Burkina Faso: Up to 200 people killed in attack in Barsalogho region


An armed group linked to al-Qaeda, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has claimed responsibility for what it says was an attack that killed up to 200 people and injured at least 140 in central Burkina Faso.

The attack took place on Saturday in the region of Barsalogho, about 40km (25 miles) north of the strategic town of Kaya, which analysts said is home to the last standing force protecting the capital, Ouagadougou. Fighters opened fire on teams of people digging trenches designed to protect security outposts. Several soldiers were missing after the attack, and the attackers took weapons and a military ambulance.

Read more…
Source: Al Jazeera News


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Islamic extremism wracks Burkina Faso, spreading east

    January 10, 2020

    Nearly 1,000 civilians were killed in 2019 by local militias and fighters linked to Islamic extremists, a spike in attacks of nearly 190%, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which collects and analyzes conflict information. The violence in northern and now eastern Burkina Faso has displaced more than half a million people, ...

  • More than a dozen killed in Burkina Faso bus attack

    January 5, 2020

    At least 14 people, including seven children, have been killed when a bus carrying students ran over an improvised explosive device in northern Burkina Faso, according to the government. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for Saturday’s blast, which hit one bus in a convoy of three that was carrying 160 passengers in all, ...

  • ‘Poor man’s bomb’ reaps bloody toll in African jihadist hotspot

    December 18, 2019

    They are cheap, made from components that are easily obtained – and murderously effective. Security experts say that in the arsenal of jihadist groups whose insurgency is shaking the Sahel state of Burkina Faso, the improvised explosive device (IED) is one of the deadliest weapons. “With 15,000-20,000 CFA francs (US$25), you’ve got an IED that can destroy ...

  • In Sahel, French troops hunt hidden menace of jihadist landmines

    December 4, 2019

    The unit commander’s order crackles over the radio and the column of French armoured vehicles en route between Burkina Faso and Mali comes to a sudden halt. In the Sahel scrub some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Deou, in northern Burkina Faso, the vehicles fall into a semi-circle. Eight military engineers step out and walk in an ...

  • UN chief: Terrorists strengthen foothold in Africa’s Sahel

    November 14, 2019

    Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that terrorist groups have strengthened their foothold across Africa’s Sahel region, which is experiencing escalating violence. The U.N. chief said in a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Wednesday that the expanding foothold is “making large swaths of territory unstable and stoking ethnic, violence, especially in Burkina Faso and Mali.” Guterres ...

  • Burkina Faso: Gunmen kill 37 in ambush on mining firm convoy

    November 7, 2019

    At least 37 people have been killed and 60 wounded in an attack on a mining company convoy in Burkina Faso, authorities say. Five buses carrying staff of Canadian firm Semafo were ambushed on Wednesday about 40km (24 miles) from the eastern town of Boungou, reports say. A military escort vehicle was reportedly struck by an explosive ...

  • French soldier killed by IED as ISIS claim deadly attack on Malian troops

    November 3, 2019

    ISIS has claimed an attack in Mali’s volatile east nera the border with Niger that killed a French soldier on Saturday, a day after 53 Malian troops were massacred in the same area. Militants “detonated an explosive device on a French army convoy in the Indelimane area”, ISIS said on its Telegram channel. The recent wave of ...

  • 2 soldiers killed in attack in central province of Burkina Faso

    October 31, 2019

    An explosive device attack on Wednesday claimed the lives of two soldiers of Burkina Faso army in central-northern of the terrorism-torn country, security source on Thursday told Xinhua in the capital Ouagadougou. A military convoy from Djibo heading to Ougadougou was subject to an improvised explosive device on the road axis linking Djibo, in the Soum ...

  • Dozens killed in two Burkina Faso attacks

    September 9, 2019

    At least 29 people were killed in two separate incidents in Burkina Faso’s troubled north on Sunday after a food convoy and a transport truck were attacked, the government said. One vehicle transporting people and goods “rode over an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Barsalogho area” leaving at least 15 passengers dead, government spokesman Remis ...

  • Terrorism ‘spreading and destabilizing’ entire regions, Guterres warns States, at key Kenya conference

    July 9, 2019

    Speaking in Nairobi at the opening of a conference on counter-terrorism, Mr. Guterres recalled how attackers had laid siege to a hotel complex in the capital in January, killing 21 people. Africans on ‘front line’ against terror The deteriorating situation in the Sahel and “increasing risks” in West Africa are also deeply concerning, the UN chief continued, amid ...

  • The growing threat of IEDs in western Niger

    June 19, 2019

    Over the past seven months, armed groups across Western Niger have executed a series of IED attacks – a first in the area’s ongoing insurgency. The increasing use of IEDs by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in the Tillabery and Tahoua regions of Niger indicates that the region’s insurgency is escalating and globalizing, ...

  • Roadside bombs kill Burkina Faso police and military personnel in the Gourma

    March 18, 2019

    Five members of the security forces were killed in roadside bomb attacks in eastern Burkina Faso at the weekend, officials said on Monday, March 18. A police officer and a soldier were killed on Saturday when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Kompienga province, a security official said, AFP reported. Burkina Faso’s AIB news agency reported unnamed ...

  • Bomb Hidden In Corpse Kills Burkina Faso Army Doctor

    February 15, 2019

    A bomb hidden in a corpse dressed in military uniform killed an army doctor and wounded two police officers in northern Burkina Faso, a security official told AFP on Thursday. Soldiers and police were sent to inspect the male body after it was discovered abandoned on a road in the town of Djibo near the border ...

  • Burkina Faso: Four police among five dead in IED blast

    December 1, 2018

    Five people including four police officers have been killed by an explosive device left on a road in eastern Burkina Faso, reports say. Friday’s blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) took place in Boungou, an area that has seen a series of attacks attributed to jihadist militants. The police officers were providing an escort to goldmine ...

  • Irish Defence Forces send team to west Africa to train troops on explosives

    November 29, 2018

    The Defence Forces have deployed a team of specialists to west Africa to help train troops from other countries in countering improvised explosive devices and mine awareness. The deployment is being made under a commitment given by the Government a year ago to support the United Nations mine action service, UNMAS. The Irish will train and educate ...

  • New Al Qaeda cell forms in Burkina Faso, as terror group cements foothold in Africa

    October 9, 2018

    While the exploits of ISIS may have splashed across more headlines in recent years, there is growing concern among U.S. officials that Al Qaeda (AQ) is the much more dangerous force in the Sahel region of Africa, where the group threatens American and other allied forces. AQ in September declared it had formed a “new cell” ...

  • Blast kills eight soldiers in new blow to jihadist-hit Burkina

    September 26, 2018

    Eight soldiers were killed by a blast in northern Burkina Faso on Wednesday, in the latest blow to the poor Sahel country grappling with jihadism. “I have just learned that eight Burkinabe soldiers died after their vehicle drove over a home-made mine planted by the enemies of our people,” President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in ...

  • The fledgling insurgency in Burkina’s east

    September 20, 2018

    Since February this year, a new battlefront has emerged in eastern Burkina Faso (ACLED, 2018), in the Est Region situated along the borders with Niger, Benin, and Togo is regarded as a bastion of banditry. However, militancy is a new phenomenon in this part of the country, except the reported failed attempt by Al-Mourabitoun to ...

  • Blast kills 7 security personnel in Burkina Faso

    August 29, 2018

    Seven members of the security forces were killed early Tuesday after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in eastern Burkina Faso, security sources said. The fatalities were gendarmes and troops who had been sent to the town of Pama as reinforcements after a police station there came under attack, they said. “Seven members of the defence and ...

  • Burkina Faso attack: Ouagadougou sees gunfire and explosion

    March 2, 2018

    Gunfire and an explosion have been heard near the army headquarters and the French embassy in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. Witnesses have reported seeing armed men getting out of a car and opening fire before heading towards the embassy. “An attack is under way,” the French ambassador tweeted. Read more… Source: BBC News  

  • EU doubles Sahel force funding but African leaders issue warning

    February 24, 2018

    European leaders on Friday doubled their funding for a force tackling jihadists in the Sahel, but African leaders warned the money must come quickly if it is to be effective. The European Union announced an extra 50 million euros ($61 million) for the G5 Sahel force at a conference in Brussels with heads of state from ...