Burkina Faso launches exceptional recruitment of 3,000 soldiers to fight jihadists

Burkina Faso has launched an exceptional recruitment campaign of 3,000 soldiers to strengthen the ranks of its army in the fight against the jihadists who have bloodied this country for seven years, according to a press release from the Ministry of Defense sent on Wednesday October 19 to the AFP. This campaign comes nearly two weeks after a coup led on September 30 by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, whose stated objective is to strengthen the anti-jihadist fight.

“The populations of towns and villages are informed that an exceptional recruitment of 3,000 non-commissioned soldiers for the benefit of the national armed forces will take place throughout the national territory”, indicates the text. This recruitment, which will take place from October 25 to December 5, only concerns “young boys” born between 1^er January 1992 and December 31, 1998, it is specified. This is the second time this year that the Burkinabe army – which numbers around 30,000 men – has organized such a recruitment. In April, 3,000 soldiers, whose age did not exceed 26, had already been recruited.

Since 2015, the Burkinabe armed forces have been regularly bereaved by increasingly frequent and deadly jihadist attacks. On Saturday, at least three soldiers and eight civilian army auxiliaries were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso. On September 26, 37 people, including 27 soldiers, were killed in Gaskindé during an ambush against a supply convoy trying to reach Djibo, a city under jihadist blockade in the north of the country, according to the staff.

More than 40% of the territory escapes state control

Lacking resources, the Burkinabe army is struggling to stop these attacks, attributed to jihadist movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and which, initially concentrated in the north, now affect several other regions of the country, including those from the east and northwest.

On January 24, soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba overthrew President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused of being unable to stem the attacks. But these did not stop and, faced with the constant deterioration 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 claimed thousands of lives and forced some 2 million people to flee their homes. More than 40% of the territory escapes the control of the State, in particular on the side of the borders with Mali and Niger.