An ambush in the north of the country targeted, Thursday, a convoy of traders escorted by volunteers of defenses for the homeland – a group that shoulder the Burkinabe army. The attack killed 41 civilians and supplements of the army.
Le Monde with AFP
After a new attack in Burkina Faso killed Thursday 41 civilians and supplements of the army in an ambush in the north of the country, a two-day national mourning was decreed, Sunday, December 26th.
“The raking mission on the ambush zone (…) established a 41 bodies’ assessment,” said the Government spokesperson, Alkassoum Maïga, in a statement. “The President of [Burkina] Faso decrees a national mourning of forty-eight hours”, who started Sunday at midnight, adds the text.
Among the victims Figure Ladji Yoro, considered a leader of the “Volunteers for the Defense of the Patrie” (VDP) in Burkina Faso, specifies the press release. In his fight against jihadist groups, the Burkinabe, low and poorly equipped army, relies on these VDPs, civilian supplements trained in two weeks and who pay a heavy price for this struggle.
Identification of the 41 victims in progress
President Burkinabe, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, had already paid tribute Friday in Ladji Yoro. “This voluntary intrepid for the defense of the homeland must be the model of our commitment determined to fight the enemy”, had tweeted the head of state . The Ministry of the Armies had welcomed “the heroism of Ladji Yoro” who “fought until the supreme sacrifice”.
However, no assessment of this ambush had been announced by the executive. “The identification of the victims is still in progress,” explains the government’s communiqué who “condemns with firmness this barbarism”.
According to several Burkinabe media, this ambuscade attributed to jihadists aimed Thursday a convoy of traders escorted by VDP. This attack is the most murderer since Inata (North), in mid-November, where 57 people, including 53 gendarmes, had been killed, aroused the exasperation of the population.
2,000 Dead and 1.4 million displaced since 2015
Two weeks before this attack, the Inata gendarmes had alerted the staff on their precarious situation, saying that they lacked food and had to eat with poaching. Hundreds of Burkinabe had come down on the streets of Ouagadougou on November 27 to claim the departure of the executive, accused of being unable to stop the jihadist violence.
As its Malian and Nigerian neighbors, Burkina Faso has been taken since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that made at least 2,000 deaths and 1.4 million displaced. The so-called “three border” zone, on the confines of Mali and Niger, is particularly affected.
In early December, the government had been limited and a new Prime Minister, former UN official Lassina Zerbo, had been appointed. Many ministers, including key posts such as defense, security or the economy, however, had retained their portfolio. The president then called for the “gathering” to defeat “terrorism”.