Volunteers killed in attacks

AROUND 40 people, many of them civilian volunteers with the army, had been killed in suspected jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, local sources and security officials said yesterday.

In the northern region of Sahel, around 25 people were killed in two assaults on Saturday, including 13 members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), a leader of the force said.

In Kompienga, near Burkina’s south-eastern border with Togo and Benin, about 15 civilians were killed on Saturday when their convoy was attacked while under VDP escort, a security source said.

A local inhabitant said three volunteers also died in this attack, and called for help for the wounded, which he said numbered nearly a dozen.

In another raid on Saturday, assailants attacked police and gendarmes’ posts in Faramana, wounding two, a security source said.

Burkina Faso has been battered by jihadist raids since 2015, when insurgents began mounting attacks from Mali. More than 2 000 people have died and almost two million fled the homes. Mutinous troops ousted elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore in January.

The new strongman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, says restoring security is his top priority.