In Barsalogho, civilians did not have time to finish digging the vast trench that was supposed to protect their village from recurring jihadist attacks. On Sunday, August 25, a video showing dozens of corpses lying in a large ditch being built around this town in north-central Burkina Faso circulated on social media. Next to inert bodies in civilian clothes, one can see abandoned picks and shovels, as well as men armed with Kalashnikovs, against the sound of gunfire in the background.
The previous morning, several dozen men on motorcycles machine-gunned these civilians who, like those in other areas threatened by jihadist groups, had been encouraged to dig defensive trenches by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the head of the junta in power in Ouagadougou. According to Burkinabe and West African security and humanitarian sources contacted by The Worldthe death toll fluctuates from one hundred to several hundred.
Enough to make it one of the deadliest assaults by jihadists against civilians since the attack in Solhan (northeast). In June 2021, 160 people were killed in this massacre attributed to the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM, affiliated with Al-Qaeda) but which has never been officially claimed. In a message posted on social networks on Saturday, the group commanded by Malian jihadist Iyad Ag Ghali this time announced that it had taken control of the “total control of the headquarters of the Burkinabe militias in Barsalogho”, without giving further details.
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The Minister of Communication, Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, was content to specify that “Most of the victims are innocent civilians, women, children, men, elderly people,” during an interview conducted at Kaya hospital on Sunday and broadcast on national television. At his side at the bedside of the hundreds of wounded who were transferred there, the Minister of Security, Mahamadou Sana, admitted ” several ” dead and wounded in the ranks of the army and the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP, the civilian auxiliaries of the army) and promised a response.
Un cycle de vengeance infernal
Struggling to prevent the deterioration of security across his country, Captain Ibrahim Traoré had personally encouraged his compatriots to dig trenches around their villages to limit jihadist incursions and facilitate the army’s response. “Everyone needs to get involved […] I don’t want to hear “We are under attack” anymore. You will mobilize your populations to dig trenches and protect yourselves while the machines [commandées] arrive at your home”, had ordered, at the end of May, the young transitional president in front of the representatives of the VDP summoned for the occasion to Ouagadougou.
