The defense ministers of Burkina Faso, Chériff Sy, and the Ivory Coast, Téné Birahima Ouattara, indicated on Monday in Ouagadougou that they wanted to “
pool
” their efforts in the anti-jihadist fight.
Read also: Undermined by jihadism, Burkina Faso threatens to collapse
“
We believe that the fight against terrorism cannot be carried out by a single state. We must pool efforts, keep informed and try to pool our resources (...) to fight effectively against this scourge,
”said Birahima Ouattara, after a meeting with his Burkinabè counterpart. Arrived the day before in Ouagadougou in the company of his army chief of staff, Birahima Ouattara, brother of the Ivorian president, also met the Burkinabè head of state, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
The Burkinabè Minister Cheriff Sy noted to him that there was “
already a commission which brought together the defense, security and intelligence executives of the two countries. This visit made it possible to reactivate all these structures in order to give them clear instructions so that a certain number of missions can be carried out
”. “
We collaborate perfectly. We have had to carry out a certain number of operations to secure our borders, to fight against terrorism together
”, rejoiced Cheriff Sy, specifying that it is now a question of“
defining a common strategy
”.
A poor country in West Africa, Burkina Faso has been plagued since 2015 by frequent jihadist attacks that have left more than 1,300 dead and have forced more than a million people to flee their homes. Long spared by jihadist groups, Côte d'Ivoire recorded its first deadly jihadist action in 2016 when 19 people, many of them Westerners, were killed in Grand-Bassam.
Since 2020, this country has suffered new attacks in the north, bordering Burkina Faso. On the night of June 10-11, 2020, an attack on the Ivorian army occurred in Kafolo, in which 14 soldiers were killed. On March 29, “
around sixty heavily armed terrorists from Burkina Faso
” attacked an army position in Kafolo. Results: "
two soldiers killed and four wounded
" and "
three terrorists killed and four arrested
", according to the Ivorian staff.