28 killed in new jihadist attacks
TWENTY-EIGHT people have died in new attacks by suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso, including 15 who had been abducted at the weekend, the authorities said yesterday.
Fifteen bodies bearing bullet impacts were found on Monday near Linguekoro, a village in the western province of Comoe, regional governor Colonel Jean-Charles Some said.
They were among 24 people aboard two minibuses travelling from Banfora that were stopped in Linguekoro by armed men on Sunday evening.
“The passengers, comprising eight men and 16 women, were told to get off,” he said. “Eight women and one man were released and told to walk to Mangodara,” 30km away, he said. The two minibuses were torched and the 15 other passengers taken away.
Separately, 10 police officers, two members of an auxiliary force supporting the army, and a civilian died in northern Burkina Faso from a “terrorist attack on Monday” in the locality of Falagountou, army headquarters said.
At least five police were wounded and about 10 are missing, while the bodies of about 15 “terrorists” were found during a sweep, it said.
The attacks mark a further escalation in an insurgency in Burkina, one of the world’s poorest and most troubled countries, for more than seven years.
Violence linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has killed thousands of people and forced about 2 million more to flee their homes. More than a third of the country lies beyond the control of the government.
Since the start of the year, at least 77 people have died, a toll compiled from official statements and security sources showed. Also in January, 62 women and four babies were abducted as they foraged for food in Arbinda, in the north of the country. They were rescued by the army days later 200km away. Frustration within the army at the mounting toll of security forces triggered two coups last year.
The ruling junta has fallen out with France, the country’s traditional ally and military supporter, which last week said it would withdraw its troops at the authorities’ request. About 400 French special forces are based near the capital Ouagadougou in a deployment that is part of a broader military presence to fight jihadists across the Sahel region.
The junta brought in Russian paramilitaries, whom Paris and others describe as mercenaries of Russia’s privately run Wagner operation. The Wagner group has been associated with atrocities in Mali and the Central African Republic.