Around 50 civilians were killed on Wednesday in an attack carried out by suspected jihadists in eastern Burkina Faso, the governor of the eastern region where it occurred, Colonel Hubert Yameogo, announced on Thursday.
Read alsoIn Burkina Faso, the frenetic spiral of violence
"
Residents of Madjoari
", a locality placed under blockade by jihadists and who were trying to leave it, "
were targeted (...) by unidentified armed individuals
", said Colonel Yameogo in a press release sent to the AFP.
“
The provisional toll
” reports “
about fifty people killed
”, he said.
Like other municipalities in the north and east of Burkina, that of Madjoari has been placed under blockade by the jihadists who strike in these regions.
Deprived of supplies, its inhabitants have been trying to flee since last week, several of them told AFP from Ouagadougou.
It is "
these populations who were intercepted and executed by the terrorists
", indicated one of these inhabitants, specifying that "
all the victims are men
".
The governor of the Eastern region, assured that "
security actions are underway to restore tranquility
".
This attack follows several others recorded recently in Madjoari against soldiers and civilians.
On May 19, the military detachment was targeted there, killing eleven soldiers and wounding twenty others.
Five days earlier, an attack on civilian populations had left 17 dead and seven injured.
Burkina Faso, particularly the north and east, has been the target of jihadist attacks since 2015 perpetrated by movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State which have left more than 2,000 dead and 1.8 million moved.
The country's new strongman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who overthrew elected President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré at the end of January, accused of being ineffective in the face of jihadist violence, has made the security issue his "
priority
".
After a relative lull when he took power, Sandaogo Damiba has since faced an upsurge in attacks by suspected jihadists which have killed some 200 civilians and soldiers.
