The security situation in Burkina Faso is desolate. Burkina Faso’s President, Kaboré is the predecessor Compaoré to blame: In a DW Interview, he accuses him of questionable collusion with terrorist groups to have taken.
Deutsche Welle: Mr. President, you are since 1. February, President of the G5-Sahel Initiative, a regional merger, which consists of the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger and in West Africa against the terrorist fight. Germany also supports this battle. This was the concrete reason of your visit in Berlin?
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré: We came at the invitation of the Chancellor and wanted to talk about the cooperation between the two countries. Just because Burkina holds Faso since February, the presidency of the G5 Initiative. We are now working closely together in a number of areas very well with Germany: decentralization, access to drinking water, energy, agriculture. But given the security situation in our country, we want to extend the cooperation in questions which are extremely important to us, which has led to the fact that there are many refugees. This will need to the humanitarian and eventually back to their home villages and brought back supplies. In this task, it would be good if Germany would support us.
DW: What are the promises made by the Chancellor, specifically?
The Chancellor has shown himself to be very open, and I also met the Federal President. We are very pleased with the interest that Germany, Africa, and especially in the G5-Sahel Initiative. Germany takes part in the UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), as well as Burkina Faso, with 1700 soldiers. The Chancellor wants to support the G5-countries.
A guest in Berlin: Burkina Faso President Kaboré in the case of Chancellor Merkel
Particularly important for us to be better coordination between the G5 countries and the EU. Because so far, there are only announcements for funding of the G5 initiative, but no concrete Commitments. We will need a co-ordination meeting between the G5 and the EU, to determine when the promises are implemented and what exactly are we doing together.
Lack of equipment is a Problem of the G5-soldiers. Another is lack of training….
This is all connected, and we need to strengthen our armies in this respect. We have to simultaneously fight terrorism and our soldiers. Because this type of crisis, has hitherto not existed in our Region: It is an asymmetric war. Germany has proposed that our cooperation to develop, that you can help us with the consolidation of our army.
There are rumors that your predecessor, Blaise Compaoré, had Connections to terrorist groups and that his downfall is the reason why Burkina Faso is currently suffering from terrorism.
That he had these Connections, there are no rumors, but a fact. In Burkina Faso there was peace for many years, because there was a Deal. It seems obvious to me. And it seems to be related, that Burkina Faso is today a target of terror. 12. January 2016 was sworn in the new government, and three days later it was the largest attack ever in Burkina Faso. Absolutely nothing previously had indicated a terror threat. Today, however, we are stuck in a fight against terrorism, whose goal seems to be to prevent us from doing our work.
Burkina’s Ex-President Compaoré was a military coup in 2015 from the office and now lives in exile in the ivory coast
Is it true that leading terrorists have come to you, to cars, to claim that you ordered in the case of Blaise Compaoré””?
Yes, I was asked about it, as I came into the office. I said that I was not informed about this order and you should note the cars in the competent Person in the ivory coast, [there, Blaise Compaoré lives in exile. d. Red.] demand, she will tell you where you are. I told them that I do with these Deals.
How did you react?
Our conversation was over. What happened after that, I don’t know. It is clear, however, that we are in the grip of a certain number of these [terrorist]groups. However, we also know that terrorism has no future. Even if it will take some time, we fight for peace and security in our country.
If you say that there was with Blaise Compaoré a Deal that protected the country from terrorist attacks, why do you ask him today, not for advice, if you want the country to get peace again?
If the Council is to make a Deal with terrorists to cover their smuggling business, then this is bad advice for us.
But maybe he has experience; he has mediated in many conflicts.
In exactly these mediations, the Deals were closed, Yes. You can’t explain to someone to ask how we ally with a thief, other can life steal from, and even in peace. This is a question of ethics! We are not against advice from the outside. We have not chased Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso. He went by himself, after it came to revolts against him. Who wants to come back can come back. And if there is a legal Problem, then it will be legally regulated. We have no Problem with that. But since Blaise Compaoré in Abidjan, and it always comes back to attacks, I have not heard him speak one Time to his people, to encourage it, to say that these acts are bad.
In January 2016, the Islamists stormed the Hotel Splendid in Ouagadougou. In the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the country killed 29 people.
Hundreds of schools in Burkina Faso are closed in consequence of the terror. How do you deal with this Situation?
This is bad! Also, we have spoken with the Chancellor. More than 100,000 children can not go to class. It is a big challenge for us is to open these schools so that the children can re-learn. Because if the children do not go to school, which is also a breeding ground for terrorism. Therefore, we have supported the armed forces with strict instructions that should lead us to be able to open in a quarter of the schools. This will be an obvious sign of what we are doing on the ground against terrorism.
How is the Chancellor?
She is in full agreement with our suggestion, and also finds that school is important. The Problem is quickly explained: If you are teaching in the North of Burkina Faso and terrorists come to you and say: “If you don’t, in Arabic teaching instead of French, then we come back tomorrow and kill you”, then it is clear that nobody wants to teach. Our great challenge is that the schools are open again. But for this we must, of course, also with the help of the army, the safety of teachers and students can provide.
The Interview was conducted by Dirce Köpp and Fréjus Quenum.