Armed groups multiply the blockade of cities in the east and the north of the country, and sometimes shoot artillery in regions hitherto spared by attacks.
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Yembilima* wonders who now controls her land, in eastern Burkina Faso. At the end of May, his municipality Madjoari ended up giving in, after a year of siege of the jihadists. “They attacked the military base, everyone fled, Madjoari fell into the hands of the terrorists”, saddens the elected representative of this locality, which had some 15,000 inhabitants, before the crisis.
On the road, around fifty people were reportedly executed by trying to escape. “The groups tied up the young men, took them to the bush and fired, only the women and the old people were spared,” says this man who was able to talk to survivors. He reports that “fifty others” civilians are always missing.
The government has still not confirmed the results of this attack, explaining that research operations continue to try to identify the victims. But if this number is proven, it would be one of the most important massacres perpetrated in a few months in Burkina Faso, where the attacks are almost daily in recent weeks.
After the hope aroused by the army putsch at the end of January against President Kaboré, critics are increasing against the new strong man in the country, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. These are commensurate with popular expectations and promises to reconquer the territory formulated by soldiers when they came to power. 2> an alarming humanitarian situation
Since the coup, Yembilima has been wondering more and more. “Have the soldiers really come to save us? We feel abandoned, it is even worse than before, our entire zone is occupied now,” castigates the former municipal councilor, who affirms that the army S ‘is folded after the May 19 attack on the garrison of Madjoari. “The fighters were very numerous and heavily armed, they burned the base, the soldiers were forced to flee,” he said.
The violence of the assaults recorded in recent weeks, some perpetrated for the first time in artillery and targeting regions hitherto spared by the attacks, worried. The jihadist groups also multiply the blockade of the cities, in the east and the north of the country. The army sometimes tries to escort convoys of refueling but still fails to release these areas under embargo.
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