Seventeen soldiers and thirty-six auxiliaries of the army of Burkina Faso were killed in a new attack by suspected jihadists in the North region, announced on Tuesday the staff of the Burkinabe army which wanted to reinstall soldiers there. civilians driven out by violence.
“Fifty-three combatants”, precisely “seventeen soldiers and thirty-six VDP (Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland, civilian auxiliaries of the army) lost their lives” on Monday, indicates the general staff in a press release .
The attacked unit was deployed in Koumbri, in the province of Yatenga, to “allow the resettlement” of populations “who left the area for more than two years”, driven out by the jihadists, he explains.
The general staff of the army, which took power during a coup d’etat in 2022, “also records about thirty wounded who were evacuated and taken care of”.
He specifies that “response operations” made it possible to “neutralize several attackers”, to “destroy their combat equipment” and affirms that “operations are still in progress in the area”.
“Everything is done to put out of harm’s way the terrorist elements” who are “on the run”, he adds.
This new attack was condemned Tuesday evening by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), from which Burkina Faso was suspended after the 2022 coups.
ECOWAS said in a press release that it had learned “with shock” of the death of the soldiers and VDP, “condemns the terrorist attacks and expresses its solidarity with the Burkinabè people”.
Violence by armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which has undermined the country since 2015, has led to the displacement of more than two million people inside the country.
In seven years, this frequent violence has also killed more than 16,000 people – civilians and soldiers – according to the NGO Acled, which lists the victims of conflicts.
Jihadist groups are also active in two neighboring countries of Burkina – Mali and Niger also led by soldiers, authors of two coups since 2020 for the first and July 26 for the second.
Attacks attributed by the army to “armed terrorist groups” have multiplied in recent months in Burkina.
On Friday, four civilian army auxiliaries and a police officer were killed during an attack in the Center-North. In August, five Burkinabè police officers and around twenty people were killed in the Center East in two attacks.
By June 26, 71 men – 31 soldiers and 40 civilian army auxiliaries – had been killed in three attacks, the two deadliest of which took place in the Center-North province.
At the beginning of September, the general staff indicated that “various actions” carried out between August 7 and September 1 in the west of the country had made it possible to “neutralize more than 65 terrorists”.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president resulting from a coup d’etat, had deplored in July “increasingly recurrent attacks against civilians”, estimating that the jihadists who control approximately 40% of the territory, were showing ” cowardice”.
In power for almost a year after a coup in September 2022 – the second in eight months -, Mr. Traoré had justified his coup by the increase in violence by armed groups.
Since demanding the departure of French forces from its soil in January, Burkina Faso has been looking for new partners, particularly in terms of defense.
A Russian delegation, led by the Deputy Minister of Defense, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, discussed with the Burkinabè President last week, on questions of development and military cooperation.
Burkinabe Foreign Minister Olivia Rouamba expressed her country’s desire to “strengthen bilateral cooperation” with Iran on Monday during a meeting in Tehran with President Ebrahim Raisi.
09/05/2023 23:20:05 – Ouagadougou (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
