Reportage
Burkina: after the attack on a supply convoy, Djibo, under blockade, more than ever asphyxiated
In Ouagadougou, craftsmen replace the windshield of a truck that survived the convoy attacked in Gaskindé, September 26, 2022. © SidyYansané/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
4 mins
After a new coup in Burkina Faso, calm has returned to Ouagadougou.
But the security and humanitarian situation remains just as worrying, especially in Djibo, in the province of Soum.
The city located in the north of the country has been under a jihadist blockade for seven months, famine is likely to settle there.
It is precisely towards this city of 300,000 inhabitants that the supply convoy targeted on September 26 was heading.
An attack that precipitated the putsch on Friday.
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In the capital of Burkina Faso, while craftsmen are replacing the headlights and the windshield of a truck that suffered
the jihadist attack in Gaskindé on September 26
, the president of the union of the Union of road drivers of the Sahel, Abdoul Aziz Zoungrana, shows the damage to vehicles returning to the capital.
"
It's the bullet holes.
That's what caused the engine to stop
, ”he reports at the microphone of our special correspondent in Ouagadougou,
Sidy Yansané
, who was able to meet drivers who survived this massacre.
“
We too are at war
”
In its latest report, the general staff of the armies indicates that ten civilians were killed and three are missing.
Figures that do not satisfy the carriers, who count around thirty of their missing out of a total of 207 drivers who were part of the convoy.
This survivor fled the massacre to walk to the village of Bourzanga, 30 kilometers away.
“
The military plane doing the reconnaissance turned around at the former Gaskindé military camp.
It was shortly after that we heard the shots and the rockets.
I saw dead and injured people, it was life-and-death,
” he says.
The president of the UCRB union, Abdoul Aziz Zoungrana, deplores that the authorities do not integrate carriers into the anti-jihadist fight.
“
We too are at war.
We are in the same fight.
We suffer everything,
he is indignant.
We undergo checks of the rooms, threats, but we go back there again.
There was the attack in Naré, in Taparko, in Déou, in
Seytenga
.
Even in the aftermath of the attacks, we always leave because we too have taken the oath to serve the Sahel.
»
Out of solidarity, the trade union centers will mark a day of mourning this Thursday, until Friday after the prayer.
A first air supply for the inhabitants of Djibo
In the meantime, the 300,000 inhabitants of the capital of the province of Soum, in the north of Burkina, still live under the blockade of armed men.
For months now, they have lacked everything: food, fuel and medicine.
And even if for several months supply convoys escorted by soldiers had been in place, this did not prevent the last one from being attacked.
On Wednesday,
a first air supply was organized by the army
.
For Amadou Tamboura, from the Consultation Framework of Civil Society Organizations in Soum, this will relieve the suffering of the inhabitants, but will not be enough.
“
The population had almost nothing left.
The populations had finished the food they had, because it should be remembered that the convoy which was passing through Djibo to supply the town was attacked on the eve of the coup.
So, in the city, there was nothing.
Around Djibo, there was no agricultural campaign.
People can't even get out of Djibo, even ten meters.
The city is asphyxiated.
Eight children died the day before yesterday.
And before that, others died too.
Some families have even made the decision to leave, despite the risks, he says.
“
For this supply to be useful for something, we have to go beyond that
,” he continues.
The population is asking for an airlift, because it is unacceptable, inadmissible that today, in the 21ᵉ century, someone can die of hunger.
That's all the people are asking for today.
Even if it's one meal a day.
»
Location of Djibo, Burkina Faso.
© RFI
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Burkina Faso
Crime
Humanitarian
Terrorism