Soldiers in Burkina Faso freed 66 women and children on Friday. They had been kidnapped by armed gangs a week earlier. According to state television in the West African country, there was talk of a military operation, but further details were not disclosed.
The 27 women and 39 children, including 4 babies, were abducted last week near the town of Arbinda, in the north of the country. They are believed to have been captured by jihadist insurgents as they searched for food near their villages.
Since then, security forces have been searching for the group, which was found some 200 kilometers further south. After their liberation, the women and children were taken to the capital Ouagadougou by helicopter. There they are interrogated to learn more about their captors.
Since 2015, poverty-stricken Burkina Faso has been struggling with a jihadist uprising that has blown over from neighboring Mali.
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