Burkina Faso takes terrorism seriously, says president

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - The president of Burkina Faso said on Monday his country took the fight against terrorism seriously, explaining its decision to join four other states in the Sahel region in forming a joint counter-terrorism force.

“We have taken the fight head on but we cannot win overnight,” Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in response to a question from Anadolu Agency during a news conference at the Pan African Parliament in Johannesburg.

“As you know well, in the Sahel the situation has been difficult, but terrorism is not just an African problem but a global issue,” he said.

Kabore said in February he joined his counterparts from Chad, Mali, Niger and Mauritania in agreeing to form the G5 group that would set up a joint counter-terrorism force to deal with terrorist threats in the region.

The Sahel is home to many terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)

Last year, AQIM claimed responsibility for assaults that killed 28 people and injured over 50 others after it attacked a hotel frequented by tourists in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou.

In February terrorists also attacked two police posts in Burkina Faso; just months after 12 soldiers had been killed by militants in a raid near the Mali border. Attacks also occurred in Mali and Ivory Coast in 2015 and 2016.

The African Union has already approved the establishment of the joint counter-terrorism force but it is yet to get a mandate from the United Nations Security Council.