Burkina Faso: When the Ivorian border becomes a shield for barbarism
The history of nations is sometimes written on the thin line of a shoreline, where sovereignty ceases to be a diplomatic concept and becomes a bulwark for survival. Between February 7th and 9th, the Ivorian-Burkinabe border was not merely the stage for a thwarted incursion; it became the distorting mirror of a geopolitics of betrayal. As our forces, driven by the sacred momentum of Refoundation, tracked packs of lawless criminals, geography served as a screen for infamy.
This sequence, where the terror of the pursuit on Burkinabe soil turned into a taunting parade on the Ivorian bank, is a slap in the face to the fraternity of peoples and an insult to territorial integrity.
Beyond the act of war, it is a staging of contempt that questions the depths of the shadows.
Who offers shelter to those who sow mourning? Who authorizes this metamorphosis of the fugitive into a provocateur, merely by crossing a demarcation line?
Caught in the midst of an incursion, these mercenaries of the shadows first offered the spectacle of their cowardice: a desperate flight, a gallop for survival before the thunderbolt of the Burkinabe Defense Forces.
But at the precise moment their boots touched Ivorian soil, panic turned into icy insolence. Bodies straightened, weapons were raised, and lead whistled toward our lines.
This metamorphosis is only possible if the assassin knows they are protected by an invisible shield.
It reveals a gray-zone strategy where terrorism exploits the dotted lines of maps to secure a decompression chamber.
These are neither combatants nor insurgents, but faceless predators who exploit diplomatic silences to escape their destiny as dust.
The restraint shown by the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) must be acknowledged with particular solemnity. By refraining from retaliating, the nation’s heroes saved the region’s peace from a conflagration that the enemy was hoping for.
This iron discipline, this uprightness in honor, is the hallmark of a professional army that refuses to see its blood sacrificed on the altar of a border incident premeditated by shadowy cabals.
However, this strategic restraint is an ultimatum: fraternity can no longer serve as a cover for complacency.
It is now up to the Ivorian authorities to clarify their position. One cannot claim to fight the hydra while allowing its heads to rest on one’s own doorstep.
A conscious Africa now rejects the hypocrisy of a hollow solidarity that stops midstream.
The border must no longer be the balcony of criminal arrogance, but the impassable lock of shared dignity.
For a sovereignty that tolerates a sanctuary for chaos will inevitably end up becoming its prey. The time for memos is over; the time for clarity in action is now.
The Burkinabe blood shed for the continent’s freedom demands that every shore finally choose its side, without ambiguity or betrayal.
Cédric KABORE
