Death toll in Burkina jihadist attack rises to 25
This photograph shows displaced families, who fled Jihadists’ attacks in northern and eastern Burkina Faso, in Gampela near Ouagadougou on October 6, 2022. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — At least 25 people, most of them civilians, were killed in a weekend attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, a regional governor said Monday, updating an earlier toll.
The country faces a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighboring Mali in 2015, with thousands of civilians, troops and police killed, and more than two million people forced to flee their homes.
“The commune of Bani in the northern province of Seno was the target of a violent attack by armed terrorist groups,” on Saturday, the governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Rodolphe Sorgho, in a statement.
“The provisional toll of this despicable and barbaric attack is 25 people killed, including 22 civilians and three police officers, as well as injuries and material damage,” he added.
The new figure for fatalities doubles an earlier toll of 12 dead which was announced Sunday.
Also on Saturday, six soldiers were killed in the country’s east when an improvised explosive device detonated, according to security sources.
Attacks blamed on suspected jihadists are on the rise in Burkina Faso.
A landlocked country in the heart of West Africa’s Sahel, Burkina Faso is one of the world’s most volatile and impoverished countries.
Around 40 percent of the country lies outside the government’s control.
Anger within the military at the mounting toll sparked two coups in 2022, the most recent of which was in September, when 34-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power.
He has said he will stand by a pledge made by the preceding junta to stage elections for a civilian government by 2024.
