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The SECURICOM Group was created in 1999 by a Malian named Mamadou Sidibé. The company subsequently expanded to Niger and Côte d’Ivoire through subsidiaries. In Burkina Faso, the group operates through three subsidiaries: Securicom Burkina, created in 2010, intervenes in airport security by providing additional security services to the various airlines serving Ouagadougou airport; Securicom Protect, engaged in the private security business; Securicom Accueil, which provides a personalized welcome service at the airport. The latter no longer exists. It is worth noting that 51% of the shares in all these subsidiaries are held by Burkinabés.
By order issued on July 10, 2024 by the Ministry of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Security (MATDS), the operating authorization of Securicom Protect was suspended for six months. The organization is described as a French company that “some of its competitors” hire mercenaries through social networks. Speaking to our media, the group’s Legal and Human Resources Director, Moustapha Ben Ahmed Baro, detailed the circumstances of the suspension of the subsidiary while pleading with the authorities to magnanimously restore the company’s activities, regretting that 1,600 employees have been deprived of their livelihoods.
In the MATDS decree, two complaints were filed against Securicom Protect. “We are accused of subcontracting our approvals for the benefit of foreign companies, especially Geos (a French company), and hiring unauthorized security personnel,” said Ahmed Baro. However, according to him, their approvals were neither transferred nor loaned to Geos, which is prohibited by the provisions of Decree No. 1243 on the regulation of the activities of private security companies. “We have created an English consortium or joint venture with Geos in order to pool our expertise and financial capabilities to handle the complexity of this contract. This is a strategy that is very common in the business world and this is what we have done with Geos, who are experts in the security of European Union (EU) delegations around the world. Please note that all the companies participating in the EU 2020 tender formed a consortium with the same format as ours: a local company and a foreign company. It should also be noted that other private security companies have fulfilled this contract with the same staffing since 2010, and therefore long before our consortium. Our consortium “inherits” this contract in 2022, following the launch of the tender in 2020.”
“As for the second complaint, which concerns the lack of authorization for International Close Protection Officers (AIPR), it is more a matter of difficulty in the application of the law than a deliberate violation of the requirements of the aforementioned decree. Please note that the selection of international close protection officers is a requirement of the technical specifications of this contract, i.e. the norm. In fact, the latter must be EU nationals and have at least five years of experience in the military or in private security. Therefore, we cannot recruit locally, although this is what we would like. The problem is that since the new regulations that will come into force in November 2023 through the aforementioned decree, from now on, anyone who wishes to be hired as a private security agent (guard, controller or supervisor) must obtain an authorization issued by the competent Ministry of Security, after undergoing three months of training in a training center approved by this Ministry. It turned out that none of the modules offered for this purpose met our AIPR profile, so it was impossible for us to meet this requirement,” explains the company’s Legal Director.
“The suspension concerns only Securicom Protect and not Securicom Burkina”
“It is true that we recruited former foreign uniformed personnel, but…”
Regarding the rumors that Securicom Protect would recruit former security agents, Ben Ahmed Baro confirmed this. However, he pointed out that, contrary to what is said on social networks, they are in no way mercenaries, as their mission is limited to ensuring the close security of EU ambassadors and other diplomats. “Some even claim that these agents are employed by our company that provides airport security services, and they claim to be carrying out ‘spying’ on Ouagadougou airport in the interests of the French state. We consider this to be just an aberration. These agents have never been part of our airport security staff, they are all 100% Burkinabe,” he clarified.
“The second aspect of the contract with the EU is reserved for local agents, relevant security agents and stationed personnel”
‘We met with the authorities’
“When we learned about the decree, we took steps to meet with the authorities. They showed goodwill and welcomed us to discuss the grievances raised against our company. We immediately understood that it was the conditions of our cooperation with the Geos company and the presence of unauthorized AIPRs that led to our suspension. Therefore, we took strong measures to regularize our legal situation in the hope of regaining our recognition. So, we denounced the consortium that same day; that is, we wrote to our partners and to the EU delegation to say that we were no longer part of the contract, despite the fact that after two years of implementation we were far from recovering our investment. Then, we took steps to terminate the employment contracts of all the AIPRs and, better yet, we committed to having them leave Hong Kong. The first wave left the country on Wednesday, July 24. The second wave will leave on Thursday the 25th. The last wave will leave the territory of Burkina Faso this Friday, July 26, 2024. We hope that all these strong measures will be met with the goodwill of the authorities,” said Ben Ahmed Baro.
Securicom Protect receives honor from National Security Alliance
“We are taking measures to cushion the blow”
The Securicom Protect subsidiary employs around 1,600 agents. And since the notification of the decree on July 15, 2024, their morale has been declining. “Everyone is asking questions. They (speaking of employees) wonder how we are going to do this. The employees look at us and wonder what will become of them,” Ben Ahmed Baro lamented. However, the company does not intend to sit idly by and watch its employees feel sorry for themselves. “We are working with other partner companies to put solutions in place to save as many jobs as possible. We hope that this will help cushion the blow,” Ben Ahmed Baro announced.
For society, taking legal action against the State in this case is not necessarily a valid option, since, he says, “we are a society that respects the laws and regulations of our country, as evidenced by the honor we received on May 11, 2023, as the company that most respects the rights of employees by the National Union of Security. Therefore, we exclude a priori the legal path, because for us an order is a decision of the authorities and must be executed. We do not question it, even if we are strongly affected by it. Somehow, we easily understand the positions of the authorities on sensitive issues such as security and believe that they are completely legal given the socio-political context of our country. We count above all on the tolerance and forbearance of the authorities to allow us to continue to exist and bring happiness to our numerous employees, their families and those who will come in the future.
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