In an audio, Amadou Tamboura, a survivor of the Seytenga attack which took place on June 12 and whose official toll reports 89 dead, recounts his martyrdom. It is a terrible, chilling testimony.`
« They (jihadists) came around 5 p.m., the first shots started and then they surrounded the whole city. (…) the men started going house by house, door by door and they said to the women “Where are your men, we are going to finish the men, no man will live in Seytanga” ».
Then, his voice tight with emotion and pain, he continues, ” they took all the animals, the sheep, burned the shops, the homes “. He also explains how he managed to escape thanks to the women who hid him and lent him their clothes, how he walked all night to reach Dori, the large neighboring town 35 km away.
Until 2019, the city of Seytanga had just over 30,000 inhabitants, today there is not a single inhabitant left. In a video, the jihadists show off their trophy. They are ” the new masters ” places. They roam freely, search the empty houses, seize the food, punctuating their captures with noisy ” Hamdoulilah “. The army has deserted the city…
On the edge of the precipice
On the other side of the country, to the south-west, in an area which until recently was still free from attacks, the situation is deteriorating in a worrying way. On June 15, unidentified armed men (HANI) burst into the commune of Boni and threatened the inhabitants. They ordered them not to sow any more, not to cultivate any more, on pain of being attacked.
Slowly but surely Burkina Faso is approaching the abyss. Neighboring countries must prepare for a massive influx of refugees, after the Seytenga attack, 600 people fled to neighboring Togo. The exodus has only just begun.
–
