Burkina Faso: who are the Homeland Defense Volunteers?
Landscapes of the village of Guitti, in the Séguénéga department, in Burkina Faso.
© RFI / Sayouba Traoré
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
As has been happening since the creation of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) corps, at the beginning of last year after another massacre that shocked the country, it was the VDP camp in Solhan that had to 'was first targeted by the attackers before they attacked the population.
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When the law that
creates the VDP
is promulgated in January 2020, jihadist groups are on the rise and the Defense and Security Forces cannot be everywhere at the same time.
These army auxiliaries are therefore put in place to try to tip the balance in the direction of government forces.
Their mission: "to
serve as intelligence agents
", and also to try to "
resist in the event of an attack
", while awaiting the arrival of the army.
Each volunteer is then trained in the handling of weapons for two weeks, before receiving a Kalashnikov and being deployed in his village.
Too few, say specialists, who worry about the risks of seeing civilians used in such a conflict.
► Read also:
Solhan attack: "The use of Volunteers for the defense of the homeland exposes civilians"
Today, eighteen months later, Mahamoudou Sawadogo, a specialist in extremism issues in Burkina Faso, observes that the jihadists "
who mainly attacked the military so far, have changed targets: they are now attacking the VDP and the populations in the villages.
"
The jihadist groups “
no longer sort
” between the civilian populations and armed volunteers, he explains, pointing to “
a mixture of genres
” which poses problems.
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Burkina Faso