« People of Burkina Faso
Comrades fighting for freedom, for peace, sovereignty and real independence;
It is an honor and a pleasure for me to address you on the threshold of the New Year 2024 to wish the people of Burkina Faso inside and outside, the friends and partners of Burkina Faso, happy new year 2024 .
Let us give thanks to God who allowed us to see this day which marks the end of the year 2023. Let us also pray to the good Lord for those who gave their lives for the independence of Burkina Faso in the reconquest of our territory; may their souls rest in peace on the free land of Burkina Faso.
We also pray that God grants health to all those who today find themselves injured by the terrorist hydra and who led the noble fight for our freedom.
We stand in solidarity with all these people who had to leave their country, who today find themselves internally displaced persons.
Comrades ;
2023 was a year during which we carried out an in-depth analysis of the situation in Burkina Faso. A year during which we made a profound diagnosis of the ills that undermine Burkina Faso; which led to important decisions being made. These decisions were to break the first chains of slavery, imperialism, neocolonialism. Because, they say, you cannot hope to find your lost object by calling on the person who stole it for help.
2023 was a year where many initiatives saw the light of day. Last December 11, as we summarized, regarding all the initiatives we have taken in the field of defense, in the health field, also in the field of food self-sufficiency, many development initiatives, industrialization were launched. This is the place for me to salute the Burkinabè people for their resilience, for having understood the meaning of the fight we are waging for the reconquest of the territory and for the real independence of Burkina Faso.
2024 will be a year in which we will continue this fight. We will continue to break the chains of slavery, to break the chains of neocolonialism which prevent us from experiencing happiness.
During this year 2024, we will continue efforts to reconquer the territory and amplify the fight. This is why at the Defense level, we will see the creation of the first combat brigade which we have called, the Special Rapid Intervention Brigade which will bring together the different rapid intervention battalions, a group of special forces and a specific grouping.
This is always in line with the reorganization of our army, its rearticulation, the relocation of the different forces able to deal with the security situation. A strategic equipment plan and a reorganization plan for the various forces was created in 2023. This will materialize in 2024 with the arrival of new heavy means of protection and the increase in the firepower of combat units. In addition to this component, you should know that 2024 will also be a year of challenges because we have set ourselves objectives in the area of reconquest and also for the return of IDPs to their localities and their security.
During the year 2023, as I told you, many initiatives were started and in 2024, we will have to be able to deepen and really implement everything we have started, in particular the Presidential Initiative for Self-Sufficiency food and also the Agro-Pastoral Offensive of the Ministry of Agriculture which was recently launched. The dry season is underway as part of these two initiatives so that we can, during the year 2024, achieve, if not approach, food self-sufficiency.
This is a challenge for us and I therefore invite the people of Burkina Faso to take ownership of these initiatives and to launch yourself wherever you are so that the State can also support you and so that we can meet this challenge. In the field of industrialization and everything that can go in the direction of bringing more to all these valiant traders who do their best to serve the different localities of Burkina Faso, many initiatives will be taken in this direction . APEC is already underway to allow us to have a certain number of factories. Many initiatives are coming during 2024.
During 2024, we will again ask the Burkinabè people to take ownership of the Presidential Initiative for Community Development. After analyzing the health situation as we said on December 11, we must be able to rebuild our cities and clean them up. It will therefore be a question of people taking ownership of this initiative and embarking on sanitation, urbanization and ensuring that our living environments are even more pleasant so that certain epidemics that we have experienced cannot resurface during this year.
The fight we are waging today is also a cultural fight. As you will have noticed, by diagnosing the problem, we understood that colonization uprooted us. We have lost our culture, our beautiful culture which teaches us peace, solidarity, mutual aid. We have lost these values. This is why we want culture to play an important role in our fight.
This is what led us to formalize our national languages and create the National Council of Communities through the bill which has just been adopted in the Transitional Legislative Assembly. This must lead us to return to our roots, to our traditions, to our cultures in order to be able to resurface these values of solidarity which we greatly lack, these values of peace, tolerance and mutual aid.
On the aspect of corruption, the phenomenon continued during the year 2023. For 2024, we intend to launch the machine of the fight against corruption. This is the place for me to invite all these institutions and structures working in the fight against corruption to redouble their efforts so that we can ban this phenomenon from our society.
Comrades ;
We remain convinced of our trajectory, of the line we have adopted. There is nothing better than this route that we took for our freedom, for our sovereignty and so that Burkina can prosper. We are convinced and with the people of Burkina Faso, we are reassured more than ever that the fight we are waging is noble for Burkina Faso, for the AES (Alliance of Sahel States) and for Africa as a whole.
I wish you a very happy new year 2024; a year full of health, a year of combativeness, a year during which all Burkinabè people will be able to cultivate love among themselves; a year during which we hope that the Burkinabè people will put aside the differences they have experienced in order to look towards the future together; a year of happiness, a year during which everyone’s hopes will be fulfilled.
I cannot end without thanking the Burkinabè people who have understood the meaning of the struggle and who are fighting, day and night, through citizen monitoring to protect this transition. Because they say, the enemy has not yet put away his hatchet; whether from within or without, imperialism is still active.
Thank you to the Burkinabè people for this fight that we are waging; and thank you to all those who, near or far, support us, whether from the inside, from the outside, all over the world, who support Burkina Faso in this struggle.
Long live Burkina Faso!
May God protect Burkina Faso!
Homeland or death, we will win. »
The President of the Transition,
Head of state,
Captain Ibrahim TRAORE
