A terrorist attack kills 32 in Burkina Faso

The number of victims of the terrorist attack that occurred in northern Burkina Faso this Sunday amounted to 32 people, including 28 soldiers and 4 civilians, compared to the previous figure of 20 dead, authorities confirmed today.

In a statement picked up by local media, the Burkinabe government declared a three-day national mourning throughout the territory, effective as of this midnight.

In a previous statement, the Army had reported that the attack occurred early Sunday in the Inata area, in the Soum province, located in the Sahel region, where a detachment of the gendarmerie “was the target of a terrorist attack. ”.

The Army urged the local population to “be vigilant” and to “fully cooperate” with the security forces.

Last Friday seven policemen died and another five were injured in an attack by armed individuals in Alkoma, in the province of Seno, also in the Sahel region, a habitual target of jihadist attacks.

Burkina Faso has suffered jihadist attacks since April 2015, when members of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group kidnapped a Romanian security guard at a Tambao manganese mine in the north of the country, which is still missing.

The attacks are often attributed to the Burkinabe local group Ansarul Islam, the Al Qaeda-affiliated Sahel jihadist coalition, the Group for the Support of Islam, Muslims (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS).

The Burkina Faso region hardest hit by insecurity is the Sahel, which shares a border with Mali and Niger, although jihadism has also spread to other areas of the country since the summer of 2018.

Insecurity has caused the number of internally displaced people to now rise to 1.4 million people, according to data from the National Council for Emergencies and Rehabilitation (Conasur) of the Burkinabe government. (I)