Don’t fall into their game. Less vitriol, more tolerance,» he said.
On the other hand, he confirmed that the junta intends to review its relations with «certain states», without giving further details and in the midst of diplomatic tensions with France and an apparent rapprochement with Russia.
«Perhaps in the next few hours you will see a certain amount of information regarding the review of our relations with certain states. I say this here because we have to review a lot of texts. We have already started to review a certain number of texts on our sovereignty,» he has indicated.
«My biggest concern is that young people be on alert because the struggle for sovereignty is a long-term struggle and one that requires quite a bit of endurance. This struggle for sovereignty is underway. We have initiated all the necessary processes for it,» he concluded.
Burkina Faso has generally experienced a significant increase in insecurity since 2015, with attacks by both Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates, leading to a wave of internally displaced persons and refugees to other countries in the region.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
