The Burkina Faso Armed Forces (Forces armées du Burkina Faso) took delivery of twenty-four (24) new Storm 4×4 armored personnel carriers donated by the Qatari Government.
Three Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airlifters of the Qatari Air Transport Wing was used to airlift the vehicles to Burkina Faso’s Ouagadougou airport on Wednesday 8 May.
The twenty-four Storm 4×4 APC was received by the Minister of Defense of Burkina Faso Cherif Sy during a handover ceremony which was followed by a reception for the Qatari delegation held by Prime Minister of Burkina Faso Christophe Dabire.
Such efforts will also contribute to strengthening international efforts to combat terrorism and establish security not only in Burkina Faso but also in the West African countries.
The airlift operations were overseen by a number of senior officers of the Qatar Armed Forces.
According to the Qatari Government, this donation is part of the efforts, represented by Qatar Armed Forces, to contribute to supporting the peace process and laying the foundations for stability in Burkina Faso.
As part of this motive, the Qatari Government also donated twenty-four Storm 4×4 armored vehicles to the Malian Military and also sixty-eight vehicles to Somalia.
Jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have expanded their presence across West Africa’s Sahel region, a strip of scrubland beneath the Sahara desert, in recent years and taken a number of Western hostages.
France, the former colonial power in the region, intervened in Mali in 2013 to halt an advance by Islamist militants toward the capital Bamako and has kept about 4,500 troops in the Sahel since then.