Local government minister Boukare Zoungrana said Tuesday ahead of his official appointment by interim president Ibrahim Traoré. Authorities had already announced on Monday that they would set up a unit of 15,000 volunteers that could be deployed across the country.
Burkina Faso has been in a spiral of violence since 2015. There are regular armed attacks by jihadist groups, some of which are collaborating with the terrorist network al-Qaeda and the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS). Several thousand soldiers and civilians have already died in the conflict and nearly two million people have been displaced from their homes.
The 34-year-old Captain Traoré seized power at the end of September with the help of a group of soldiers. The rebels cited “the continuing deterioration of the security situation” in the country as the reason for the coup.
The job of the new recruits is “to protect the population and their property,” Zouungrana said.
The volunteer program has been in existence since 2020. Recruits usually receive two weeks of training before being given weapons and communications equipment. In addition to the new recruits, 3,000 regular soldiers still need to be hired.
Jihadists control about 40 percent of Burkina Faso’s territory. At least ten soldiers were killed in an attack in the city of Djibo in the north of the country on Monday.
(SDA)