Two employees of Doctors Without Borders were killed on February 8 in a jihadist attack in northwestern Burkina Faso.
SourceAFP
© RICCARDO MILANI / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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PFor an indefinite period, only vital emergencies will be insured in the country. The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced Friday to suspend all of its activities in Burkina Faso, after two of its employees were killed on February 8 during an attack by suspected jihadists in the northwest of the country. .
“Following the attack in which two MSF employees were killed on February 8 in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, we are suspending all of our activities in the country,” the NGO announced in a statement.
“In all the localities where MSF supports and provides medical and humanitarian aid, only vital emergencies will be provided for an indefinite period”, specifies the text.
#BurkinaFaso – Following the attack in which two of our staff were killed on 8 February in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, we are suspending all our activities in the country.
— MSF International (@MSF) February 17, 2023
A “deliberate and intentional” attack
On Wednesday February 8, MSF announced the death of two of its Burkinabe employees, killed the same day by “armed men” who had “targeted” a “clearly identified Doctors Without Borders vehicle”.
The vehicle, which was carrying a medical team of four, was on the road between Dédougou and Tougan, in the northwest of the country.
“This measure, necessary for the time of mourning, is essential to analyze the risks to which our teams are currently exposed”, explains the NGO.
“It is also a question of reaffirming the unacceptable nature of this attack against colleagues traveling in a clearly identified MSF vehicle as part of their medical mission,” she adds.
On February 8, the president of MSF, Isabelle Defourny, denounced “a deliberate and intentional attack”.
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 a few years earlier and which has spread beyond its borders.
Thursday, five people, including two soldiers, were killed during an attack in the province of Tapoa (east).
The violence killed more than 12,000 people – civilians and soldiers – according to the NGO Acled, which lists the victims of conflicts around the world.
Some two million people are internally displaced.
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