The Sahel region was, so to speak, detached from the rest of Burkina Faso on the night of July 15 to 16, 2022 following the spraying with explosives and in the middle of the night, of two crossing infrastructures, in the Center-North of the country. Since that date, it is one more ordeal that the already bruised Burkinabè of this part of the country are enduring, since it is practically impossible to reach Djibo and Dori from Ouaga with the blasting of the bridges of Wousse on the Kongoussi-Bourzanga axis, and Naré between Tougouri and Yalgo. The humanitarian convoy which was, for example, to supply the town of Djibo almost under cover for several months, had to return to Kongoussi, the passage from one bank to the other by the scree of the devastated bridge of Wousse, being impossible. A few minutes before arriving at this impassable obstacle, the soldiers of the escort had to shoot at a scooter (commonly called a tricycle) packed with explosives and placed in the middle of the road, in order to clear a passage towards the martyred province. and now inaccessible from Soum. The damage to this bridge and that of Naré on the road leading to Dori clearly aims to hinder economic activities, but also to further complicate humanitarian missions for the benefit of the populations of the Sahelian part of Burkina, and above all to slow down military operations aimed at reconquering these terrorist-infested areas. The situation is all the more worrying as this beginning of sabotage of vital infrastructures for the country, might announce others.
At the time of the balance sheet, President Damiba will have no extenuating circumstances
The recurrence of robberies and other armed attacks observed in recent times on the main roads are, perhaps, the sign of the programmed balkanization of the country by the terrorists, who apparently want to take control of the areas abounding in important natural resources that they can exploit as they see fit. If the enemy’s ultimate objective is more or less known, the great unknown remains the strategy that the government intends to put in place to stop this spiral of hatred and this trail of blood that has upset Burkina for several years. If there is one, it is so lacking in clarity that many of our compatriots wonder whether the authorities of the Transition have really taken the measure of the danger, and wonder why this apparent navigation by sight, when we have decided to break into the presidential palace, justifying his act by his irrefutable determination to drive the sordidly notorious groups of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State out of the country. But instead of channeling all energies towards this patriotic burst, the junta seems to be playing the mariole and taking pleasure in all-out consultations as if there was no urgency or danger in the house, and as if it had an agenda other than the merciless fight once morest terrorism. At the time of the balance sheet, President Damiba will have no extenuating circumstances if the terrorists continue to rodeo from North to South and from East to West, and if the number of internally displaced persons grows exponentially. The people who hoped to see the end of the tunnel with the advent of the military in power, will inevitably seek to know how and why officers trained in some of the most prestigious war schools failed in the face of apparently lazy combatants, in sandals or in “lèkè”, totally unlearned regarding the intricacies of the military art and who, a priori, have not read the famous theory of people’s war conceived by Mao Zedong which had allowed the communists to crush the governmental machine during the Chinese Civil War. Admittedly, this fight for individual and collective survival should not be led only by the military, but it is up to them, as leaders, to show the way to get there, even if it means ignoring this worn-out patriotism the rope that prevents us from asking for outside help, while the country is sinking slowly but surely, if nothing is done as soon as possible. Burkina Faso being at a crossroads, let’s hope that the Burkinabè will have this extra soul and the dignity of these brave men of the country who had “given everything in their lifetime so that death has nothing more to take”, to make the sacrifice necessary for the return of peace and social cohesion.
Hamadou GADIAGA
