Europa Press
The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 26, 2024, p. 29
Madrid. At least 100 people have been killed and 140 injured in an attack on civilians, soldiers and allied militias claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM, an affiliate of Al Qaeda) in north-central Burkina Faso.
The offensive, confirmed multiple security sources to Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France24, was carried out in the municipality of Barsalogho, where the local population was helping the army and members of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland to dig a series of trenches to defend themselves against precisely these organizations that ravage the country.
At one point, gunmen opened fire indiscriminately on residents and security forces, according to sources from both media outlets, who said the death toll was preliminary and could reach 200.
They started shooting in all directions and panic spread immediately.detailed a survivor, on condition of anonymity, who denounced that members of this community, as well as those in the surrounding area, had refused on other occasions to participate in this kind of operation for fear of reprisals from terrorists and their accomplices that operate freely throughout the region.
The jihadists took an arsenal and a military ambulance with them as they fled. The wounded were admitted to a nearby hospital in the town of Kaya.
Hours later, in a statement reported by France24, the JNIM claimed responsibility for the attack in a message accompanied by a video of the carnage, with images of dozens of dead, most of them civilians.
The military junta that governs the country has not yet made an official statement on the jihadist attack. Its leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has repeatedly stated that the fight against terrorism has become the main priority of his mandate and the fundamental reason why the country decided to join the military juntas of Mali and Niger in an alliance separate from the African regional organisations and closer to Russia, whose Wagner mercenary group is deployed in these countries.