Burkina Faso/Fight against urban delinquency: Maxime Koné launches the SMART Burkina project
The Minister of Security, Maxime Koné, proceeded, this Thursday, July 8, 2021 in Ouagadougou, to the launch of the SMART project whose objective is to fight against urban insecurity. This project, which for the moment concerns the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, will strengthen security measures by, among other things, installing 900 surveillance cameras and 300 video surveillance sites.
Urban insecurity has been on the rise in Burkina Faso in recent years, requiring more and more intervention by the security forces. But with the national security situation marked by terrorist attacks, the security forces are no longer sufficient in number to respond to the various demands made on them.
To strengthen the operational forces of the cops, the government has opted to join the human force with the assets offered by technical progress, hence the creation of the SMART project with the financial and technical support of the People's Republic of China. In the presence of Prime Minister Christophe Dabiré, the new Minister of Security, Maxime Koné, launched the project in Ouagadougou.
For Maxime Koné, the SMART project replaces a previous project called Safe city. "Safe city had equipped the security forces with nearly 200 walkie-talkies, 90 cameras and many other materials," said the Minister of Security. With the SMART Burkina project, the capacities of the security forces will be reinforced.
According to the first cop, the new project will allow the installation of 300 video surveillance sites in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. These sites will have 900 cameras. With a total cost of 52,301,810,024 CFA francs, the project includes 650 kilometers of fiber optic backbone network for the interconnection between some cities or localities in Burkina Faso, 150 kilometers of fiber optic network for the interconnection between some cities or localities in Burkina Faso, 150 kilometersThe project has a total cost of 52,301,810,024 CFA francs and includes 650 kilometres of fibre optic backbone network to interconnect certain towns and cities in Burkina Faso, 150 kilometres of metropolitan fibre optic network to interconnect sites, 700 mobile terminals and four vehicle-mounted terminals.
"There will also be a unified command centre, including a national command centre in Ouagadougou and a regional command centre in Bobo-Dioulasso. The SMART Burkina project will provide the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso with both a video protection system and a professional radio communication system that combines the two.The SMART Burkina project will provide the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso with both a video protection system and a professional radio communication system combining image and voice to give more chance and success to security operations," added Maxime Koné.
The project is financed at more than 47 billion CFA francs by the People's Republic of China. For Ambassador Li Jian, "it is a project of paramount importance for improving the level of local network infrastructure and the promotion of digital Burkina Faso. The work is being carried out by the Chinese companies Huawei and China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation (CITCC).
For Burkinabè who fear for their privacy, Maxime Koné was reassuring: "The project aims to protect and not to monitor, to secure and not to spy". A statement supported by the Prime Minister Christophe Dabiré. "It is not simply a matter of solving the problems of criminology, but also of solving the problems of traffic accidents in a comprehensive manner. This device has already solved a number of problems in the field of traffic to ensure better safety for our people," said the head of the Burkinabe executive.
Source: lefaso.net/
