Brigadier General Aimé Barthelemy Simporé estimated that Burkina and its neighbors should overcome tensions, to build a “strategic and sovereign Sahelian alliance” against terrorists who ignore borders.
“There are tensions that exist in the sub-region and that is regrettable. We cannot defeat terrorism if we are not united. Africa has this obligation to get along,” Brigadier General Aimé Barthelemy Simporé said Monday during a press conference.
For the Director General of the National Center for Strategic Studies of Burkina Faso (CNES-BF), it is not up to the countries of the European Union and international organizations to define Sahelian strategies for the fight against terrorism.
“ Between us, (we must) have a Sahelian strategic alliance which is both an initiative of our countries and led by our countries in a sovereign manner”, explained the former Minister of Defense, under the presidents Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
Aimé Barthelemy Simporé then invited the countries in the area of the three borders (Mali, Burkina, Niger) and those located in the south of Burkina (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin), to "quickly resolve all that there are as problems that weaken this cooperation" and unite in "an autonomous and strategic framework" to fight against terrorism.
"Cooperation is a fundamental and even absolute requirement" to defeat terrorism, insisted the senior officer.
General Simporé made this speech during the announcement of the first edition of the Strategic Research Forum, scheduled for July 27 and 28, 2023 in Ouagadougou, under the theme "Strategic breaks and anticipations: challenges, issues and postures for States".
According to the Deputy Director General of CNES-BF, Dr Sampala Balima, this meeting is about capitalizing on several intelligences to better fulfill the decision-making support roles assigned to the centers for strategic studies.
According to the teacher-researcher, this meeting will strengthen the institutional anchoring of CNES-BF, assert its leadership and participate in the diplomacy of influence in Burkina Faso.
Nearly 200 participants from several countries are expected at this forum whose inaugural conference will be given by the former head of Senegalese diplomacy, Cheickh Tidiane Gadio, also president of the Pan-African Institute of Strategies.
As a reminder, the Burkina Faso Center for Strategic Studies was created on February 27, 2020.
Attached to the Presidency of Faso and the Ministry of Defence, it was set up to "meet the needs of the State, in knowledge and expertise on strategic issues related to national security, foreign policy, science, technology and economic and social phenomena".
Source: Burkina Information Agency