Jihadist Attack In Burkina Faso Leaves At Least Eight Dead

At least eight people were killed when suspected jihadists attacked a village in northern Burkina Faso at the weekend, security sources and locals said on Monday, giving provisional figures.

A village called Guissingori “was targeted on Sunday. The attack claimed the lives of around 10 people,” a source in the security forces said.

A local source said eight bodies had been found but the toll was expected to rise. The source gave no further details.

The assailants looted the village and made off with cattle, the security source said.

Guissingori lies in Yagha, a province that borders Niger and has suffered some of the bloodiest attacks in a long-running security crisis.

Armed Islamists based in neighbouring Mali began mounting cross-border raids on Burkina Faso and Niger in 2015.

In Burkina, one of the poorest countries of the world, thousands of civilians, troops, and police have been killed and an estimated 1.9 million people have fled their homes.

More than 40 percent of the country is out of the government’s control, according to official figures.

In January, soldiers disgruntled at failures to stem the insurgency staged a coup, forcing out elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The new strongman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, was sworn in as president in March.

Damiba declared security to be his top priority but after a relative lull, attacks resumed, with the loss of hundreds of lives.

On June 9, 86 people were massacred in the northern border village of Seytenga, in one of the bloodiest attacks of the insurgency.

The Burkinabe army on Monday said around 50 “terrorists” had been killed in a joint operation carried out in the border area with troops from Niger.

“Operational Kourai,” which ran from June 26 to July 10, placed “a particular focus on the Seytenga area,” the army said in a monthly statement on the security situation.

Niger’s defence minister, Alkassoum Indatou, said on Friday that two companies of Nigerien troops had been deployed at Seytenga to assist the Burkinabe army and “secure the highways” leading across the border.