At least 27 people have been killed over the weekend in Burkina Faso in two separate attacks suspected of being behind them and targeting civilians in the north and northeast of the country, according to local security sources who spoke to AFP. .
A security source said on Monday that “armed men attacked civilians in Burazo, an area located near Didogo,” the provincial capital of Kosi. The source said that “according to preliminary data, there are about fifteen (dead) victims, men, women and children.” A local source confirmed the attack to AFP, citing “twenty dead”.
One of the residents explained that “at about five o’clock in the evening (according to Grinetsky and local time) the militants wandered around the village, shooting into the air. They returned late at night to randomly shoot at the residents.” Another security source said another fatal attack took place on Saturday in Namisegin, in Yatinga province in the north of the country. The source explained that “the results of this attack reached 12 people, including three volunteers for the defense of the homeland,” and they are civilians fighting alongside the army, and this has provoked a wave of displacement since Sunday.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has entered a cycle of violence led by extremist movements linked to al-Qaeda or ISIS, which has killed thousands and displaced some 1.9 million people. According to official estimates, more than 40 percent of the land is outside state control. In late January, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba ousted President Roche Marc Christian Kabore, accused of failing to stop the violence, saying “rebuilding” was his priority. the country continues to suffer from deadly attacks.
