Burkina Faso: Land of the Pure lives under weight of terrorism

Ahmed Adel

Burkina Faso, known as the Land of the the Pure, is currently witnessing terrorist attacks by ISIS, especially after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the murdered organization, announced in late October 2019 the establishment of the so-called West Africa state.

Burkina Faso is one of the most prominent countries in the West African region, due to the possession of its lands of gold mines and what made it rank second on the African continent in terms of the amount of exploration investment for gold.

The increase in terrorist operations has led to a decline in the indicators for extracting gold and minerals, which are used by armed groups for financing operations, according to a statistic published by the Mining economic website in October 2019.

Thousands of locals have been forced to flee, as a result of armed attacks, in addition to the escalation of ethnic conflicts between the sects, fueled by armed violence.

The security services in Burkina Faso seek to stop the encroachment of groups affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Sahel and Sahara region, and published in June 2018 a list of 146 people against the background of being involved in acts and belonging to terrorist groups that draw their ideas from Al Qaeda.

The Alliance includes the five African Sahel states (Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad), in addition to Burkina Faso, known as “G5”, under the supervision of the French forces present in the Sahel and Sahara region.

The country’s intelligence services have also expanded their operations to halt the advance of small groups and not to penetrate into Ghana, Benin and Togo, resulting in the arrest of more than two hundred people suspected of terrorist activities.

In this context, the French journalist Cyril Ban Simon published an article in the French newspaper “Le Monde”, titled “Burkina Faso .. The New Place for the Jihadists”, in which he stressed that the bloody attack that killed dozens on December 24, 2019, led to increased criticism of the government’s strategy in Burkina Faso in dealing with jihadists.

He pointed out that there are two terrorist organizations located in Burkina Faso, the first of which is the “Victory of Islam” group that is stationed on the borders with Mali, and the second is the “Boko Haram” group that sold ISIS in 2016, which is stationed on the border with Niger.

The French writer pointed out that criticisms from inside and outside the country point to the loss of authority over several regions in the country. The jihadists are trying to infiltrate some of the tribes in the country exactly, as they did in Mali before and as they turn to young people who live in difficult economic and social conditions to recruit them.