Some 62 women and their 4 babies who were abducted in northern Burkina Faso by suspected jihadists last week were freed by the military on Friday as the country was bereaved by a series of attacks that shook thirty dead.
Friday evening, Radio-Television du Burkina (RTB) showed images of the women, released and brought back to Ouagadougou, evoking an “operation” of the armed forces, without further details.
These women and their babies were abducted Thursday and Friday around Arbinda, in the Sahel region (north) when they left their village to get food.
According to security sources, they were found in the Tougouri area, in the neighboring Centre-Nord region, 200 km further south, before being airlifted to the Burkinabè capital in the evening where they were welcomed by officials. of the Army.
“Debriefing”
“Their debriefing will make it possible to learn more about their captors, their detention and their convoy”, indicates one of these sources.
Searches, land and air, had been launched to find them.
Part of the country, in particular the Sahel region where Arbinda is located, has been under blockade by jihadist groups for several months and the localities are hardly supplied with food, which pushes the inhabitants to leave their villages to find food.
On Thursday, Burkina Faso was bereaved by a series of attacks in several regions of the north and north-west of the country, killing around thirty people, including around fifteen Homeland Defense Volunteers (VDP), auxiliaries of the army, according to several security sources, joined on Friday.
A first attack targeted a VDP outpost in Rakoegtenga, a town in the northern province of Bam, killing six of them and a woman, said a local VDP official.
Further west, in the province of Nayala, an “ambush” took place “against a convoy escorted by soldiers and VDPs on the Siena-Saran axis”, added the same source.
“A dozen other VDPs and a civilian fell in this second attack,” said the official and a dozen people were injured, some seriously.
In the province of Sanmatenga (center-north) a mixed team composed of soldiers and VDP was “taken to task” in Zincko, indicates another security source.
“A dozen terrorists were neutralized (killed, editor’s note). Unfortunately, four civilians also died,” said the source.
Finally, in the evening, further south, armed men raided the town of Sanaba, in Banwa province, killing eight civilians.
Demonstration
The town of Sanaba is located a few kilometers from Solenzo, whose army had announced the reconquest at the end of December against jihadist groups.
It was in Solenzo that the president of the transition, captain Ibrahim Traoré, had delivered his end-of-year message.
Friday evening, the authorities of Ouagadougou had not reacted to this series of attacks.
Burkina Faso, particularly in its northern half, has been confronted since 2015 with increasing attacks by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. They left thousands dead and at least two million displaced.
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”.
In recent months, the authorities have repeatedly affirmed their desire to strengthen their ties with Russia, particularly in the fight against the jihadists.
France, which has a contingent of some 400 special forces in Burkina, is increasingly contested.
On Friday, a demonstration against the French presence, the third since October, brought together several hundred people in the capital Ouagadougou. The demonstrators demand in particular the departure of the French ambassador Luc Hallade and the special forces.
At the end of 2022, the government also launched a campaign to recruit new auxiliaries to help the army in its fight against the jihadists. Out of an estimated need of 50,000, 90,000 people have registered.
The VDPs currently receive 14 days of civic and military training before being armed and equipped with means of communication.
They are paying a heavy price in the attacks of the jihadists who control 40% of Burkinabe territory.