Burkinabe National Gendarmerie
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1960 Ministry of attachment: Ministère de la Défense nationale et des Anciens combattants Workforce: 7 500 Chief of Staff: Colonel Omer Marie Bruno TAPSOBA Address: État-major de la Gendarmerie Nationale Tél.: (+226) 25 31 46 87 Fax: (+226) 50 33 50 90 Email: mdnac@defense.gov.bf Website: Facebook gendarmerie Burkina 
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History
The Burkinabe National Gendarmerie is the heiress of the French National Gendarmerie the first post of which is implanted in Ouagadougou on June 2nd, 1939. Within the framework of the Upper Volta colony, the French Gendarmerie is organized in Section by the decree n° 49-1365 of August 23rd, 1949, then in Company by the decree n° 51-1455 of December 18th, 1951 and in a Group by the interministerial decision of November 27th, 1957.
The Burkinabe National Gendarmerie is created in 1960, at the time of the entry of the Upper Volta Republic independence. It depends on the national Burkinabe army created by the law 74-60/AN of August 3rd, 1960. The decree n° 77-358/PRES/DN-AC of September 20th, 1977 plans the creation of a Gendarmerie national school. The Corps undergoes intimately tied to the history of its country and in particular during revolutionary times from 1983 till 1987.
The Upper Volta Republic on August 4th, 1984 becomes the Burkina Faso (homeland of the honourable men). In 1985, an important restructuring intervenes with the creation of 6 squads of Gendarmes (Dori, Ouahigouya, Dédougou, Bobo, Ouaga, Fada). In 1994, is decided the creation of 3 Gendarmerie regions (Kaya, Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou). The Burkina-Faso National Gendarmerie is reorganized by the decree n° 95-102/PRES/PM/DEF of March 7th, 1995. In 2007, the recruitment feminizes. On December 2013, Gendarmerie colonel Major, Yipéné Djibril Bassolé, becomes the first brigadier of the corps.
Organization
The Burkinabe Gendarmerie is an integral part of Armed Forces and depends on the Ministry of Defence and on War veterans.
Central Organization
A General-Staff (equivalent of the French National Gendarmerie General Directorate – DGGN) includes the main directions (OE: Organization Employment - RH: Human Resource - LOG: Logistic - PJ: Criminal investigation - COM: Communication).
Territorial organization
• 3 Gendarmerie regions (1/ Kaya - 2/ Bobo Dioulasso - 3/ Ouagadougou).
• Departmental (GD) and mobile units (GM) shared out according to the French model in groupings, companies, squadrons but also Criminal Investigation Brigades (BR) – Criminal Investigation Section (SR), etc.
Specialized Training
The gendarmerie possesses a squadron of honour and security, which could be similar to the Republican guard (squadron motorcyclist/Cavalry squad, etc.) for the benefit of the Presidency and is present in all the institutions via staffs of the Intervention and Security Squadron staffs.
Missions
The missions are identical to those of the French Gendarmerie on the whole spectre. We find three main missions of administrative police, Criminal Investigation Department and military police.
Staff
The Burkinabe National Gendarmerie counts 7500 men and women. The officers are trained through the military academy of Pô (Burkina Faso) or in Gendarmerie officers’ schools abroad. The non-commissioned officers are doing a training course at the non-commissioned officer’s national school in Bobo Dioulasso. The schooling lasts 2 years. The gendarmes can then prepare the Criminal Investigation Police Officer’s ("Officier de Police Judiciaire" - OPJ in French) qualification and the qualification internship for the senior-non-commissioned officers. There is no specific diploma required for the anti-riot police unit. Staff, male or female, can independently serve in the anti-riot police and the departmental gendarmerie throughout their career.
Training institutions
• The non-commissioned officers’ Gendarmerie National School (ENSOG) in Bobo-Dioulasso.
• No school of the Burkinabe police officers. Since 1946, the EOGN (Ecole des Officiers de la Gendarmerie Nationale) has trained 72 Burkinabe’s officers.
Main equipment
• Vehicles: motorcycles, small vans, 4 x 4 pick-up.
• Professional armaments of the gendarmes: PA (GK or SIG) - Rifle Kalashnikov.
• Special means: gyrocopter (the other aircrafts are depending on armies).
Cooperation
A three-year convention signed with France is translated by the presence of two French permanent volunteers, the one coordinator of all the Gendarmerie projects near chief of staff in Ouagadougou, the second in Bobo-Dioulasso near the schools Commanding Senior officer as training advisor and anti-riot mission expert.
Independently of the purchase of materials, short durations missions are regularly introduced by theme with regard to needs and trainings that are both done in France as in the ENSOG, which has a regional vocation.
The Burkinabe’s National Gendarmerie participates in overseas operations in Darfur, in Guinea-Bissau, in Haiti and since 2014 in Mali within the national armed forces detachment.
© The iconography was provided by the concerned gendarmeries