The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Attack in Burkina Faso: concern and intense search to find four missing, including three Europeans

2021-04-29T11:47:44.448Z


Four people are missing, including two Spaniards and an Irishman, following an ambush against an anti-poaching patrol


The ambush took place around 8 a.m. on Monday, according to RFI information.

It targeted an anti-poaching patrol made up of soldiers, Burkinabe forest guards, accompanied by Western trainers and journalists, on the Fada N'Gourma-Pama axis in eastern Burkina Faso.

Intense searches by Burkina Faso's security forces were underway on Tuesday, the day after an attack in the east of the country in which four people are missing, a Burkinabé, two Spaniards and an Irishman.

Spain confirmed on Tuesday the disappearance of two of its nationals.

"Two Spanish citizens who were in Burkina Faso are missing," indicate sources within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Spanish authorities "are in permanent contact with the authorities of Burkina Faso [...] in order to locate these two Spaniards" and "regularly inform the families" of the two missing.

Doubts about the state of health of the missing

According to local and security sources, an Irishman and a Burkinabé also disappeared after this attack which also left three injured.

The two Spaniards and the Irishman missing are "journalist-trainers working on behalf of an NGO that works for the protection of the environment", according to a security source from Burkina.

"According to the survivors", two of the missing Europeans "were injured during the attack" and "searches are underway" to find them, as well as the attackers, according to a security source.

But a high-ranking security source fears the missing "may have been killed by terrorists."

The attack was carried out by armed men traveling in two pick-up vehicles and a dozen motorcycles, according to security sources, who specified that weapons and equipment, motorcycles, two pick-ups and a drone, had been taken away by the attackers.

Increasingly frequent jihadist attacks

Several hostage-taking of foreigners have taken place in recent years in Burkina Faso, which has been facing increasingly frequent jihadist attacks since 2015.

An Australian couple had been kidnapped in Djibo, on the border with Mali and Niger, on the night of January 15 to 16, 2016 during an action apparently coordinated with attacks in Ouagadougou.

That night, jihadists opened fire in cafes, restaurants and hotels on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, the center of Ouagadougou nightlife, killing 30 and wounding 71.

The woman, Jocelyn Elliot, had been handed over by her captors to Nigerien authorities about a month after her kidnapping.

She then returned to Burkina Faso before returning to Australia.

The man is still missing.

Read alsoWith the soldiers of the Barkhane force, in the jihadist hell of the Tofagala sanctuary

In December 2018, an Italian-Canadian couple had disappeared on the road between Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou.

He had been released in neighboring Mali, after more than a year in captivity.

A few months earlier, in September 2018, an Indian and a South African were kidnapped from the site of a gold mine in Inata, in northwestern Burkina Faso, then released.

Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger in the grip of jihadist attacks, has also been a regular victim since 2015. First concentrated in the north of the country, bordering Mali, the atrocities attributed to jihadist groups, including the Group Support for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), then targeted the capital and other regions, notably the east and north-west.

Since 2015, the violent actions of the jihadists have left more than 1,200 dead and more than a million displaced, fleeing areas of violence.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2021-04-29

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-24T18:02:21.730Z
News/Politics 2024-02-26T10:23:40.428Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.