A bloody new attack by suspected jihadists killed 33 soldiers on Thursday in eastern Burkina Faso, a Sahelian country that has been sinking deeper and deeper in recent weeks into violence that began in 2015.
“The military detachment of Ougarou”, in the Eastern region, “faced a large complex attack on the morning of Thursday”, indicates an army press release. “Thirty-three of our soldiers unfortunately fell with their weapons in hand, while twelve others were injured,” he adds.
“During the fighting, which was particularly intense, the soldiers of the detachment showed remarkable determination in the face of an enemy who had come in large numbers”, according to the army, which affirms that they “thus succeeded in neutralizing least forty terrorists before the arrival of reinforcements”.
The deployment of these reinforcements “made it possible to evacuate the wounded who are currently being cared for by the health services”, according to the army.
Security sources said the attackers were “heavily armed” and that “some soldiers are missing”.
The press release specifies that “the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces salutes the memory of the soldiers who have made the supreme sacrifice in the performance of their duty”. “He encourages all the units engaged in the operations to maintain efforts in order to strengthen the dynamics of reconquest in progress”, adds the text.
This attack comes a week after the massacre on April 20 of at least sixty civilians in a northern village, Karma, by men wearing army uniforms.
Officially revealed on Sunday, it killed “sixty” people according to a regional prosecutor, “more than a hundred”, according to representatives of survivors and residents of Karma.
“despicable and barbaric acts”
The government “firmly condemned Thursday” these despicable and barbaric acts “and affirmed to follow very closely the evolution of the investigation”, opened by the prosecutor of the high court of Ouahigouya (north) in order to “elucidate » the facts and « challenge everyone involved ».
Karma’s victims were laid to rest Thursday evening.
“The administrative authorities have mobilized for the burial of the remains of our mothers, our fathers, our sisters and our sons”, that is “a hundred people”, declared to AFP Daouda Belem, one survivors.
He wanted to thank the government which “allowed Karma to bury his dead” and called for collaboration with the gendarmerie for its investigation.
On April 18, at least twenty-four people, including 20 civilian army auxiliaries, were killed in two attacks by suspected jihadists in central eastern Burkina.
On April 15, six soldiers and 34 civilian auxiliaries were killed in the north during the assault launched against their detachment.
Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which has spread beyond their borders.
The violence over the past seven years has left more than 10,000 dead – civilians and soldiers – according to NGOs, and some two million displaced.
The transitional president of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power by a putsch in September 2022, signed last week a decree of “general mobilization” for a period of one year, allowing if necessary the requisition of “young people aged 18 and over” to go and fight against the jihadists who are bloodying the country.