At the invitation of the Ka-Passor-Yé Association (KPY), the Chief of Staff of the National Gendarmerie, Lieutenant-Colonel Evrard François de Salle Somda hosted a public conference on Saturday in Yako on the security situation in Passoré province .

Security situation and social cohesion, these are the main themes that have largely furnished the exchanges during a major public conference organized by the Association Ka-Passor-Yé (KPY) for the benefit of the living forces of the province of Passoré.

Coming from the four municipalities that make up the province, FDS, VDP and populations exchanged for a little over 4 hours around the theme: "Security situation and challenges of collaboration between FDS and VDP: challenges and commitments for security and social cohesion in Passoré".

According to the coordinator of the Association, Dr Benjamin Zoumba, Ka-Passor-Yé (KPY) was born in a context where certain municipalities in the province of Passoré suffered terrorist attacks, the first of which was that of Bagaré in February 2022.

"Ka-Passor-Yé" which means in French: "Here is not the path of adversity", aims according to Dr. Zoumba, to make Passoré, a citadel of security and cohesion, so that this locality is not as its name suggests, the path of adversities through terrorism.

Specifically, the Association is working to further mobilize citizens, in particular through better collaboration with the FDS and the VDP.

The Association also sets itself the task of mobilizing more through good collaboration between FDS and VDP, to invite all social strata of the province to make themselves available to the fight against terrorism.

In his communication, Colonel Evrard Somda first made an inventory of the security situation in the North region and especially in Passoré.

He then described the humanitarian situation in the province, which currently has a large number of internally displaced persons.

The last intervention of Lieutenant-Colonel Somda invited the populations to show understanding and confidence in the FDS in the face of certain irregularities observed during the exercise of their missions.

Cultivate resilience through solidarity between the populations, avoid discrediting the VDPs, restore popular trust, work to create defense plans by villages and by sectors, work to find jobs for young people, these were among others the recommendations made by the speaker.

The speaker and the president of the ceremony, Laurent K. Kontogom particularly praised the mobilization and the combativeness of the volunteers for defense and the homeland (VDP) of the commune of Bagaré for having succeeded in restoring tranquility in the locality.

These exchanges were largely dominated by the need for equipment, in particular rolling means and waterproof clothing for the benefit of VDPs.

At the end of the exchanges, the populations of Passoré made a series of commitments summarized in four points.

This is a healthy collaboration with the FDS and VDP by denouncing any complicit action and alerting them to any suspicious action.

The populations intend to valiantly defend their territory by committing themselves to the FDS and VDP and to cultivating inter-community dialogue within the province.

They also pledged to support the current authorities in the fight against insecurity and the defense of the sovereignty of Burkina Faso.

"I also salute the commitment of the populations and nationals of Passoré with the organizational model that has been put in place and invite the other provinces to draw inspiration from this organizational model" concluded Evrard Somda.

Source: Burkina Information Agency