Burkina Faso’s military government on Thursday announced a recruitment drive for 5,000 military soldiers to help in the fight against jihadists, reported The Punch.
“An exceptional recruitment of 5,000 non-commissioned soldiers for the national armed forces, to serve for at least five years, in their military region of recruitment, will take place throughout the national territory,” said Defence Minister Colonel Major Kassoum Coulibaly in a statement.
The minister said the recruitment of soldiers will take place from February 28 to March 7. He said that the recruits must have been born between January 1, 1988, and December 31, 2003.
One of the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso has been struggling to control a deadly insurgency since 2015 that has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people so far.
Last week, at least 51 soldiers were killed in northern Burkina Faso’s Sahel region.
Earlier this week, Burkina Faso’s armed forces said that France and Burkina Faso have officially marked the end of French military operations in the West African nation. The withdrawal follows a request by the military junta last month, calling for French soldiers to leave the country.
France had deployed 400 Special Forces soldiers in Burkina Faso to help the local military in battling the insurgency. But, relations between the two countries deteriorated in recent months.
Last year, France also withdrew its Barkhane forces from coup-hit Mali after the military junta there allegedly collaborated with Wagner, a Russian military contractor.
Burkina Faso has faced two coups since the start of the year, with each new leader accusing the previous of having failed to control the violence.
Burkina Faso’s transitional President, Captain Ibrahim Traore, who staged the most recent coup on September 30, has vowed to recapture 40 percent of the country’s territory, currently controlled by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
