Burkina President visits scene of deadly ethnic clashes

OUAGADOUGOU: The President of Burkina Faso on Saturday visited the scene of ethnic clashes in which 47 people were killed earlier this week.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore went to the village of Yirgou in central-northern Burkina Faso where on Tuesday and Wednesday 47 people were killed after a suspected jihadist attack triggered the unrest, according to the government.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing can justify this murderous violence,” he said, calling the impact of the fighting “devastating”.

Residents said that after the jihadist attack, villagers, who are from the Mossi ethnic group, attacked a nearby camp of nomadic Fulani herders, accusing them of being accomplices to the militants.

Kabore, accompanied by local officials and members of parliament, met villagers and also went to a ransacked herders' camp.

Burkina Faso lies in the heart of the sprawling, impoverished OTTAWA: A Canadian woman who traveled to Burkina Faso with an Italian friend as part of a humanitarian aid program has been reported missing, the foreign ministry said Saturday.

Edith Blais, 34, has not been heard from since Dec 15, according to Canadian media.

“Canadian consular agents in Burkina Faso are in contact with the local authorities to gather information. Consular services have been provided to members of the family in Canada,” a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

Local media reports said Blais traveled to the West African country via Europe with a friend, Lucas Tacchetto, a 30-year-old from Venice. The Canadian foreign Sahel, on the southern rim of the Sahara.

The region became a hotbed of extremism after chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, followed by an Islamist insurgency in north Mali and the rise of Boko Haram in Nigeria. — AFP

Canadian woman reported missing in Burkina Faso

ministry had no comment on Tacchetto's status.

The pair were supposed to travel by car to Togo for a humanitarian aid project with Zion'Gaia, an environmentally oriented group that engages in reforestation projects, according to its website.

“They never have crossed the border or applied for a visa from Burkina Faso to Togo or Ghana,” read a statement posted on a Facebook grou p created by the woman's family.

It said Blais and Tacchetto were heading to Ouagadougou from Bobo-Diulasso for a four- or fiveday stay, noting that a Canadian travel warning had reported a risk of banditry and kidnapping in the area. — AFP