Ouagadougou: The national gendarmerie officially received today, at the Sig-Noghin city brigade, four infrastructures to strengthen the capacities of its provost services.
For COGINTA project manager, Edem Comlan, this involves the construction of four fully equipped provost gendarmerie cells, including two in Ouagadougou, within the brigades of Sig-Noghin and Boulmiougou, one in Kaya and one in Bobo Dioulasso.
According to the chief of staff of the gendarmerie, Colonel Kouagri Natama, the construction of these infrastructures is part of the project to Support the Strengthening of Military Justice and Local Justice to Fight against Impunity (AJUMJUP), which started in May 2021.
‘This project, financed by the European Union to the tune of 6 million euros, marks the desire of the European Union (EU) and the high authorities of our country to have an important tool in the service of the law,’ declared the chief of staff of the gendarmerie.
He adds that thanks to this project, the national gendarmerie now has
quality human resources for the implementation of actions aimed at strengthening the protection of human rights, as well as equipment and logistics to facilitate the execution of missions. the provost gendarmerie.
The project manager, Mr. Comlan, adds that the AJUMJUP project also consisted of training sessions for provost chiefs, as well as the provision of equipment and rolling stock, including 20 Aloba type motorcycles and 10 pick-up vehicles. up.
He emphasizes that the said project also allowed the construction of an office building within the military justice directorate, equipped, among other things, with computer equipment, as well as the rehabilitation of a meeting room.
‘In addition, military justice has benefited from 2 pick-up vehicles, a van-bus for transporting detainees with a capacity of 32 seats, as well as 2 motorcycles,’ he said.
‘In the same dynamic, the highest authorities recently adopted the Code of Military Justice to ensure the deployment of provost marshals alongside combat troops
on the ground,’ underlined the chief of staff of the gendarmerie. According to him, these provost cells will have the mission of recording offenses committed during operations to reconquer the territory, and of providing advisory support to units deployed in theaters of operations.
They will also serve as liaison between military justice and units deployed in theaters of operations in the event of human rights violations. He also urged the provost gendarmes to make good use of this equipment and infrastructure.
‘This project makes it possible to deploy 39 provost gendarmes directly on the ground who will be able to act with the full range of necessary texts, the required training and the equipment allowing them to act,’ said Lieutenant William Combary, the focal point. of the project.
For Lieutenant Combary, the provost gendarmerie is a specific entity of the gendarmerie responsible for ensuring that troops deployed on national territory act in accordance with the rules of engagement, as well as monitoring
their state of mind and morality.
The establishment of the provost cells comes at a time when rumors of abuses, punitive expeditions and extrajudicial executions are at the heart of the challenges of restoring trust between the FDS and the populations.
Source: Burkina Information Agency