(Ouagadougou) At least ten bus passengers were killed when their vehicle exploded on Sunday caused by a mine in eastern Burkina Faso, the governor of this region bordering Niger said on Monday.
“In the afternoon of December 25, 2022, a public transport minibus hit a mine on the Fada N’Gourma-Kantchari axis, near the village of Bougui. Unfortunately the explosion caused the death of ten passengers and injured five,” admitted to the hospital in Fada N’Gourma, the capital of the region, according to Colonel Hubert Yameogo’s press release.
The toll could however increase since “other passengers would be missing”, he specified.
A security source joined by AFP confirmed the attack “with an improvised explosive device” and confirmed the death toll of “ten civilians”.
Local sources joined to Fada N’Gourma also confirmed the incident and this assessment.
“The bus had left Matiakoali for Fada N’Gourma. The victims are mainly women and children,” said a resident whose cousin died in the incident.
On Saturday, two soldiers from a patrol unit were killed by an explosive device on the Ouahigouya-Gomboro axis, in the north of the country, according to a security source.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been regularly bereaved by jihadist attacks that have killed thousands and forced some two million people to flee their homes.
These attacks by groups linked to the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda targeting soldiers and civilians have multiplied in recent months, mainly in the north and east of the country.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president resulting from a military coup on September 30 – the second in eight months – has set himself the objective of “reconquering the territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists”.
Between 1er and on December 10, 39 “terrorists” were killed during an anti-jihadist operation in northwestern Burkina Faso, according to the army.