2023-09-05 15:26:18
Seventeen soldiers and 36 auxiliaries from the army of Burkina Faso were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in the northern region, the general staff announced in a statement on Tuesday (September 5).
“Fifty-three combatants”, precisely “seventeen soldiers and thirty-six VDP (Volunteers for the defense of the homeland, civilian auxiliaries of the army) lost their lives” on Monday, he indicates.
Several attackers “neutralized”
The attacked unit was deployed in Koumbri, in the province of Yatenga, to “allow the resettlement” of populations “who left the area for more than two years”, driven out by the jihadists, he explains.
The staff “also records regarding thirty wounded who were evacuated and taken care of”.
He specifies that “response operations” made it possible to “neutralize several attackers”, to “destroy their combat equipment” and affirms that “operations are still in progress in the area”. “Everything is done to put out of harm’s way the terrorist elements” who are “on the run”, he adds.
Burkina Faso, scene of two military coups in 2022, has been taken since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence which have caused more than 16,000 deaths over the past seven years – civilians and soldiers – according to the NGO Acted, and more than two million displaced persons.
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