Missed launch of the DDR operation in the Pool: Pastor Ntoumi demands official status
The launch of the Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) operation for at least 10,000 ex-combatants in the Pool region, scheduled for the end of last week, has been postponed. The reasons for this postponement are multiple, including the demands made by their leader, Pastor Frédéric Bintsamou, also known as Pastor Ntoumi.
The government wanted to kick off this operation on June 8, in the presence of Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, in the city of Kinkala, capital of Pool. However, the day before the launch, emissaries of Pastor Ntoumi sent a message to the latter demanding official status from government authorities.
Pastor Ntoumi was thus seeking to ensure that safeguards would be put in place for his protection and that of his former combatants once the DDR operation was over. According to a source close to the High Commission for Reintegration, all the technical aspects for the launch of the DDR operation are ready, but Pastor Ntoumi’s request requires a specific political response.
The DDR operation concerns approximately 10,000 ex-combatants and their families, as well as 140,000 people affected by the conflict in the region. The project aims to reintegrate them into economic development projects such as agriculture, over a period of four years and at a total cost of eight billion CFA francs, six billion of which are financed by international partners.
Pending an agreement with the government on their status, Pastor Ntoumi remains entrenched in his Pool stronghold since the end of hostilities that took place between 2016 and 2017.