The spiral of violence continues in Burkina Faso. Twenty civilians, including women and children, were killed between Monday and Wednesday in two attacks attributed to jihadists, security and local sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday May 19. Wednesday, “armed groups carried out an incursion into Bilguimdouré”village in the commune of Sangha, in the province of Koulpélogo (central-eastern region), bordering Ghana and Togo, “killing ten people”a local official told AFP.
Two days earlier, “another terrorist incursion into the neighboring village of Kaongo had caused the death of at least eleven people including women and children”, he continued. During these two attacks, “houses and shops were set on fire by the attackers who also took away livestock”, according to the same source. These attacks were confirmed by security sources, stating that “Security operations are underway in the region”.
“Desperate people”
Reached by AFP, nationals of Sangha commune also confirmed the two attacks, saying that the “desperate populations try to flee”. According to these residents, armed groups summoned the population of Soudougui, another town in the province, “to empty several villages under penalty of reprisals in the following days”.
The province of Koulpélogo, under curfew for several months, is the target of recurring attacks despite the anti-jihadist operations of the army and its civilian auxiliaries. In mid-April, at least 24 people, including twenty Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), were killed in two attacks attributed to jihadists in the Center-East region.
Burkina, 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 has left more than 10,000 dead, civilians and soldiers, over the past seven years, according to NGOs, and more than 2 million internally displaced persons.