(Ouagadougou) At least eleven soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists against a supply convoy on Monday in northern Burkina Faso, a toll which could however be much heavier, with around fifty civilians still missing.
Updated yesterday at 6:37 p.m.
“A supply convoy bound for the town of Djibo was the target of a cowardly and barbaric attack. The provisional toll is 11 bodies of soldiers found and 28 injured,” government spokesman Lionel Bilgo wrote in a statement.
“About fifty civilians are also missing and the search continues,” continues the text.
The toll could however be much heavier, a security source referring to AFP “about sixty victims”. “Virtually the entire convoy, vehicles and food, was set on fire,” the source continued.
Videos received from security sources by AFP show several trucks burned and gutted on the side of a road.
A previous report, from security sources to AFP, reported “ten dead” and “many injured”.
The convoy was the target of an ambush, near the town of Gaskindé, a town located in the province of Soum, the staff had indicated Monday evening in a press release.
“The attack also caused significant material damage,” Bilgo said.
“We remain standing”
“Of course, we are distressed by the current tragedy and the cruel losses that we are recording, but we remain standing, united and united to liberate our dear country Burkina Faso”, he said, recalling the commitment of the “forces patriotic forces in the fight against terrorism to take the oath to defend and free our people from the grip of obscurantist forces who want to enslave them through blind violence and terror”.
Another particularly deadly attack targeted a supply convoy in the north of the country in early September. The explosion of an artisanal device between Djibo and Bourzanga had caused the death of at least 35 civilians, including several children.
These convoys, escorted by the army, supply towns in the north, in particular Djibo, subject to a blockade by jihadist groups who recently dynamited bridges on major roads.
Burkina Faso – in particular the north and the east – is confronted like several of its neighbors with the violence of armed movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which since 2015 have caused thousands of deaths and some two million displaced.
On January 24, soldiers took power in Burkina Faso in a putsch claiming to want to make security their priority. But the attacks remain numerous.
On Sunday, another convoy escorted by the army, which left the day before Dori, capital of the Sahel region, to supply the town of Sebba, was the target of an attack with an improvised explosive device, according to secure sources.
Four people were injured during this incident, and the convoy still arrived on Monday, greeted by popular jubilation.
On Saturday, two soldiers and two civilian army auxiliaries were killed in a “terrorist” attack against a patrol in the province of Tapoa, a region in eastern Burkina, bordering Niger and Benin, according to the army.