An attack in Burkina Faso caused international horror at the weekend.

According to the government, armed attackers had massacred a village in the north of the West African country.

138 residents were killed, including several children.

It was the worst attack in the conflict-ridden state in years, it said.

However, attacks on the civilian population occur regularly in the crisis-ridden Sahel region, but often with lower casualties.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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    As a government spokesman announced on Saturday, armed attackers had attacked the village of Solhan in Yagha province near the border with Niger the night before.

    They set fire to several houses and the market, overwhelmed a civil defense unit and killed defenseless residents.

    Local residents said they saw dozens of injuries in nearby medical wards.

    Many people have fled to the larger city of Sebba.

    The village of Solhan has been raided several times in the past.

    The government announcement identified the attackers as terrorists, but no terrorist organization had claimed responsibility for the crime by noon on Sunday.

    Three days of national mourning

    The President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Kaboré, described the attack as "barbaric" and "hideous". The people in Burkina Faso must stand united and strong against the “forces of evil”. The government ordered a three day state mourning. The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said he was horrified and condemned "the heinous attack in the strongest possible way." According to his spokesman, he stressed the "urgent need for the international community to give member states more support in the fight against violent extremism".

    Burkina Faso, a landlocked country with 20.5 million inhabitants, has been a hotspot of terrorist activity in the Sahel region, which also includes Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania, since 2015.

    Terrorists are increasingly attacking, especially in the triangle between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.

    According to the United Nations, the security situation has deteriorated significantly in the past two years, particularly in the north and east.

    3.5 million people needed humanitarian aid

    More than a million people have been displaced within the country, and more than every third child is threatened with being recruited as fighters or helpers by an armed group or with forced labor. About 3.5 million people needed humanitarian aid. Burkina Faso has also taken in almost 20,000 refugees from other countries, most of them from Mali. Terrorists with ties to the "Islamic State" and Al-Qaeda are active in the country. Many of the armed groups have links with extremists and gangs in neighboring countries. The heads of government of the five Sahel countries formed a regional organization in 2014. A joint task force that is militarily supported by France has been part of it since 2017.

    A good three weeks ago, the defense minister and officers of Burkina Faso visited the city of Sebba and assured the people that normalcy could return to their lives. But as observers from the region report, there can be no question of this. To fight the terrorists, the government is also relying on mercenaries and training and armed civilian volunteers. However, human rights organizations fear that violence will worsen when citizens take control of the law.

    In addition, there are indications that government security forces are among the perpetrators. In July last year, a mass grave with more than 180 bodies was found in the north of the country. According to the organization Human Rights Watch, there are indications that security forces were involved in turning the area into "battlefields". Amnesty International also claims to have uncovered gross human rights violations by security forces. As in other terror-ridden countries, it is often not clear to the population which groups are responsible for the attacks.

    According to media reports, just hours before the massacre in Solhan on Friday, another attack on another village in the same region occurred. 14 people were killed, including an armed volunteer who rushed to aid.