Seventeen soldiers and thirty-six auxiliaries of the army of Burkina Faso were killed during an attack by suspected jihadists in the North region, announced Tuesday, September 5 the general staff in a press release. “Fifty-three combatants”, precisely “seventeen soldiers and thirty-six VDP [Volunteers for the defense of the homeland, civilian auxiliaries of the army] lost their lives” on Monday, he said.
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 staff “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.
Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught up in a spiral of jihadist violence since 2015, which has claimed more than 16,000 lives over the past seven years – civilians and soldiers – according to the NGO Acled, and more than two million displaced persons.
