In Burkina Faso, also known as the ‘Land of Men of Integrity’, the security situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years to the point that the November 22 presidential and legislative elections will not be held across the country.
The extract from the minutes of the Registry of the Constitutional Council speaks volume about the decay of Burkina Faso. Upon referral from the outgoing president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the highest court in Faso considered that “the failure to cover 17.70 percent of the national territory by the enlistment operation constitutes a case of force majeure.”
In fact, the Constitutional Council based itself on a report concluding that “six regions affected by the phenomenon of insecurity could not be fully covered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni).” Thus, there will be no voting in nearly 1,500 villages (out of more than 8,000) and in 22 municipalities (out of more than 300).
But how did we come to this? “The security situation is frightful. It is not very well controlled by the authorities. There are no suitable responses to the crisis. So it only evolves negatively and becomes more complex,” Mahamoudou Savadogo, a researcher on issues of violent extremism in the Sahel explains.
Most recently, the head of state had to suspend his electoral campaign for two days in tribute to the soldiers killed on November 11 in the “ambush” in Tin-Akoff (north).
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has often been the target of jihadist attacks that have caused more than a thousand deaths and forced the displacement of a million people. Despite everything, Mr. Savadogo argues, Burkina Faso can curb the terrorist threat “for two essential reasons.”
First, “It is not as big as Mali or Niger. It is a territory (274,220 square km) which can be monitored by the defense and security forces.” Second, “since the situation is still new, we can succeed in pinpointing it. We know which areas are under control and which are under threat. Therefore, we can find solutions so that it does not spread.”
At the center of concerns
After Roch Marc Christian Kabore was elected, the Burkinabe capital suffered a series of deadly attacks especially those on ‘Splendid Hotel, the Capuccino Café, the Aziz Istanbul Café-restaurant, the army staff and the embassy of France.
Logically, candidates running for this year’s presidential election have taken the issue to discredit the outgoing president. The latter took offense: “Making the fight against terrorism a political campaign issue is neither correct nor serious.”
However, “when we see the terrorist phenomenon as being the corollary of poverty, of lack of jobs, we can make it a campaign theme, as terrorism feeds on misery. This provides candidates for jihadist movements.” Daniel Kere, Assistant Professor at Thomas Sankara University in Ouagadougou says.
This is clearly an issue for the political class but, according to Mahamoudou Savadogo, this question “should not be dealt with as part of propaganda or in meetings. It needs to be seriously discussed. The fight against terrorism must be handled strategically.”
In this public debate, some opponents of Kabore, such as Monique Yeli Kam of the Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Burkina (MRF) believe that “negotiating with the terrorists is essential for the restoration of peace.” For the current tenant of the Kossyam Palace, it is out of the question to discuss “with those who plan to dismantle Burkina Faso and undermine (its) living together.”
For his part, Mr. Savadogo has a less clear-cut opinion: “Negotiating does not mean capitulating. When there is violence, loss of human life, we must not spare any solution. This will allow the state to better understand the phenomenon in order to readjust. If we refuse, we will always confine ourselves to mere assumptions.”
The first ramparts
To confront the jihadists, a law promulgated authorizes civilians, called “volunteers for the defense of the motherland,” to take up arms mainly in the rural world. This initiative aims, according to the head of state, to “anticipate terrorist attacks in the villages.”
Is it an admission of helplessness? Not necessarily for the specialist in violent extremism in the Sahel region: “These communities have better control over areas where the army has, perhaps, never set foot. It can be a good strategy as long as you have absolute control over these vigilante groups. Otherwise they will become the next threat the state will have to fight.”
Indeed, the use of training and arming civilians in a country plagued by inter-communal clashes could backfire on Kabore. This is why the first democratically elected civilian president in the history of Burkina Faso has multiplied the messages on this subject. On his Twitter account, he invited his fellow citizens to “avoid stigmatization and identity withdrawal. Burkina Faso was built on the understanding between all the communities. We must of course remain vigilant in the face of terrorism, but we must be tolerant too.”
Mahamoudou Savadogo opines that “Terrorist groups are pitting two communities against each other in order to recover one of them. This is a proven method of recruiting. Community conflicts are also explained by the scarcity of mineral and wildlife resources. There are issues around artisanal gold mines.”
Whatever the outcome of the presidential election, the response to jihadism will always be one of the main challenges for Burkina Faso during the next five-year term.
ID/te/fss/abj/APA