“Around 170 people” were “executed” a week ago during “massive murderous attacks” on three villages in northern Burkina Faso, the prosecutor of Ouahigouya (North) announced in a press release published on Sunday.
The prosecutor, Aly Benjamin Coulibaly, writes that he was informed on February 25 of “massive murderous attacks [qui] were allegedly committed in the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe” in the Yatenga province of the Northern region.
“The same sources indicated that the overall provisional toll stood at around 170 people executed, in addition to the injured people and various other related material damage,” adds the prosecutor.
He indicates that “in view of the seriousness and circumstances of all these denunciations and information, my prosecution instructed its judicial police services to open an investigation in order to elucidate the facts”.
He launched “an appeal to all people who have elements or information on these facts to communicate them” to the prosecution and/or the police.
Furthermore, he underlined, a team of investigators went on February 29 to the various villages concerned in order to “carry out all the findings and collect all the evidence”.
According to residents contacted by AFP, survivors said that dozens of women and young children were among the victims.
These attacks on three villages in the north are distinct from those that occurred the same day against a mosque in Natiaboani (east) and a church in Essakane-village (north), which left “dozens dead”, according to security and local sources. to the AFP.
No official report has been given regarding these attacks.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been confronted with jihadist violence attributed to armed movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which has left nearly 20,000 dead and more than two million internally displaced.