Boulkiemde: As part of the Presidential Initiative to commute sentences to community service, more than a hundred inmates from the Koudougou remand and correctional center participated this Monday, August 18, 2025, in a reforestation operation on the campus of Norbert Zongo University. The activity was organized by the provincial directorate of infrastructure and opening up of Boulkiemd© and allowed the planting of more than 100 plants.
According to Burkina Information Agency, the provincial director, Souleymane Tingueri, stated that this activity is part of a national policy aimed at decongesting penitentiary establishments. Eligible prisoners are now called upon to contribute to public service tasks such as reforestation, cleaning gutters, collecting waste, and weeding public spaces.
For the High Commissioner of Boulkiemd© Province, Salimata Ou©draogo/Sanou, this measure makes prisoners useful while meeting the community's sanitation and reforestation needs. She also emphasized that "whoever plants a tree has not lived in vain."
The President of Norbert Zongo University, Professor Eug©nie Maiga, expressed her gratitude, specifying that these new trees will provide students with a shaded and conducive environment for their studies and research, creating a "healthy and pleasant living environment."
Three sites in the city were selected for this reforestation project due to their urgent need for vegetation: along the palace of President Maurice Yam©ogo, the mayor's garden, and the university campus.
The ceremony was attended by many personalities. In addition to the High Commissioner and the President of the University, the first vice-president of the special municipal delegation of Koudougou, Jean Urbain Kombass©r©, the regional directors of water and forests, infrastructure and access to landlocked areas, as well as the director of the Koudougou remand and correctional center, were also present at this activity.