Authorities in Burkina Faso have announced that assailants killed several dozen people in two separate suspected terrorist attacks on villages in the north of the country.
In a statement quoted by CNN, a local governor, Rodolphe Sorgho, accused jihadist groups of being behind the “despicable and barbaric” attacks, without naming a specific group. He added in a statement that he offered his “sincere condolences to the bereaved families and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured”.
Few other details were available on the incidents, but a resident of one of the villages told AFP “a large number of terrorists” attacked on Thursday evening, with gunfire ringing out all night. For the moment, no statement from the army on the attack.
Burkina Faso has become the epicenter of violence perpetrated by Islamist militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The violence began in neighboring Mali in 2012, but has since spread across the arid expanse of the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.
Large areas of northern and eastern Burkina Faso have become ungovernable since 2018. Millions of people have fled their homes, fearing new raids by gunmen who frequently descend on rural communities on motorbikes. Thousands have been killed.
