Dozens of soldiers and army volunteers were killed on Monday in two attacks by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, Agence France-Presse learned on Tuesday from security sources who were not initially in contact. able to give precise figures.
“Terrorist groups attacked the village of Noaka”, in the Center-North region, “targeting mainly the VDP”, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, according to a security source. This same source specified that, also on Monday, “another attack targeted a military unit returning from an escort mission, ambushed near Kourao, on the Djibo-Kongoussi axis”, in the region of the Sahel.
“Unfortunately, there are several dozen deaths, soldiers and volunteers,” she added, which was confirmed by a local VDP official.
“We lost dozens of men in Noaka and several are injured,” he told Agence France-Presse. “Several other fighters are still missing,” he said. He affirmed that a “precise assessment will be communicated later by the command”.
According to a resident of the area, “it was a massacre that took place in Noaka”. He estimates at “about thirty” the number of VDPs killed during this single attack and evokes “many injuries”. “The valiant fighters, supported by the army, also made it possible to inflict a heavy loss on the attackers”, he added, also speaking of “several motorcycles and weapons recovered”.
“The response of the elements made it possible to neutralize around forty terrorists. Security and search operations are underway in these areas,” according to another security source.
Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence which appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which has spread beyond their borders.
The violence has killed more than 10,000 civilians and soldiers in the past eight years, according to NGOs, and more than two million internally displaced persons.
The country has been ruled since last September by a military junta headed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power after a coup, the second in eight months.