At least thirteen people, ten gendarmes, two army auxiliaries and one civilian, were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso on Monday, the Burkinabe army said on Tuesday.
Gendarmes and Volunteers for Defense of the Fatherland (VDP, Army Auxiliary Forces) stationed in the village of Falangoutou in the Sahel (north) “face a terrorist attack on Monday afternoon,” the army staff said in a press release.
“The provisional balance recorded shows twelve fighters who died, including two VDP,” said the staff, who also spoke of one civilian killed.
“At least five gendarmes were injured and a dozen more” who are missing are “still wanted”, the army specifies, assuring that “on the enemy side about fifteen bodies of terrorists have been found in searches that are still ongoing .
The General Staff confirms that this attack was carried out by “residual elements of the armed groups” who “undertook to attack the population blindly” after being “defeated a few weeks ago by the forces involved in the reconquest of the national territory”. .
In memory of the “fighters who fell for their country”, the army staff “calls on the population not to be discouraged by an enemy held in check and to mobilize more than ever for defense and security and the VDP, who are committed to the reconquest”. the territory”.
Last Thursday, at least a dozen civilians were killed in two attacks by suspected jihadists in west-central Burkina Faso, about 140 km from Ouagadougou.
A week earlier, a series of attacks hit several regions in northern and northwestern Burkina, killing around 30 people, including around 15 VDPs.
Burkina Faso, particularly its northern part, has faced increasing attacks from jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State since 2015. They left thousands dead and at least two million displaced.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, interim president after a military coup on September 30, 2022 – the second in eight months – has set himself the goal of “taking back the territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists”.
Burkina had aided in its fight against French special forces jihadists in Ouagadougou for several years, but Captain Traoré’s regime told them to pack up within a month.
A decision motivated by “the will of the transitional authorities and all Burkinabè to be the first actors in the reconquest of our territory”, according to government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo.