The attack was swift. A raid on a humanitarian convoy that supplied Barsalogho, a small town in the north of Burkina Faso which, in a few months, had become a huge camp where some 300,000 refugees were crammed. In the middle of Saturday afternoon, the jihadists opened fire on the caravan, killing seven gendarmes of the escort and six civilians. Some of the latter were armed and members of Volunteers for the Fatherland. A report probably provisional, six other soldiers are missing, according to the governor of the province.
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The same morning, this time in the east of the country, another massacre had also been attributed to the Islamist groups operating in the country. Customers at the Kompeinbiga cattle market fell into a shootout. Armed men " burst onto motorcycles and started shooting, especially at people who were trying to flee, " a witness told AFP. Other attackers are said to have ransomed the merchants during this time. The death toll remains difficult to establish for the moment, and will doubtless remain so for a long time, as is often the case in Burkina Faso. " They probably amount to several tens, " said a local elected official.
This renewed violence, which the Burkinabé press called a " black weekend ", caused a shock. " It shouldn't. In reality the jihadists have been operating in these two areas for years. What was surprising is that there have been civilian deaths, which has not been the case in recent months, "said Mahamoudou Savadogo, specialist in armed groups in the Sahel. A kind of return to “ normal ”, 2019 having been the bloodiest year for the country. According to the Armed Conflict location and Event data project (Acled), nearly 1,300 civilians were killed. The country also has nearly 900,000 displaced people.
"Submit or die"
For a military analyst, these two attacks show above all the extent of the jihadist grip on Burkina, which has only increased since the beginning of the year. " The context is quite special because the first months of 2020 were marked by the confrontation between the Islamist factions ," he said. The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), linked to al-Qaida, has largely driven its rival, the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara (EIGS), from the north of the country. The GSIM, through its local subsidiary Ansarul Islam, is now sole master of the province of Soum. The defense and security forces (SDS), like the Burkinabé army, hardly ever go there, almost all the military camps having been deserted. “ We have no choice. We had to submit to the Islamists, who put up roadblocks, or die. And if you submit, you risk being killed later by soldiers who consider you an accomplice, "said a desperate villager, who finally chose to flee the province last fall. The northern area of Soum is now almost completely deserted by its inhabitants. Djibo, the capital, is literally under siege. The road, which connects the city to Ouagadougou, the capital, is regularly trapped, and cars are attacked there. " Without the support of Barkhane, Djibo would have already fallen, " says the analyst.
In the east, jihadist movements also largely control the terrain. The vast military operation, launched in March 2019 by the SDF to drive out the jihadists from this region, is only a memory. " The militiamen hid and returned as soon as the soldiers left, " said a local security source. In this part of the country too, the struggle between the EIGS, which is still very close to the east, and the GSIM, is helping to further worsen the situation. The GSIM, which has four locations there, is said to be strengthening. " It is very possible that the latest killings are linked to the will of groups to appropriate mining sites or lucrative markets at the expense of the other, " continues the security source.
For Mahamoudou Savadogo, civilian casualties are also due to the growing confusion between militiamen and ordinary citizens. The decision, voted by the National Assembly in January 2020, to create the body of Volunteers for the defense of the fatherland, of armed civilians, increased the phenomenon. The latter, often poorly trained, are believed to be the source of numerous abuses. " They are also mainly recruited from the Mossi ethnic group and this also exacerbates clan rivalries ," laments the researcher, for whom it is urgent to " dissolve this body". "It is only by strengthening the regular army that we will have a chance of winning this war, " he said.