Burkina Faso is once again in mourning. A total of six soldiers and thirty-four civilian army auxiliaries were killed on Saturday (April 15th) in an attack by suspected jihadists in the north of the country, a statement from the governorate of Ouahigouya said on Sunday.
A “Military Detachment and Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland [VDP, supplétifs civils de l’armée] was the target of an attack by unidentified gunmen on Saturday”around 4 p.m., not far from Aorema, about fifteen kilometers from Ouahigouya, reports the governorate press release published on Sunday.
“The provisional assessment of this attack” is of ” forty “ dead, “including six soldiers and thirty-four VDP”to which are added “thirty-three injured in stable condition”, “currently cared for at the Ouahigouya regional university hospital center”, capital of the North region, the statement said. This assessment was confirmed by a security source.
This security source claims that a “retort”launched after this attack, “made it possible to neutralize several dozen terrorists”. Another security source confirmed that the “attackers” have “almost all have been neutralized”. According to a third security source, the detachment targeted by the attack ensured “Security of Ouahigouya aerodrome”.
“Right of appeal” to the defense
On Thursday, to deal with the jihadist attacks targeting the country, the transitional authorities in Burkina Faso decreed the “general mobilization” and the ” caution “which gives them “the right to request people, goods and services, the right to subject resources to supply to control and distribution” And “the right to call for defense employment, individually or collectively”.
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.
The violence left more than 10,000 dead – civilians and soldiers – according to NGOs, and some 2 million displaced.