Massaker in Burkina Faso: 600 dead according to French security reports
Massaker in Burkina Faso: 600 dead according to French security reports
up to 600 people were in just a few hours from al-Qaida-related militants in a August attack on the city Burkina Faso according to a French security assessment that almost doubles from previous reports. This new number would make the attack in which civilians were shot while trenches to defend the remote city of Barssalogho, one of the deadliest individual attacks in Africa in recent decades.
The brutality of the attack
militant of the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-QaAida connection based in Mali and actively in Burkina Faso, systematically opened the fire, while with motorcycles entered the suburbs of Barsalogho and put down villagers, which were helpless in the freshly churned outer ground, as described as several videos August 24 by Pro-Jnim accounts were posted on social media. Many of the dead were women and children, and the film material is interrupted by the sound of automatic rifles and the screams of the victims, who apparently tried to kill themselves.
deterioration of the security situation
The terrifying number of deaths, if the estimate of the French government is confirmed, would mark an exceptionally brutal moment in Sahel, an increasingly lawless strip in western Africa that stretches south of the Sahara and where security projects initiated by the USA and the French military, difficulties to stop. A number of states in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger led to the withdrawal of the French and American armed forces. Russian mercenaries who were called by the Junta governments to consolidate their power instead left a vacuum in which jihadists could thrive, according to the evaluation that CNN was transmitted by a French security officer.
The reactions of Jnim and the United Nations
The United Nations originally estimated the number of victims to at least 200. Jnim stated that they had killed almost 300 people, but claimed that they had the goal of members of militias with connections to the army instead of civilians, according to a translation of the site Intelligence Group, which was cited by Reuters.
survivors report on their experiences
A survivor who wanted to remain anonymous because he continued to fear his security, CNN reported that he was one of dozens of men who were ordered to dig the trenches this Saturday. He was 4 kilometers from the city when he heard the first shots at 11 a.m. "I started crawling into the ditch to escape," he said. "However, it seemed that the attackers followed the trenches. I crawled out and pushed onto the first bloody victim. It was blood everywhere. There was no end.
political consequences and protests
The attack led to angry protests in which the leader of the Junta von Burkina Faso, captain Ibrahim Traore, who came to power in 2022 in the course of two consecutive military coups, was ridiculed as "IB Captain Zero" because he had approved the construction of the trenches by civilians. According to reports, the construction was part of a plan of the Minister for the Public Service, which provided that each settlement "has to organize itself and have its own action plan for an attack".
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