Colonel-Major Célestin Simporé, the new head of the Burkinabe armies, said on Thursday April 6 that he wanted to step up the offensive to force the jihadists who have bloodied Burkina Faso since 2015 "to lay down their arms
"
.
"
The offensive dynamics underway in recent weeks will be intensified to force the armed groups to lay down their arms
," said Colonel-Major Simporé, appointed on Friday, during a ceremony to take command in Ouagadougou.
“
This will be done, for certain operations, in coordination with the sister armies of neighboring countries
,” he added.
The objective now is to maintain this momentum to definitively reverse the trend.
Colonel-Major Célestin Simporé, Chief of the Burkinabe Armies
“
Our combat forces have begun a significant shift in the conduct of warfare, with an extreme intensification of pressure on armed terrorist groups
,” the officer continued.
He welcomed the “
results achieved since December and particularly in recent weeks
”.
“
The objective now is to maintain this momentum to definitively reverse the trend
,” he said.
The outgoing Chief of Staff who had been in office since 2022, Colonel-Major David Kabré, for his part considered that "
the first signs of victory are perceptible and it is now, more than ever, that he efforts must be stepped up
”.
Until then Deputy Chief of Staff and Commander of National Theater Operations (COTN), Colonel-Major Simporé was appointed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president who came to power by a putsch on September 30, 2022, the second in eight months.
Spiral of violence
This 50-year-old officer is a graduate of the Saint-Cyr military school in France.
Since a recent acquisition of air combat means, the army regularly broadcasts videos of strikes on columns or groups of suspected jihadists, ensuring that the reconquest and securing of the entire territory are in progress.
In the wake of neighboring Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization, which have killed more than 10,000 people. (civilian and military) according to NGOs, and some two million internally displaced persons.
The attacks have since continued to multiply and faced with the resurgence of this violence, Captain Ibrahim Traoré has made the fight against the jihadists who control around 40% of Burkinabe territory, his top priority.
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