In the grip of regular violence that appeared in 2015, western Burkina Faso is once again in mourning. Some 33 civilians were killed Thursday in an attack by suspected jihadists.
“On the evening of Thursday, May 11, around 5 p.m., the village of Youlou in the department of Tcheriba, province of Mouhoun, suffered a cowardly and barbaric terrorist attack,” the governor of the Boucle region said on Saturday. du Mouhoun, Babo Pierre Bassinga. “The armed men targeted the peaceful citizens busy with their market gardening activities on the banks of the river”, he added, specifying that the assessment is “provisional”.
The victims buried last Friday
Local sources confirmed the presence of “heavily armed” attackers “on board motorcycles”, who “shot” the market gardeners “without distinction”, specifying that the victims were buried on Friday. Residents of Cheriba also claim that three people were wounded by bullets. They report burning homes and attics, before the withdrawal of the perpetrators of the attack.
According to the governor, “security actions are underway”. He invited the populations to “redouble their vigilance and continue collaboration with the fighting forces for a total victory against terrorism and a definitive return to peace and security in the region”.
Six more months for the state of emergency
This attack comes after the kidnapping of a prefect by armed men, found dead Monday in a forest in the west of the country. At the end of April, 33 soldiers were also killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in the east and twelve were injured. On April 18, at least 24 people, including 20 civilian army auxiliaries, were killed in two attacks by suspected jihadists in the center-east. On April 15, six soldiers and 34 civilian auxiliaries were killed during the assault launched against their detachment in the north of the country.
The state of emergency, in effect since March in eight of the country’s thirteen regions, was extended for six months on Friday by the Transitional Legislative Assembly. Established since 2018 in certain localities before being extended, the state of emergency and its extension aim in particular to “give more opportunities and means to the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) (to) continue their actions of securing the country”, according to the Minister of Justice Bibata Nebié Ouedraogo. In mid-April, the transitional authorities also decreed “general mobilization”, in order to “give the state all the necessary means” to deal with jihadist attacks.