Another "jihadist attack" in northern Burkina Faso killed 20 civilians overnight Saturday, February 1 to Sunday, February 2, in Lamdamol, a village in northern Burkina Faso, a security source said. .

The heavily armed attackers aboard motorcycles literally executed the inhabitants of the locality "located in the commune of Bani, 40km from Gorgadji, in the province of Séno, added this source.

According to a health worker joined in Dori (north), "the head nurse of the local health center, who joined his post in the village of Lamdamol, was killed in this attack". "There is panic in the village and surrounding localities. The populations are fleeing towards the center-north, even residents of Gorgadji are deserting the area," said the official.

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Another security source, contacted by AFP, confirmed this jihadist attack, evoking "reprisals against the inhabitants who had been summoned a few days earlier to leave the places".

This attack on the civilian population comes a week after several others in the north and the center.

On 25 January, 39 civilians were killed in a jihadist attack, perpetrated in the village of Silgadji, a town in the commune of Tongomayel, in the province of Soum.

Spiral of violence

Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, is facing jihadist attacks that have left nearly 800 dead since 2015.

Under-equipped and poorly trained, the Burkinabè security forces fail to stem the spiral of violence despite the help of foreign soldiers, notably the French force Barkhane.

According to the UN, jihadist attacks in Mali, Niger and Burkina killed 4,000 in 2019 and provoked an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with 600,000 displaced people and refugees fleeing the violence.

With AFP

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