At least 50 die in Burkina attacks blamed on jihadists
01 June, 2020
Ten persons were killed when an aid convoy was ambushed in Burkina Faso, the federal government said Sunday, bringing to at least 50 the death toll from a string of attacks blamed on jihadists.
The ambush occurred on Saturday near to the northern town of Barsalogho, it said in a statement, adding an attack on a livestock market in the east of the country early in the day had claimed 25 lives, according to a provisional toll.
The humanitarian convoy was returning from the northern town of Foube after delivering food there, the statement said. At least five civilians and five gendarmes were killed and around 20 persons were injured.
Saturday’s attacks came a day after a convoy of mainly shopkeepers escorted by an area self-defence unit came under fire in the north of the West African country, killing 15 people. That attack, in Loroum province, was also blamed on jihadists.
The east and north of the former French colony are the hardest hit by attacks by jihadists, who've killed a lot more than 900 persons and caused some 860,000 persons to flee their homes in the past five years.
A local governor, Colonel Saidou Sanou, said in a statement that the bloodshed underlined the necessity for the army and locals to work together to “defeat the terrorist hydra”.
- Increasingly frequent attacks -
Burkina Faso, among the world’s poorest countries, has battled a jihadist insurgency since 2015.
The conflict has provoked attacks on ethnic Fulani herders whom other communities accuse of supporting the militants.
Burkina Faso’s military are leading counter-terror functions with increasing frequency.
The Sahel country is part of a regional effort to fight an Islamist insurgency along with Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Chad.
But their militaries, under-equipped and poorly trained, are struggling despite help from France, which has 5,000 troops in your community.
Attacks have in fact intensified in Burkina Faso since last year, becoming practically a daily occurrence.
A security source said the united states had turn into a haven for jihadists as a result of former president Blaise Compaore’s role as a mediator, notably to get the release of Western hostages.
Compaore was overthrown in 2014.
Numerous foreigners have been kidnapped in Burkina Faso, with six believed in a Mali camp near to the Burkina border.
The wife of 1 of them, elderly Australian doctor Kenneth Elliot, released a video on Friday appealing for him to be freed.
Unrest in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger killed around 4,000 persons this past year, according to UN figures.
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