At least twelve soldiers killed in an attack
The victims, Burkinabe soldiers, were caught in a suspected jihadist attack.
General Laurent Michon, commander of the Barkhane force at a conference in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou on March 11.
AFP
At least twelve Burkinabe soldiers were killed Sunday in an attack by suspected jihadists in the east of the country, security sources told AFP, confirming a resurgence of violence in recent days in the country.
“This Sunday, armed elements attacked a (military) unit around Natiaboani. The still provisional toll is twelve fallen soldiers” (deceased), a security source told AFP. “This is a patrol and security team that was taken to task by suspected jihadists,” another security source told AFP, referring to a toll of “a dozen dead. “. “Several elements were also neutralized on the enemy side,” he assured, without further details.
Sixth attack in ten days
Natiaboani is a rural town located about sixty kilometers south of Fada N’Gourma, capital of the Eastern region, regularly targeted by attacks by armed groups since 2018. According to the Burkina news agency , about fifteen young people were abducted by armed individuals following an attack in Nagré, near Natiaboani, on Friday. In ten days, this is the sixth recorded attack, in the north and east of Burkina Faso. A total of 23 civilians and 25 soldiers (gendarmes and soldiers) died in these attacks.
On January 24, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba overthrew President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, often accused of being ineffective in the face of jihadist violence. But after a relative lull, the new head of state, who has made the fight against jihadists a priority, finds himself confronted in turn with deadly attacks.
In the wake of Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist movements, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which have killed more than 2,000 people in the country and forced at least 1.7 million people to flee their homes
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