While Burkina Faso has just decreed “general mobilization” against recurrent jihadist violence, the country is once again bereaved by two attacks. Ten soldiers and thirty-two civilian army auxiliaries were killed on Saturday and Sunday in the north of the country.
On Saturday, a “military detachment and Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, civilian auxiliaries of the army) was the target of an attack by unidentified armed men”, around 4 p.m., near Aorema, according to a statement from the governorate of the North region, published on Sunday. The army affirms that “the balance sheet is forty combatants” dead (“eight soldiers and thirty-two VDP”) and adds that “at least 50 terrorists” were “neutralized” in a “response” including air. According to a security source, the detachment targeted by Saturday’s attack ensured “the security of the Ouahigouya aerodrome which was targeted”.
Many injured
Sunday, “early in the morning”, “another attack targeted the military detachment of Kongoussi (Bam province, Center-North region)”, indicates the army, which reports “two soldiers” killed and “twenty neutralized terrorists”.
The governorate of the North region indicates in its press release that “33 wounded” from the first attack are “in stable condition” and “treated at the Regional University Hospital Center of Ouahigouya”, capital of the North region. The army writes for its part that “two wounded” from the second attack were also “evacuated for treatment”.
The junta gives itself new powers against the jihadists
On Thursday, the transitional authorities – who came to power in a coup d’etat in September, the second in eight months – decreed the “general mobilization” and the “warning”, in order to “give the State all the necessary means” to deal with the jihadist attacks that are hitting the country. With these measures, they will have in particular “the right to request people, goods and services” but also “the right to call for defense employment, individually or collectively”.
