Global Courant 2023-04-20 02:35:56
Sources and local officials said suspected militants had killed at least 24 people, including civil defense volunteers, in the area near the borders with Togo and Ghana, and more than a dozen militants were killed in response.
More than 40 percent of Burkina Faso is outside the government’s control, according to official figures. (AFP Archive)
At least 24 people, including civil defense volunteers, were killed in two attacks by suspected militants in Burkina Faso, security and local sources told AFP news agency.
The deadliest attack took place Tuesday in a village in Bittou, close to the borders with Togo and Ghana, and 16 auxiliary soldiers and four civilians were killed, he said, according to a local official on Wednesday.
He said many of them are still missing.
“More than a dozen terrorists were killed in response to the attack,” he said.
An official from the volunteer militia confirmed the attack and said at least four more volunteers were killed in a second clash in the same area.
Several hundred people in Bittou on Wednesday called for better security protection, according to residents contacted by AFP.
More than 10,000 people were killed
Since their formation in December 2019, the volunteer militias have suffered heavy losses in the country’s fight against militant groups.
Burkina’s interim president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, has declared his goal of reclaiming 40 percent of the militant-controlled area.
The violence killed more than 10,000 people and displaced two million people, according to non-governmental aid groups.
On Sunday, officials said at least 32 defense volunteers and 10 soldiers were killed in suspected militant attacks in the country’s rebel-hit north.
Earlier this month, Burkina’s military junta announced a “general mobilization” to provide the state with “all the necessary tools” to combat a series of militant attacks since the beginning of this year.
And in February, the government had already announced plans to recruit 5,000 additional troops to fight the insurgency that has gripped one of the world’s poorest countries since 2015.
Source: AFP
