Captain Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso, in Ouagadougou, October 15, 2022. OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP
The balance is still preliminary, but it is one of the most worrying that Burkina Faso has experienced in recent years. On Friday, February 17, fifty-one soldiers were killed in “intense fighting” with an “armed terrorist group” between Oursi and Déou, two towns in the north of the country some fifty kilometers from the Malian border, according to a statement by the Directorate for Armed Forces Communications and Public Information (DCRPA), published Monday 20 February.
“Several soldiers are still being sought,” the army underlined, before “urging the population to abstain [de relayer] Assessments that are not confirmed by any on-site observation”. The Facebook pages and Twitter profiles of specialists from jihadist groups in Burkina Faso, as well as humanitarian and security sources contacted by Le Monde, mention more than seventy Burkinabe soldiers killed.
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Everyone attributes this attack, which has not yet been claimed as of Tuesday night, to the Organization of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), a jihadist group affiliated with the Organization of Islamic State that has been progressing in northern and eastern Burkina Faso since its formation in the year 2015. The province of Oudalan, where Déou and Oursi are located, was the first area of the country to be hit by these attacks in 2016. The Defense and Security Forces (FDS) and their massacres of civilians continued to expand their influence. To the point that along with its rival, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (al-Qaeda affiliated), it controls almost 40% of the territory.
“The fight is fierce”
As a further signal of the offensive launched by the jihadists in Burkina Faso, another army position was heavily attacked on the night of February 20 in Tin-Akoff, 70 kilometers north of Déou along the Malian border. Here, too, the balance sheets differ according to security sources, some speak of fifteen dead, others of several dozen soldiers killed and many missing. The staff had not released an official report as of Tuesday, February 21.
In Ouagadougou, the capital, diplomats, humanitarians and analysts are drawing a parallel between these attacks and those of Inata, who robbed the Burkinabe army in mid-November 2021 and shocked the whole country. According to the authorities, 57 people were killed during the attack by a terrorist group on a gendarmerie post, while many soldiers were missing. It was the deadliest attack ever recorded against the Burkinabe FDS since jihadist expansion in the country began in 2015. Up to the offensives carried out in Tin-Akoff and between Déou and Oursi in recent days.
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In late 2021, the attack on Inata hastened the overthrow of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. Considered unable to cope with the security threat, he was ousted from office in January 2022 in a coup led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Eight months later, on September 30, 2022, the latter was in turn overthrown by a coup instigated by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, after he, like his predecessor, was accused of being no match for the enemy.
As President, Captain Traoré promised the people to overcome this terrorist threat that has killed between 10,000 and 12,000 people in seven years. “The struggle is fierce” and “the struggle is full of pitfalls,” he admitted in a message posted Monday night to the presidency’s Facebook page. Since then, the army’s ground and air operations have continued. According to the DCRPA, 160 “terrorists” have already been “neutralized”. Excerpts from drone videos showing strikes were subsequently released by the General Staff, while the DCRPA called on all FDS to remain mobile and stressed that they had won “important victories in recent weeks”.
“The End of the State of Grace”
Led by Captain Traoré in an offensive counter-terrorism strategy and based on arming civilians, the army managed to recapture towns such as Solenzo and Falagountou between December 2022 and mid-January 2023. The jihadists have also shifted into gear. The pace of attacks has accelerated, averaging 30 to 40 a week today, compared to 20 to 30 a year ago, according to security adviser and former police officer Mahamoudou Savadogo.
The recent attacks, portrayed by some Sahel specialists as retaliatory operations for Ouagadougou’s claimed all-security strategy, “show the growing tactical capability of terrorists and challenge the authorities’ narrative that terrorist groups are on the run.” , analyzes Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné. The researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar fears that these events herald “the end of the state of grace” for the junta: “Until now, a large section of the public had given it its white face and waited to see if its new strategy would bring results before he judged. The recent attacks have sown doubts. »
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For the past ten days, images have been circulating on social media showing violent arrests and alleged summary executions attributed by human rights defenders and security sources to Burkinabe soldiers. Some videos viewed by Le Monde show civilians, including children, blindfolded and blindfolded, face down, surrounded by men in military or civilian dress. In another, a burkinabé films children, some half-naked, lying in their blood next to military vehicles. “We wait for the one who is going to move and we kill him,” he says. Seconds later, another man in military uniform throws a rock at a child’s head. Contacted, the DCRPA did not respond to inquiries from Le Monde.