1 of 1 Armed soldiers in Burkina Faso from 2022 — Photo: Sophie Garcia/AP Armed soldiers in Burkina Faso from 2022 — Photo: Sophie Garcia/AP
Unidentified attackers killed 40 people and wounded 33 others in an attack on army and volunteer defense forces in northern Burkina Faso, the government said in a statement Sunday.
The attack took place on Saturday (15th) in the village of Aorema, near the city of Ouahigouya in the northern region near the border with the Republic of Mali, an area controlled by Islamist groups with ties to alQaeda and the Islamic State, which has been active since years of repeated attacks.
- 28 die in attacks in Burkina Faso; A third of the country is outside government control
- 50 women are kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Burkina Faso
It is unclear which group carried out the attack, but it came just nine days after gunmen killed 44 people in the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in the north of the West African country.
Six soldiers and 34 members of a volunteer defense force were killed in Saturday’s attack, the statement said.
The government encouraged civilians to join local defense forces in an effort to stem eight years of violence that have left thousands dead and millions forced to flee their homes.
- In addition to Burkina Faso, three other countries in west and central Africa have suffered coups in just over two years.
Regional unrest began in Mali in 2012, when Islamists hijacked a Tuareg separatist insurgency. Since then, violence has spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, threatening to destabilize the most distant coastal states.