At least nine gendarmes and
"ten civilians"
were killed on Sunday in Foubé, in northern Burkina Faso, in an attack attributed to jihadists, the Minister of Communication and government spokesman Ousséni announced on Monday. Drum.
"As we are preparing to proceed with the burial of our valiant fighters who fell in the murderous attack on Inata, scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday, we have unfortunately recorded yet another attack against a gendarmerie detachment in Foubé"
, in the province of Sanmatenga, a north-central region, Ousséni Tamboura told national radio.
See also Burkina Faso: the trial of the assassination of Thomas Sankara postponed to October 25
“Unfortunately, this attack claimed victims, including 9 gendarmes and around ten civilians,”
he lamented. A previous report, communicated earlier by security sources, reported nine gendarmes killed.
"Eight gendarmes are still missing"
, according to the same sources who specify that
"search operations are still in progress".
This new attack on a gendarmerie detachment came a week after that of Inata (north), during which at least 57 people, including 53 gendarmes, were killed, according to a new report also communicated by the Minister. He considered that
"there is a need to consider that we are really at war".
"36 gendarmes (among the 53 killed in Inata) will be buried Tuesday in Ouagadougou"
, he specified, calling
"the populations to pay tribute to these valiant fighters".
This attack in Inata is the deadliest against the defense and security forces since Burkina Faso has been confronted with jihadist actions which have left around 2,000 dead and 1.4 million displaced. A poor country in West Africa, Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of increasing violence attributed to jihadist armed groups, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The attacks, which are increasingly frequent, are mostly concentrated in the north and east of Burkina Faso.
The police, who are paying a heavy price with officially some 500 soldiers killed in six years, seem unable to stop the jihadist violence, which leads to demonstrations of anger from overwhelmed residents in many cities of the country.