2023-08-20 18:02:20
Five Burkinabè police officers, on a reconnaissance mission, were killed on Saturday during an attack in the center-east of Burkina Faso, the general staff announced in a press release on Sunday, indicating that at least forty “terrorists” died. in the response of law enforcement.
In the followingnoon of Saturday, “the 7th Grouping of Mobile Intervention Units (GUMI) of the national police was hooked by a group of terrorists near the locality of Diougo-Yourga”, in the province of Koulpelogo, close to the border of Togo, according to the staff.
“The incident, which occurred while the unit was carrying out a reconnaissance mission, claimed the lives of five police officers. Four others, injured, were evacuated and taken care of,” the statement said.
“In the response, at least forty terrorists were neutralized (killed) and equipment seized,” says the army, which adds that “mopping operations have been undertaken to secure the area”.
The province of Koulpelogo is located in the Center-East region which was already targeted earlier this month by a jihadist attack.
On August 7, around twenty people were killed in Nohao, near the town of Bittou, according to security and local sources.
In mid-July, the transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in September 2022 by a coup d’etat, had deplored “increasingly recurrent attacks once morest civilians”, considering that the jihadists were showing ” cowardice”.
Since 2015, Burkina has been caught in a spiral of violence perpetrated by jihadist groups affiliated with the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
They have killed more than 16,000 civilians and soldiers since 2015, according to the NGO Armed conflict location action (Acled), including more than 5,000 since the beginning of 2023.
This violence has also led to the displacement of more than two million people inside the country.
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