West Africa’s extremism spreading as thousands flee

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — West Africa’s extremist threat has moved into a new part of the vast Sahel region, with a previously calm area of Burkina Faso facing the kinds of assaults that have forced thousands elsewhere to flee over the past year.

Last week a police station was attacked by about 10 people in the eastern town of Natiaboani, killing one officer and wounding at least two others, according to governor Ousmane Traore. Some 470 ammunition cartridges were found at the scene, he said.

None of the several extremist groups roaming the region has claimed responsibility for the attack about 174 miles from the capital, Ouagadougou, which in recent years has been alerted to the jihadist threat by deadly attacks on high-profile hotels and cafes.

Burkina Faso now finds itself joining the front line of a growing regional war on extremism waged by a variety of actors, from France’s largest overseas military operation to a new five-country West African force backed by millions of dollars from the United States, wealthy Gulf nations and others.

But the landlocked, impoverished country has few resources for its own defense.

In a telling incident in the past week, some 20 policemen abandoned their station at Deou in Burkina Faso’s north to protest a lack of equipment, such as helmets and bulletproof jackets, to fight extremists. The deputy mayor, Moussa Sawadogo, said police also lacked gas to patrol the area in vehicles.

“The terrorism and criminal economy threatening the region vastly overwhelm the capacity of any individual country or region to adequately respond,” African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat told the Munich Security conference on Saturday, saying the challenge needs a global solution.