The government is developing a national reference system to combat explosive devices by 2027, during a workshop inaugurated on Tuesday 28 March in the presence of an APA journalist.
550 terrorist incidents linked to the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) caused about 1091 victims, including 544 dead and 547 injured, between 2017 and 2023, reported the permanent secretary of the National Commission for Arms Control (CNCA).
Intendant Colonel Major Anselme Sanou explained that terrorist groups have already used these IEDs in 09 of the country’s 13 regions, with a greater tendency in the Sahel and the East.
IEDs are one of the methods used by terrorist groups in Burkina, acknowledged the Minister of Defence, Colonel Major Kassoum Coulibaly.
For him, they are “a real threat”. IEDs are an obstacle to efforts to secure the national territory, hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid, destroy socio-economic infrastructures and are a source of stress and psychosis among the population, the defence minister said.
To combat this, the country is adopting a draft national strategy to combat improvised explosive devices for the period 2023-2027.
“The scale of the phenomenon obliges us to include the fight in a process that takes into account, upstream, prevention and downstream actions of detection and neutralisation,” said the SP / CNCA.
This is the first time on the African continent that a country has developed a reference framework for combating explosive devices. The initiative is supported by the United Nations.
The Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), Ilene Cohn, said that Burkina Faso had the necessary resources to combat IEDs. However, “it is useful to bring all the strategies together in a single document, in order to have a holistic approach and synergy of action,” she said.
The adoption and implementation of the framework will allow for capacity building of actors, detection of precursors, detection and destruction of mines, limiting the proliferation of components of the devices, raising awareness among the population…
Ultimately, the vision is to ensure that by 2027 the country is free from any threat related to improvised explosive devices.
DS/ac/lb/abj/APA