“Some 100 civilians, including women and children, are believed to have been killed in a massacre in the village of Zaong in central eastern Burkina Faso a few days ago,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
“The European Union has called on the interim authorities to investigate the circumstances of these killings so that responsibility can be established,” it added.
African news magazine Jeune Afrique said the mass killings on November 6 were carried out by unidentified assailants.
Burkina Faso released photos on social media of the corpses of women and children it said were residents of Zaong.
The top US diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee (Moli Fi), said on the social network X that she was shocked and saddened by the news of the killings.
“The US government condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms,” she said, calling on Burkina Faso’s junta to investigate.
Burkina Faso is governed by an interim government formed after the September 2022 coup.
The West African country is fighting a jihadist insurgency that spread from neighboring Mali in 2015 and has killed more than 17,000 people. civilians and soldiers, and two million people were forced to flee their homes.
The junta-led government is conscripting men over the age of 18 to fight jihadists.
Burkinabe authorities in April launched an investigation into the killing of another 136 people, half of them women and children, in Karma, northern Burkina Faso. According to residents, people were killed by men wearing military uniforms.
Burkina Faso’s interim president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, said that one should not jump to conclusions about the army’s involvement in the massacre.
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2024-09-21 01:58:14
