Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kaboré has launched his re-election campaign and promised to deal with the terrorist threat facing the country.
Kabore, a member of the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), faulted his opponents for making terrorism a campaign issue.
Burkina Faso is part of the Sahel region that has been facing an Islamist insurgency.
“I come to ask for five more years so that together we work for the security, stability, peace and resilience of the Burkinabe people,” the president said.
The elections are scheduled for 22 November.
President Kaboré has been facing criticism over his handling of the insurgency.
Originally scheduled for October 31, the launch of the campaign for Kabore and his People’s Movement for Progress (MPP) party had been postponed due to the death of Kabore’s father.
Before the official launch of his campaign, Kaboré and his delegation met on Thursday, November 5, 2020 the driving forces of the Hauts-Bassins Region.
While speaking, the MPP candidate first asked for a minute’s silence for all victims of terrorism.
“Despite all the attempts to destabilize the ruling MPP, all of our candidate opponents can do nothing better than us. These candidates are sitting in front of their TVs and making fiction. We are in reality (…) Today, while the Burkinabè people are wounded in their flesh by terrorism, that Burkina Faso is attacked everywhere, instead of together we make a unit against terrorism, they rejoice and make it a campaign theme. For me, it is a shame. It is not to be from Burkinabè ”.
On Thursday the national campaign director and president of the MPP, Simon Compaore, asked supporters to mobilise for a victory in the first round of presidential and legislative elections and deal “a knockout blow”.