Burkina Faso, illustrative photo. Alexander / stock.adobe.com
At least 51 soldiers were killed Friday in an ambush by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, according to a new provisional report released Monday, February 20 by the army.
“At the end of the day“from Monday, “43 new bodies were found, establishing the provisional toll at 51 fallen soldiers“, indicates the army in a press release. She had given a toll of eight soldiers killed on Monday morning.
“Intensification of air actions”
The military says that “operations are continuing with an intensification of air actions which has enabled the neutralization of around a hundred terrorists and the destruction of their equipment. This figure is in addition to the sixty terrorists neutralized since the start of the response“.
“While expressing sorrow at the loss of our fallen brothers in arms“, the army staff “invites all of the National Armed Forces to maintain the mobilization that has enabled us to achieve important victories in recent weeks“, According to the press release. The staff furthermorecalls on the populations to the sacred union around the Defense and Security Forces in these difficult times. It is together that we will defeat terrorism“.
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A military patrolmoving“was the victim of an attack”complexFriday between Deou and Oursi (Oudalan province) in the Sahel region, bordering Mali and Niger, the army said on Saturday without giving an assessment. She added that “intense fighting” had opposed the members of the military unit taken to task “to an armed terrorist group“.
Deadly raids attributed to jihadists have multiplied in recent weeks in Burkina. More than a hundred people – civilians and soldiers – have died in the past two, according to an AFP tally. Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which has spread beyond their borders.