Last week, a list of about twenty individuals was made public “actively wanted for participation or complicity in the planning or conduct of terrorist acts”. The same publication states that “if you provide information likely to allow the arrest or neutralization of one of these individuals, you will receive the amount indicated on the photo of the person concerned”. And the amounts vary from 100 million to 180 million FCFA. Anything that has whetted appetites.
Barely 48 hours after this publication, a person was arrested in Bobo-Dioulasso by “bounty hunters” and presented as a terrorist. Fortunately for this unfortunate man, security officials identified him as a Homeland Defense Volunteer (VDP). Has Burkina Faso become a Far West? If not, it looks very similar. Since this practice, we know it through western films. Where, the sheriff of the city plasters the images of fugitives, calling on his constituents to track them down for a reward to whoever manages to capture him or put him out of harm’s way.
With such sums proposed above, in a country where the population languishes under misery, the temptation is great to embark on a frantic search for terrorists. Everyone wants to find their “terrorist” as quickly as possible in order to hit the Jack pot. Under these conditions, the risk of racial profiling is great. This can accentuate the stigmatization of which members of the Fulani community in particular feel victimized. Unfortunately, the first victim of this bounty hunt happens to be from this community.
If the worst was avoided for this person in Bobo-Dioulasso, in town, what if it had happened in a village where there is no defense and security force with the right reflex? The tragedy could happen quickly. We must therefore call on the population not to commit the worst, when an individual is suspected of being a terrorist or an accomplice of terrorists. The person is presumed innocent. It must be taken to the defense and security forces who will carry out the necessary checks. And avoid mob, heinous murder.
Aly Konate
