At least thirteen people, including ten gendarmes, two army auxiliaries and a civilian, were killed Monday during an attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, the Burkinabè army announced on Tuesday January 31.

Gendarmes and Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, army auxiliaries) stationed in the locality of Falangoutou, in the Sahel region (north), "faced an attack on Monday afternoon terrorist," the army general staff said in a statement.

"The provisional balance sheet recorded shows twelve fallen fighters, including two VDP", according to the staff who also speaks of a civilian killed.

"At least five gendarmes were injured and a dozen others", missing, are "still wanted", specifies the army by affirming that, "on the enemy side, about fifteen bodies of terrorists were found during search operations which are still ongoing".

The general staff affirms that this attack was carried out by "the residual elements of the armed groups" who "undertook to blindly attack the populations" after having been "defeated a few weeks ago by the forces engaged in the reconquest of the national territory".

Saluting the memory of "combatants who fell for their country", the army staff "calls on the populations not to be discouraged by an enemy at bay and to mobilize more than ever behind the Defense and security and the VDP engaged in the reconquest of the territory".

Jihadist threat

Last Thursday, at least a dozen civilians were killed in two attacks by suspected jihadists in central-western Burkina Faso, about 140 km from Ouagadougou.

A week earlier, a series of attacks hit several regions in the north and north-west of Burkina, killing around 30 people, including around 15 VDPs.

Burkina Faso, in particular its northern part, has been confronted since 2015 with increasing attacks by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

They left thousands dead and at least two million displaced.

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president resulting from a military coup on September 30, 2022 - the second in eight months - has set himself the objective of "reclaiming the territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists".

Burkina had been helped for several years in its fight against the jihadists by French special forces based in Ouagadougou, but Captain Traoré's regime asked them to pack up within a month.

A decision motivated by "the will of the authorities of the transition and of all the Burkinabè to be the first actors in the reconquest of our territory", according to the spokesman of the government, Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo.

With AFP

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