BURKINA FASO ARMY KILLS 32 INSURGENTS
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The Burkina Faso army says it has killed 32 “terrorists” in two
operations in the north of the country. This follows recent deadly incidents in the West African country
as it strives to quell a rising insurgency.
One soldier was killed in the military response, which followed an
attack on a patrol, according to an army statement.
The deaths come less than a month after 37 people were killed in an
ambush on a convoy transporting employees of a Canadian mining company.
The army reports that 24 people were killed in the first offensive
on Friday and a further eight in a second operation on Saturday.
The first operation in Yorsala in Loroum province saw a number of
women who “had been held and used by the terrorists as sex slaves” freed.
Arms, ammunition and other materials were also recovered in the
second operation on the outskirts of Bourzanga in Bam province, the army
statement added.
The death toll could not be independently verified. Security
sources, however, had warned that intense fighting had been taking place,
suggesting between “10-15 terrorist deaths”.
The impoverished and politically fragile Sahel country has been
struggling to quell a rising jihadist revolt.
The attacks — typically hit-and-run raids on villages, road mines
and suicide bombings — have claimed nearly 700 lives across the country since
early 2015, according to a UN toll.
Almost 500,000 people have also been forced to flee their homes.
The attacks have been claimed by a range of jihadist groups,
including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The country’s badly equipped, poorly trained and underfunded
security forces have been unable to stem the violence, which has intensified
throughout 2019 to become almost daily.
The Sahel region, including Burkina Faso’s neighbors Mali and Niger,
has been afflicted by the violence despite the presence of the regional G5
Sahel force as well as French and US troops.
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