Burkina Faso began a three-day national mourning on Tuesday after an attack that killed at least 79 people in Seytenga, in the north, according to a new report. It was the deadliest attack in a year, in this country that has been regularly hit by jihadists since 2015.
29 new bodies were found. This number was added to the fifty bodies already found, which brought the provisional number of victims of the killings to 79 dead.said a government statement on Tuesday, stating that the search is ongoing.
The development of the army was Take it easy by the possibility of placing pipe bombs of terrorists to destroy the sitecontinue with the text.
They only targeted men
It was the second deadliest attack recorded in Burkina Faso, after in June 2021 against the village of Solhan, in which 132 people were killed according to the government, 160 according to local sources.
According to the European Union, which condemned the attack in Seytenga, the death toll could reach one hundred.
The terrorists arrived in the city on Saturday, market day. They started shooting after they enteredat the end of the afternoon, said by phone toAFP a survivor who wanted to remain anonymous and hid in Dori, the nearest large town.
” They only targeted men. They visited the store one after another, burning some. They shot those who tried to flee. They stayed in town overnight. “
Once the hunt started on Saturday night, with my family, we fled into the bush. We stayed there all night before arriving in Dori on Sunday morning. We took nothing and we found out they burned the houses, so everything was goneexplanation of another survivor.
Seytenga was hit two days earlier, Thursday, by a jihadist attack that killed 11 policemen. According to some evacuees, police left the village the next day. The Burkinabè army has announced in part that it has killed about forty jihadists following the attack on Thursday.
The Weekend Murders are retaliations for army actions that caused bloodshed within jihadist groups, government spokesman Lionel Bilgo said.
A nation in mourning
Tuesday is a time of mourning and concern in the country.
Where is Burkina going? question in private daily on Tuesday The countrylamented the barbarity like no other of the bloody attack over the weekend in Seytenga, located in the Sahelian province of Séno.
A decisive war must be waged! demanded online media Wakat Sera on Tuesday, while the private daily Now in Faso nananaghoy an eleventh massacre that required more courage and fighting spirit.
The national mourning, ordered by the transitional president, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, began on Tuesday midnight and will end at the same time on Friday.
He is observed throughout the national territory, in memory of the victims of the attack carried out by unknown armed individuals against the municipality of Seytengasays the law.
During this time, flags are lowered at half -mast on all public buildings and on Burkina Faso’s representations abroad. at prohibited popular festivities, recreational eventsunderline the text.
After the coming to power of Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba who ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused of being ineffective against insecurity, the attacks of these movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the armed group Islamic State has set the time.
However, they persisted and caused the deaths of nearly 300 civilians and soldiers over the past three months.
In early April, community leaders and fighters from local armed groups began talking about government support, mainly in the north and east of the country.
These border regions of Mali and Niger are the most affected by jihadist violence. It is estimated that since 2015, thousands have been killed in attacks and nearly two million have been displaced in Burkina.
According to’NGO Acled, Burkina Faso experienced more deadly attacks in 2021 than Mali or Niger, which are also regularly hit.
We are witnessing a humanitarian disaster in Burkina Faso. Our generation is waiting for a miraclegraduation of Yeli Monique Kam, former 2020 presidential candidate.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
