2023-09-29 23:33:00
A year after taking power, Captain Ibrahim Traoré gives a positive assessment of his policy. Acquisition of equipment for the armed forces, massive recruitment of volunteers and soldiers, diversification of partners, launch of agricultural production campaigns, he was in front of several journalists on the local media. On the transition timetable, the Burkinabè head of state remains categorical, there will be no elections before the entire territory is secure. “My priority remains safety,” he insisted.
Published on: 09/30/2023 – 01:33
3 mn
A year after taking power, Captain Ibrahim Traoré admits that he was wrong about the real capabilities of the Burkinabè armed forces. According to him, the anti-terrorism war is still in the introductory stage, because the most important thing was equipment first. 11,000 new recruits are still in training, the war can truly begin when these future soldiers are in the theater of operations.
« All these areas, where we have been absent for years, we are going to go there. These will be very tough battles, that is to be expected, but that is what we are here for. There will be no part of Burkina where we cannot set foot. We are at the introduction, as we said. Operations are more air and air-land. We had a lot of worries. Whether it’s the workforce, the organization, the equipment. It was not this. We told ourselves that there were logistics, weapons, but that they didn’t want to give us. But we arrived and found that this was not the case. There was nothing, people did not prepare for war. The first thing was to know what was in our holds. There was nothing, we couldn’t even find 200 Kalashnikovs in reserve. »
Without providing figures, Captain Ibrahim Traoré emphasizes that populations have been resettled in their localities. And respecting the transition timetable, the president of the transition is categorical, as long as the Burkinabè cannot go to the entire extent of the territory, there will be no elections.
« We hope that at the end of the rainy season, we can make serious progress in the fight. The first day, we made people understand that we wanted to spend as little time as possible in this fight. If certain actors had let us struggle seriously, we would not be at this stage now. But people have decided to make life difficult for us. There will be no election which will focus only on Ouaga and a few surrounding towns. All Burkinabè must choose their president. Those who are going to apply must be able to go anywhere in Burkina to campaign, etc. So we have to ensure safety first. It is not a priority, I tell you clearly. Safety is the priority. »
On the external level, Captain Ibrahim Traoré insists on the fact that Burkinabè soldiers will intervene in Niger, not only to counter armed terrorist groups, but also in the event of intervention by ECOWAS troops.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré also assures that there is no unease within the armed forces, despite the latest events in the country. Faced with attempts to destabilize, the president of the transition threatens to take action. It will now be zero tolerance, he warns. All those who get in his way in his fight against armed terrorist groups and against imperialism will be punished.
We cannot imagine that a year after the people chose their route, that we are in a new configuration, that people are opposed to this. Anyone who would like to stand in the way of these people will have no feelings. That’s over.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré
RFI
1696032897
#Captain #Traoré #envisage #elections #securing #Burkina #Faso