170 people ‘executed’ in Burkina Faso village attacks

Shafaq News/ Around 170 people were "executed" in attacks on three villages in northern Burkina Faso a week ago, a regional public prosecutor said on Sunday, March 3.

Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said he received reports of the attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe in Yatenga province on February 25, with a provisional toll of "around 170 people executed."

The attacks left others wounded and caused material damage, this prosecutor for the northern town of Ouahigouya added in a statement. He said his office ordered an investigation and appealed to the public for information.

Survivors of the attacks told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that dozens of women and young children were among the victims.

Security sources in the area said the attacks were different from the deadly incidents that happened on the same day at a mosque in the rural area of Natiaboani and a church in the village of Essakane.

The authorities have not given an official number of deaths for those attacks but a high-ranking church official said at the time that at least 15 civilians died in Essakane.

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency waged by rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015. The violence has killed almost 20,000 people and displaced more than two million in Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries situated in the Sahel, a region wracked by instability.

However, the people's anger at the government's failure to stop the insecurity was a big reason for two military takeovers in 2022. The current strong president, Ibrahim Traoré, has made fighting the rebel groups his main goal.

Furthermore, there were many attacks on February 25, especially against a military group in Tankoualou in the east, a fast-response group in Kongoussi in the north, and soldiers in the northern area of Ouahigouya.

In response, the army and the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), a group of civilians that helps the military, started operations that were able “to kill several hundred terrorists”, security sources said.

The security minister, Mahamadou Sana, said earlier this week that the attacks were “planned”. He said: “This change in how the enemy attacks is because terrorist bases and training camps have been destroyed and actions were done to stop the enemy’s money and supplies,”

Notably, Jihadists have attacked mosques and imams before. Churches in Burkina have also been attacked sometimes and Christians have been taken.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project says 439 people died in this kind of violence in January only.