Burkina Faso recruits 50,000 people as civilian defense volunteers to fight jihadists

The conflict-torn Burkina Faso has launched a drive to recruit 50,000 civilian defense volunteers to help the country’s army fight jihadists, the authorities announced.

“The mission of these communal VDPs is to protect, alongside the defense and security forces, the people and property of their communes of origin”, in the face of jihadist attacks, according to a statement by the commander of the Brigade of Vigilance and Patriotic Defense (BVDP), Colonel Boukaré Zoungrana, Minister of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Security released on Tuesday (25 October).

This local recruitment is in addition to the one a day earlier when the BVDP announced its intention to build a force of 15,000 VDPs “that can be deployed throughout the national territory.” The status of the VDP is defined by law since early 2020. It is defined as “a person of Burkinabe nationality, auxiliary to the Defense and Security Forces (FDS), voluntarily serving the security interests of his village or sector of residence.

VDPs receive 14 days of civic and military training before being armed and provided with means of communication. They pay a heavy price in the jihadist attacks that regularly strike Burkina Faso, particularly in the north and east. To date, no data is available on their exact number, even though the initial objective was to recruit 13,000 people. These massive recruitments are in addition to a one-time recruitment campaign of 3,000 soldiers to bolster the ranks of the army in the fight against jihadists. These campaigns come after a coup in late September that was led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, whose stated aim is to strengthen the anti-jihadist fight.