Burkina Faso president urges reconciliation in independence speech

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kabore urged national reconciliation Friday amid growing insecurity in that country.

National unity should not fall into "the underhand trap of the enemy,” he said.

“Terrorism in Burkina Faso is fueled and sustained by hatred borne of the country’s recent political history. We will all achieve reconciliation together to put an end once and for all to the resentments,” he said in a televised speech for the 61st anniversary of the nation’s independence that will be observed Saturday.

“But the stage of national reconciliation cannot be achieved by concealing the crimes, without the truth, without justice and without the forgiveness of the victims,” he added.

Burkina Faso’s area bordering Mali and Niger regularly witnesses attacks by terrorists with links to the Daesh/ISIS terror group.

An attack last month in the north left 53 dead.

Insecurity has led to protests calling for Kabore’s resignation.

This week, Kabore sacked Prime Minister Joseph Marie Dabire amid escalating insecurity.

On Friday, he appointed Lassina Zerbo, a former nuclear monitor, to the post.

More than 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso due to the attacks, while 480 civilians were killed in attacks orchestrated by insurgents between May and August, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Kabore expressed his solidarity and that of the entire nation on Friday to all those internally displaced by terror attacks.

He also hailed the resilience of the Burkinabe people who he said continue "to suffer the cowardly exactions of terrorists.”

"The difficult times that we are going through and endured with honor by our valiant people are not insurmountable and the heroic history of our ancestors teaches us this,” he said. "We must have the courage to look ourselves in the face to settle all this painful liability, without rushing forward, by breaking the abscess in order to create the conditions for a new beginning.”