Burkina Faso’s military government has set a target of recapturing 40% of territory lost to militant groups, announcing a “general mobilisation” to give them “all necessary means” to do so.
A statement on Thursday by Defence Minister Col Maj Kassoum Coulibaly said the measures would “give a legal framework to all the actions to be implemented to deal with the situation that Burkina Faso is experiencing”.
It is thought it could include a state of emergency in parts of the country, although the full details of the guidelines are not yet clear.
The so-called “general mobilisation” also guarantees the government freedom of action to deal with terrorist threats. Burkina Faso’s parliament passed a law in 2020 to recruit Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland, an auxiliary civilian army to support the fight against terrorists.
Burkina Faso has been embroiled in a jihadist insurgency since 2015. The violence has left more than 10,000 dead and displaced 1.8 million people.
Last week, 44 civilians were killed following an attack on the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in the north-east near the country’s border with Niger.
