(Abidjan) Armed men, described as “terrorists” by the Burkinabe authorities, killed several dozen people, including civilians, in the center-north of Burkina Faso on Saturday, local and security sources told AFP on Sunday.
“We deplore several dozen deaths, civilians and FDS [force de défense et de sécurité]as well as many injured people,” said a security source on condition of anonymity, confirming the attack in the village of Barsalogho.
The wounded “were evacuated to Kaya”, the capital of the Centre-Nord region, approximately 45 km from the site of the attack, added the same source.
” Yesterday [samedi]around 9 a.m. [locale]terrorist groups attacked the village, killing many civilians and security elements,” said a resident of the area.
The attack has not yet been claimed by armed groups in the area, mainly linked to Al-Qaeda.
According to another local resident, the victims were mainly “young civilians, who came out in large numbers to help the soldiers dig trenches around the town, to protect themselves “from possible attacks by armed terrorist groups.”
“We buried a large number of the victims this Sunday,” he said.
A second security source said that “the response of the soldiers and the VDP [volontaires pour la défense de la patrie, nom donné aux supplétifs civils qui se battent aux côtés de l’armée] allowed several terrorists to be neutralized and a greater tragedy to be avoided.”
According to a hospital source in Kaya, more than a hundred injured people were taken to the city’s largest medical center.
On Sunday, in an internal note seen by AFP, the general director of the Kaya regional hospital, Safoura Yaméogo, called on all on-call and off-duty medical staff to mobilize in the face of an “emergency linked to a massive influx of patients since the morning of [samedi] August 24th.
Since 2015, the country has been regularly hit by attacks by jihadist groups which have caused more than 20,000 deaths – civilians and soldiers – including nearly 3,800 this year, according to the NGO ACLED which lists the victims of conflicts in the world.
The authorities have not communicated for months about this violence, which continues to bring mourning to the country.
The head of the Burkinabe regime, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in a coup d’état in September 2022, had promised to make the fight against “terrorism” his “priority”.