AA / Ouagadougou / Dramane Traoré
Twelve Burkinabè soldiers and four Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, the army auxiliaries) were killed and 21 others injured on Friday in an attack against the military detachment of Namissiguima, province of Sanmatenga, central region. north, the army said in a statement.
“This Friday, April 08, 2022, a complex attack targeted the military detachment of Namissiguima (province of Sanmatenga, central-north region) around 05:00 in the morning. The provisional balance sheet established at the end of the fighting shows 12 soldiers and 4 VDP fallen, as well as 21 soldiers injured, ”we read in the press release.
Material damage was also recorded, added the army, adding that reinforcements were deployed to secure the area.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces saluted the memory of the fallen soldiers while reassuring the public that the operations to secure the territory will intensify in accordance with the vision defined by the Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces.
It is in the same region of the center-north that an 83-year-old nun of American nationality was kidnapped, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, from the parish of Yalgo, in the diocese of Kaya, province of Sanmatenga, by unidentified armed individuals.
The already fragile security situation in Burkina Faso due to the terrorist attacks that the country has been experiencing since 2015 has deteriorated in recent weeks.
According to security sources, at least seven civilians were killed on Thursday in the locality of Korizena, not far from the town of Gorom-Gorom, capital of the province of Oudalan in the Sahel.
Terrorist attacks killed more than 2,000 people between 2016 and December 31, 2021, including 600 members of the defense and security forces, according to the Burkinabè government.
As of February 28, 2022, the number of people who have fled terrorist attacks in the country stands at 1,814,283, the National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation (Conasur) announced last Wednesday.
As part of the fight against terrorism, the President of Burkina Faso, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, announced last week, in an address to the Nation, a certain number of measures, including the creation of Local Committees of dialogue for the restoration of peace, “whose mission is to initiate approaches with members of groups that have broken with the Nation” and the formal prohibition of civilian populations from residing or carrying out activities in certain areas of military operations.
Only part of the dispatches, which Anadolu Agency broadcasts to its subscribers via the Internal Broadcasting System (HAS), is broadcast on the AA website, in a summarized manner. Please contact us to subscribe.