The bloody attack that killed hundreds of civilians in late August in Barsalogho, in northern Burkina Faso, illustrates the inability of President Ibrahim Traoré’s military junta to halt the escalation of jihadist violence.
However, when he took power in a coup d’état in September 2022, this thirty-year-old captain, previously unknown to the general public, had promised to regain control of the country in “six months”, where armed jihadist groups have been operating since 2015.
“We have everything we want to be able to get Burkina out of this situation,” he declared, promising that the fight against “terrorism” would be his “priority.”
Burkina Faso then quickly turned its back on France, the former colonial power, notably by driving out at the beginning of 2023 the soldiers deployed on its soil for the anti-jihadist fight, in order to move closer to Russia and Turkey.
Two years later, the results look unflattering.
More than 20,000 people have been killed by jihadists since 2015, including nearly 4,000 since the start of 2024, according to the NGO ACLED, which lists victims of conflicts.
Deadliest attack
The attack on August 24 in Barsalogho, which local sources estimate left at least 400 dead, is by far the deadliest in Burkina Faso’s history.
The authorities, who claim to control 70% of the territory, have been silent for months about the attacks.
For Barsalogho, no official report has been communicated, and Captain Traoré has not said a word on the subject. Only a ministerial and military delegation was dispatched to the scene.
“It’s not by breaking the thermometer that you can lower the fever,” notes a security expert under cover of anonymity, recalling that the government “prefers to hide military and civilian losses” in order to “praise the army’s prowess every evening on television.”
“The populations were squeezed with taxes and duties for the war effort, hoping for tangible results with the acquisition of weapons and drones. If they are being bombarded by the hundreds without any help, we must recognize the failure,” he continues.
“Traoré’s promise when he arrived was in good faith, the lack of military equipment was a reality. He must be given credit for the increase in military capabilities,” says Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, a Sahel specialist at the Institute for Security Studies. “However, the threat is rooted in a range of problems – including land conflicts between herders and farmers – that a military response alone cannot resolve.”
“What consideration?”
The last two coups d’état in Burkina, in January and September 2022, were precipitated by jihadist massacres with heavy tolls.
“The attack on Barsalogho was a real electroshock due to the scale of the toll and the inability of the security forces to react, while it occurred in the country’s first military region,” maintains a Western military source. “It is likely that the regime fears a repeat despite the multiple precautions it has taken in recent months to sideline dissident voices.”
Because in the face of the violent repression at work since the arrival of Captain Traoré, public criticism remains rare.
The Justice for Barsalogho Collective, made up of residents of the bereaved area, recalls that the head of the junta personally asked the security forces to “mobilize [les] populations to dig trenches” to protect their villages.
It was during such an operation that civilians in Barsalogho were massacred by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (linked to al-Qaeda).
“What consideration does he think he has for these hundreds of people he sent to the slaughterhouse?” asks a Barsalogho resident, who points out that Mr. Traoré had notably justified his seizure of power by “the lack of consideration for human value” of previous regimes.
A few weeks before the two-year anniversary of his seizure of power, President Traoré “seems to be fleeing reality once again,” sums up the Western military source. “There is no doubt that scapegoats will be designated to create a diversion.”