The Burkinabe army is spearheading a campaign of mass mobilization against recurrent spasms of jihadist violence, recruiting 3,000 rank and file infantrymen and 50,000 civilian volunteers.
Transitional President Ibrahim Traore has elected to count first on his compatriots to defeat the marauding jihadists.
Depending less and less on French troops for help against armed terrorist groups active in the country, the junta under Captain Traore thinks Burkina Faso does not need mercenaries from the controversial Russian company Wagner.
Captain Traore has “no intention of inviting Wagner,” according to Victoria Nuland, a U.S. diplomat who met with him last week.
“He was unambiguous in saying that the only ones to defend their country are the Burkinabe people,” she told an online press briefing.
Victoria Nuland is Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs.
She has been on a tour of West Africa, which took her to Burkina Faso on Thursday 20 October.
Burkina Faso’s Western partners fear that the insurgent-riven West African nation will follow in the footsteps of neighboring Mali, which late last year recruited mercenaries from Wagner to help its army defeat Islamist insurgents, according to some media and diplomats in the west.
Supporters of the September 30 coup include pro-Russian groups.
Demonstrating support for Captain Traore’s coup, hundreds of people paraded through cities waving Russian flags and calling for increased military cooperation with the Kremlin.
The Wagner boss had hailed the architect of the putsch against Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, calling for international respect for the legitimacy of the takeover.
In the wake of this, the United States was quick to send a warning to the new men in charge in Ouagadougou against any attempt to hire Russian mercenaries.
If Nuland’s claims are anything to go by the security situation has deteriorated, rights violations reported and UN peacekeepers expelled since Wagner entered Mali.
Nuland recently returned to the United States after a tour of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The arrival of the Russian mercenaries has further isolated Assimi Goita on the international stage.
The U.S. diplomat warned that insecurity would put the transition process in Burkina Faso to the test and made assurances that Washington was ready to “support the Burkinabe army’s vigorous efforts to combat terrorism without external support from Russia and Wagner.”
During a national conference held on October 14, Captain Ibrahim Traore was designated as president for a 21-month transition period.
DS/ac/fss/as/APA