The release last week of several foreign hostages and of the leader of the opposition in Mali, in return for the release of some 200 jihadist prisoners, was "
paid dearly
", believes Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré in an interview with France 24 and RFI broadcast Thursday.
Read also: France not involved in the negotiations to free the hostages in Mali
"
The counterpart has been paid dearly
", declares, while welcoming the release of the hostages, Mr. Kaboré, who affirms to have "
not at all
" been aware of the negotiations, in particular of the release of the suspected brain of the attack. jihadist of 2016 in Ouagadougou.
"
We followed the events like everyone else (...) it is Mali which decided to be able to manage this situation
", "
it is a negotiation between the Malian State and the camp of the hostage takers
" , according to the Burkinabe president.
He also estimated that the defense and security forces were winning the fight against jihadist groups in Burkina Faso, and that the French army was only intervening for “one-off
operations
”.
Mr. Kabore at the same time admitted that around 20 people were killed in a new round of jihadist attacks in northern Burkina Faso on Wednesday.
Asked about the abuses against Burkinabé civilians attributed to the police or to volunteer militias helping the army, he notably denied the accusations of Human Rights Watch on the massacre of 180 civilians in Djibo, and justified the employment of auxiliaries.
“
The army cannot be deployed to 8,000 villages at the same time,
” he said.
Bordering Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been the scene of regular jihadist attacks since 2015. Hundreds of people have been killed this year in dozens of attacks targeting civilians.
Jihadist violence, mixed with inter-communal conflicts, killed a total of 4,000 people in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in 2019, according to the UN.