At least 100 dead after Al Qaeda attack in Burkina Faso

MadridAt least 100 people were killed and at least 140 injured this weekend in a mass attack against civilians, soldiers and allied militias, which was claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM, an affiliate of Al Qaeda) in north-central Burkina Faso.

The incident, confirmed multiple security sources, occurred in the municipality of Barsalogho, where the local population was helping the Army and members of the so-called Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) to dig a series of trenches to defend themselves precisely from these terrorist organizations that are ravaging the country.

At one point, a crowd of armed men began to open fire indiscriminately on the population and security forces. The estimate of casualties is preliminary and the death toll could even reach 200.

“They started firing in all directions and panic immediately spread,” said one survivor, speaking on condition of anonymity, before denouncing that members of this community, as well as those in the surrounding area, had previously refused to participate in such operations for fear of reprisals from “the terrorists and their accomplices” who roam the region.

The jihadists also seized an arsenal of weapons and even a military ambulance before fleeing. The wounded, of varying severity, were admitted to a nearby hospital in the town of Kaya. Hours later, in a statement, the group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message accompanied by a video of the carnage, with images of dozens of people dead, most of them civilians.

The military junta that governs the country has not yet made an official statement on the jihadist attack. Its leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has repeatedly stated that the fight against terrorism has become the main priority of his mandate and the fundamental reason why the country decided to join the military juntas of Mali and Niger in an alliance separate from the African regional organisations and closer to Russia, whose Wagner mercenary group is deployed in these countries.