2024-03-03 09:57:39
“Around 170 people” were “executed” a week ago during “massive murderous attacks” in three villages in northern Burkina Faso, the prosecutor of Ouahigouya (north) announced in a press release published on Sunday. Survivors said dozens of women and small children were among the victims.
Published on: 03/03/2024 – 10:57
3 mn
Some 170 people were “executed” in “massive murderous attacks” on three villages over the course of a single day last week in military-run northern Burkina Faso, gripped by exploding jihadist violence.
In a press release, published Sunday March 3, the prosecutor of Ouahigouya (north), Aly Benjamin Coulibaly, writes that he was informed on February 25 of “massive murderous attacks (which) were allegedly committed in the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe” in the Yatenga province of the Northern region.
“The same sources indicated that the overall provisional toll stood at around 170 people executed, in addition to the injured people and various other related material damage,” adds the prosecutor, without specifying who the perpetrators of the attacks are.
He indicates that “in view of the seriousness and circumstances of all these denunciations and information, my public prosecutor’s office instructed its judicial police services to open an investigation in order to elucidate the facts”.
The prosecutor launched “an appeal to all people who have elements or information on these facts to communicate them” to the prosecution and/or the police.
Furthermore, he underlined, a team of investigators went on February 29 to the various villages concerned in order to “carry out all the findings and collect all the evidence”.
“Coordinated and simultaneous attacks”
Several other attacks also took place on February 25, notably against the military detachment of Tankoualou (east), against the 16th rapid intervention battalion (Bir) near Kongoussi (north) and the mixed battalion in the Ouahigouya area (north). ).
The response of the army and its civilian auxiliaries, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), made it possible to “neutralize several hundred terrorists”, according to security sources.
At the start of the week, the Minister of Security, Mahamadou Sana, admitted on national television that “during (this) past weekend, we recorded several coordinated and simultaneous attacks on the national territory”.
“This change in the enemy’s tactical posture is due to the fact that destroyed terrorist bases, as well as training camps and actions were carried out to dry up the enemy’s sources of financing, as well as control of corridors of supplies,” he said.
Burkina Faso, led by soldiers who took power by force in 2022, has been confronted since 2015 with jihadist violence attributed to armed movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as reprisals attributed to armed forces and their auxiliaries, which left nearly 20,000 dead and more than two million displaced.
According to Acled, an organization which lists victims of conflicts around the world, 439 people were killed in this violence during the month of January alone.
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