This enrollment campaign, which will take place from October 25 to December 5, concerns only men born between 1992 and 1998.
Le Monde with AFP
Burkina Faso launched an exceptional recruitment campaign of 3,000 soldiers to strengthen the ranks of its army in the fight against jihadists who have been bloodied this country for seven years, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense transmitted Wednesday, October 19 to AFP. This campaign comes almost two weeks after a coup led on September 30 by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, whose displayed objective is to strengthen the fight against anti -jihadist.
“The populations of towns and villages are informed that an exceptional recruitment of 3,000 soldiers of the rank for the benefit of the national armed forces will take place throughout the national territory,” said the text. This recruitment, which will take place from October 25 to December 5, concerns only the “young boys” born between the 1 er January 1992 and December 31, 1998, it is specified. This is the second time this year that the Burkinabé army – which has around 30,000 men – organizes such recruitment. In April, 3,000 soldiers, whose age did not exceed 26 years, had already been recruited.
Since 2015, the Burkinabé armed forces have been regularly bereaved by increasingly frequent and deadly jihadist attacks. On Saturday, at least three soldiers and eight civilian army auxilions were killed during an attack on alleged jihadists in northern Burkina Faso. On September 26, 37 people, including 27 soldiers, were killed in Gaskindé during an ambush against a refueling convoy which tried to join Djibo, a city under blockade jihadist in the north of the country, according to the staff.
More than 40 % of the territory escapes the control of the State
Lacking means, the Burkinabé army is struggling to stop these attacks, attributed to jihadist movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and which, first concentrated in the North, now affect several other regions of the country , including those of the East and North West.
On January 24, soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba had overthrown President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused of being unable to stop attacks. But these have not stopped and, faced with the constant degradation of the situation, a new putsch took place on September 30, which brought Ibrahim Traoré to power in order to “refocus the transition on security emergencies”, according to the junta.
Since 2015, these attacks have killed thousands of deaths and forced some 2 million people to flee their homes. More than 40 % of the territory escapes the control of the State, especially on the side of borders with Mali and Niger.