Attacks on several villages in northern Burkina Faso killed at least twenty people on Thursday, AFP learned from residents of the areas and a security source on Friday. “Yesterday (Thursday), at around 5am (6am in Switzerland) armed groups launched an attack against the villages of Belle, Janna and Nongfare in Yatenga (northern) province. “At least twenty-five people were killed, mainly in Nongfare and many others were injured,” said this resident. .
The attack was confirmed by a security source who, for his part, claims the balance sheet is “twenty deaths”. A search operation is underway and the same evidence is still being sought. Another resident who confirmed the attack said, “Volunteers (army’s civilian auxiliaries) and soldiers chased the assailants on motorcycles.” “They took shelter in Barga forest and were attacked by air support. Many of them died,” another security source said.
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Twenty civilians, including women and children, have already been killed between Monday and Wednesday in two attacks by suspected jihadists in central-eastern Burkina Faso, security and local sources told AFP on Friday. On Wednesday, “armed groups invaded the village of Bilguimdouré in the commune of Sanga in Koulpélogo province (Middle East), bordering Ghana and Togo,” local residents told AFP, “causing a dozen deaths”. Officer.
Two days earlier, he continued, “another terrorist incursion in a neighboring village of Congo killed at least eleven people, including women and children.” During these two attacks, “the attackers set fire to houses and shops and also took away livestock”, according to the same source. The attacks were confirmed by security sources who said “security operations are underway in the region” without giving details on the number of intrusions.
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Joined by AFP, residents of the commune of Sanga also confirmed two attacks, confirming that “desperate people are trying to leave their places for fear of new attacks”. According to these residents, the armed groups have called on the people of Chautauquay, another town in the province, “to evacuate several villages under penalty of retaliation in the coming days.”
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Koulpélogo province, which has been under curfew for months, has been the target of repeated attacks despite counter-jihadist operations by the military and its civilian auxiliaries. In mid-April, at least 24 people, including 20 Volunteers for Internal Defense (VDP), civilian military auxiliaries, were killed in two attacks by suspected jihadists in the central-eastern region, near the borders of Ghana and Togo.
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Burkina, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that emerged in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and has spread beyond their borders. Non-governmental organizations have reported that more than 10,000 civilians and soldiers have been killed in the past seven years of violence, and more than two million internally displaced. On Friday, the Australian government announced the release of one of its nationals, 88-year-old doctor Kenneth Elliott, seven years after he was abducted by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Burkina Faso. He returned to Australia on Thursday evening.
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