The attack occurred in the northwest of the country, a few kilometers from the Malian border.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
At least twelve civilians were killed and six injured in the night of Thursday to Friday, during an attack on alleged jihadists in northwest Burkina Faso, a few kilometers from the Malian border, said on Sunday on Sunday February 12, residents at the France-Presse agency (AFP).
“Several dozen men in pairs on motorcycles attacked the village of Sanakadougou”, in the province of Kossi, a resident who has requested anonymity to AFP. “After they set fire to several houses and shot the inhabitants, we deplore twelve dead and six injured,” he said. According to another resident who confirmed the attack, thirteen people were killed. He said that “the populations have started to leave the area since Friday”.
spiral of violence
The inhabitants “could not take anything, because the attackers burned everything or looted and [carried away the rare property and the cattle of the villagers,” continued this witness who says he has found refuge in Nouna, Kossi province. The latter also said it fears a higher assessment in the area, after the attack on another neighboring locality, Yaran, Sunday morning “by armed groups”.
The deadly raids attributed to jihadists have multiplied in recent times in Burkina Faso. This week, around forty people, civilians or soldiers, died in various attacks and, last week, some fifty people had been killed in several raids. Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been taken since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger since 2015 a few years ago. The violence has left thousands of civil and military deaths and some two million displaced.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president resulting from a military coup on September 30, 2022, was objective “the reconquest of the territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists” which control around 40 % of the country . The power junta, who claims her desire to regain her “sovereignty” in the antidjihadist struggle, asked the French special forces based in Ouagadougou to leave the country by the end of the month.