Burkina Faso has been facing a resurgence of jihadist violence since the start of the year. At least 70 Burkinabé soldiers have died in four days in two attacks in the north, near Mali. The deadly raids attributed to jihadist groups have killed more than 200 civilians and soldiers in Burkina since the beginning of January.
Monday evening, at least fifteen soldiers were killed in the province of Oudalan in the far north of the country, a few kilometers from the Malian border, according to security sources. “The Tin-Akoff detachment was the target of a violent attack”, indicated a first source, evoking a balance sheet of “fifteen deaths” and “elements which are missing”.
The deadliest attack since the putsch
The balance sheet could increase: a second security source put forward a balance sheet of 19 dead and “dozens of missing”. According to the first source, the air and ground response of the Burkinabe army made it possible to “neutralize” “dozens of terrorists”. And the operations continue, according to this source, “concentrated in the province of Oudalan which has experienced a resurgence of violence in recent days”.
It is in this province, near Déou, that at least 51 soldiers were killed Friday in an ambush, a still provisional assessment, according to the army. This is the deadliest attack since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power, during a putsch at the end of September 2022: it is also the one that has caused the most deaths in the army since November 2021. At the time, 57 gendarmes had been killed after unsuccessfully appealing for help.
“Support the authorities of the transition”
This attack had then caused a deep trauma within the armed forces and the opinion. It occurred shortly before the first coup d’etat of January 2022 which overthrew elected President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused of “incapacity” in the face of the jihadists. In a reaction on Tuesday to the ambush of Deou, Captain Traoré affirmed that in this “combat strewn with pitfalls”, the “patriotic outburst” and the “determination” of the authorities remained “intact until the final victory” against jihadist groups.
According to the army, the response to this attack on Friday killed 160 jihadists. The head of the junta can count on the support of several political parties and civil society organizations. “In these difficult times, I urge all Burkinabés to cultivate the spirit of national unity, and to support the authorities of the transition, in their determination to restore our territorial integrity,” said Zéphirin Diabré in a press release. president of the Union for Change (UPC) and former minister of President Kaboré. The violence has claimed more than 10,000 lives over the past seven years – civilians and soldiers – according to NGOs, and some two million displaced.