Burkina Faso

Terrorism in Burkina Faso refers to violence by non-state actors committed for the purpose of creating fear and spreading extremist ideology in Burkina Faso. The terrorist activity carried out in Burkina Faso was primarily carried out by organizations that used religion and were established through religion, but some of them began to be carried out by taking advantage of the gap that emerged due to economic difficulties. Recent attacks have been concentrated in the Hauts-Bassins, Boucle du Mouhoun, Nord, Sahel, and Est regions along the border with Mali and Niger. We can show the period between 2016 and 2018 as the period when terrorism made the most noise in Burkina Faso.

During this period, the activities of Al Qaeda, which carried out many activities on a local and global scale and was widely mentioned, increased significantly. In order to combat terrorism, Burkina Faso has increased its local and regional security forces, tried to squeeze existing organizations through economic regulations, and experimented with international partnerships such as the G5 Sahel and Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership. Problems such as security force violence and blatant human rights violations have thwarted such agreements and partnership plans. By 2018, the attacks tied the hands of the government and the failure to stop them led to a state of emergency being declared. Not long after, the former president, who failed in the fight against terrorism, had to resign when the calendar pointed to 2019. Terrorism has caused huge impacts in Burkina Faso. It displaced approximately 100,000 people and caused many service shortages.

According to official records, there was no terrorist attempt in Burkina Faso until 2015, but it is also known that there were 7 coup attempts from the 1900s to this period. In fact, it is thought that the president of the period had a hand in some of these coup attempts. Although many studies suggest that the president of the period had some partnerships with some terrorist organizations, definitive evidence has not yet been found. In particular, some reports even emphasize that the president made a deal with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. It is said that this agreement was made with the aim of creating civil unrest within the country and dragging the people into rebellion.

But things didn't go as planned, and as a result of the public uprising in 2014, the president moved further away from his seat. After the president's impeachment, the presidential security regiment loyal to him carried out a coup against the current transitional government. Even if the coup failed, RSP, one of the security systems within the country, suffered a major blow, which caused terrorist organizations to increase their activities in both the long and short term. RSP consisted of a staff of approximately 1500 people, and each person on this staff had received special training in America and France. With the dissolution of this team, terrorism in Burkina Faso reached its highest level and the 2016-2018 period we mentioned was reached.