The authors remain “unknown”. At least 70 people, mostly children and the elderly, died in “killings” in north-central Burkina Faso in early November, prosecutor Simon Gnanou announced on Monday.
These massacres, perpetrated on November 5 in Zaongo, left 70 victims, according to a provisional report, “mainly children and elderly people”, indicates the prosecutor in a press release, adding that “the perpetrators of the atrocities remain unknown for the moment” . On Sunday, the European Union mentioned this massacre, calling on the authorities in Ouagadougou to “shed light” on it.
Residents suspected of having “collaborated”
The prosecutor specifies that hearing the “relatives of the victims and the injured will make it possible to specify the exact number of deaths”. “The massacre took place two days after fighting between security forces and terrorists. Zaongo was one of the few villages in the area that had not yet been emptied by terrorists. Some suspected the residents of collaborating with them,” a local resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
The prosecutor explained that he went to the scene on November 11 with a team composed in particular of a military investigating judge, elements of the Special Brigade for Anti-Terrorism Investigations and the Fight against Organized Crime as well as gendarmes. He also praised the defense and security forces who “carried out mine clearance” along the route in this area where jihadist groups operate and repelled “an attack against the convoy”.