An armed group killed at least 30 people in a series of attacks in villages in northern Burkina Faso. Local sources stated that the death toll was 160.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been working to counter the increasingly frequent and deadly attacks by armed groups associated with Al-Qaida and the Islamic State (ISIS).
These attacks have killed at least 1,400 people. They first started in the northern part of the country bordering Mali, but then spread to other regions, especially the eastern region, triggering a major humanitarian crisis.
In early June, the northern village of Solhan was hit by the deadliest attack since the beginning of the conflict, killing at least 138 people.
The massacre caused a mass exodus of more than 7,000 families in search of safer places. According to UNHCR data, since 2019, violence in the country has forced more than 1.2 million people (approximately one twentieth of the total population) to flee their homes. Approximately 150,000 people became internally displaced this year alone, and the agency stated in early June that 84% of them were women and children.
Recently, an unidentified attacker attacked a village near the town of Markoye around noon on Wednesday and then attacked security forces that responded to the attack that same afternoon, the country’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement Thursday. The victims included 11 civilians, 15 soldiers, and 4 government-backed militias. The statement said that more than 10 attackers were killed and added that the military had regained control of the area.
In addition to the massacres, livestock were stolen, and properties burned.
The ministry stated that the area where the attack took place is “now under the control of military units and a counterattack is being carried out to find attackers on the ground and in the air.”
A regional Voluntary Self-Defense Force (VDP) official stated that the attack took place in the Sahel region of Burkina, targeting the villages of Badnoogo, Bassian, Tokabangou and Gadba near the border with Niger, and Think. district of the north-central zone of the country.
“Several bodies were found,” said a VDP member who was fighting an armed group with Burkina Faso’s security and defense forces. A member of the VDP was one of the victims, adding that no one immediately claim responsibility for the attack.
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