Like other Sahelian countries, the citizens of Burkina Faso face growing insecurity due to violent extremism. Despite national, regional and international efforts to address the wide range of issues, Burkina Faso continues to face chronic instability, and recurrent humanitarian crises.

The state's limited capacity to provide basic services and encourage dialogue and citizen participation aggravates grievances, leaving room for terrorist and criminal groups. This failure has engendered a cycle of loss of trust between state representatives, defense and security forces, on the one hand, and communities, on the other, fostering the emergence of hybrid security actors and fuelling violent extremism.

DCAF's various activities in Burkina Faso include the following:

• The development of training curricula for defence and security forces training centers aimed at better integrating the gender dimension;
• Support for the conduct of financial audits in the security and defense sector through methodological support for the parties concerned;
• Support for state and non-state human rights institutions and organizations to help prevent violent extremism.