40 Killed In Attack By Suspected Jihadists In Burkina Faso

On Sunday, officials said that unidentified armed people attacked the army and citizen defense forces in northern Burkina Faso. They killed 40 people and hurt 33 more.

Unknown armed men attacked a group of soldiers and civilian volunteers near the town of Aorema on Saturday around 4 p.m., the Ouahigouya governorate said in a statement.

In a statement, the army said that eight soldiers and 32 defense workers were among the 40 people who died. The statement said that at least 50 attackers were killed during the counterattack. Some of them were killed by air strikes.

On Sunday, there was “another attack targeting the military detachment of Kongoussi” (in the province of Bam in the North Central region), according to the same source quoted by the news agency AFP. According to this source, “two soldiers” were killed and “about 20 terrorists were neutralized.”

The governorate of the northern region said that the people who were hurt in the first attack were in good condition and were being cared for in the capital of the region.

AFP spoke with a security source who said that the unit that was attacked on Saturday was responsible for “the security of the Ouahigouya airfield that was attacked.”

A local was reported by AFP as saying, “Yes, there was heavy fighting Saturday night for almost two hours.” The local also said that “several air strikes targeted positions of suspected jihadists” on Friday.

The military junta in Burkina Faso announced on Thursday a “general mobilization” to give the state “all necessary means” to fight back against a series of bloody attacks that were blamed on terrorists with ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

A security source said that the government put out an advisory that gives the president “the right to requisition people, goods, and services, as well as the right to limit some civil liberties.”

Last week, “armed terrorist groups” were said to have killed 44 civilians in two towns in the northeast, close to the border with Niger. After 51 soldiers were killed at Deou in the far north in February, it was one of the deadliest attacks on citizens since Captain Ibrahim Traore took power last September.

The government will hire another 5,000 troops to fight the insurgency that has been going on in one of the poorest countries in the world since 2015.

Burkina’s transitional president, Traore, has said that he wants to take back the 40% of the country’s land that is held by jihadists. More than 10,000 people have died because of the violence, and two million people have been forced to leave their homes.