The initiative had been greeted with a lot of skepticism if not with jibes by many Burkinabè who saw in it a form of impotence of the military in power in the face of terrorist groups who have put large fringes of the national territory under controlled control. This is the government’s call on armed groups to lay down their arms and join the demobilization and de-radicalization centers created for this purpose. We will now have to take into account this strategy which, according to the government, which hosted a press conference on August 12, is beginning to bear its first fruits. Indeed, according to Minister Yéro Boly, in charge of national reconciliation, “several dozen terrorist fighters”, renouncing the violence of the language of arms, seized the outstretched hand of the Burkinabè authorities. This return to the fold of the lost children of the Republic was possible thanks to the establishment of local dialogue committees for the restoration of peace. Even if “the process is still young” as the government itself recognizes, we must salute, at its fair value, its first results which give hope, beyond the very modest number of combatants who, for the instant, responded to the Nation’s offer of peace, that dialogue is still possible with the Burkinabè who, for various reasons, have taken up arms against their motherland.
The government should be more diligent in setting up local dialogue committees
The initiative is all the more salutary since the demobilization of these dozens of combatants is equivalent to many lives saved both within the civilian and military populations who suffer the indiscriminate ire of the armed gangs and within the insurgents themselves. some of whom, as we know today, are hostages of the terrorist nebula. It remains to be hoped that the example of the first to engage in the process will be emulated by their comrades in arms of yesteryear. For this, we should be able to count on the commitment of the demobilized themselves who can serve as a transmission belt with those of their relatives who have remained in the maquis. That said, to optimize the results of the peace offer to the armed groups, the government, which can be proud of the relevance of its initiative, should be more diligent in setting up local dialogue committees for the restoration of peace of which only about ten could be installed on the whole of the national territory and especially in their accompaniment by consequent means to succeed in their missions. In the same dynamic, the religious and community leaders who play the leading roles in these mediations should show greater commitment to supporting this process which, despite the reservations of those who cry out against impunity, is one of the surest ways to bring peace to the country. And speaking precisely of the return to peace, the Burkinabè government, during the same press conference, announced the return of certain populations displaced by terrorist violence, to their areas of departure. If we are to welcome this return home of IDPs, if this is true, we must however remember that the situation is often very fragile and ephemeral. We know, in fact, that armed groups are often on the move and their departure from an area is not necessarily definitive.
Sidzabda