PARIS, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nearly 60 “terrorists” have been killed in Burkina Faso by local forces assisted by French forces deployed in the country, France’s military said, as a bloody insurgency rages.
“On four occasions between Jan 16 and Jan 23, 2022, groups of terrorists were located, identified and neutralised by Burkinabe forces and by (foreign) units… in total nearly 60 terrorists were taken out,” the French military said in a statement.
Burkina Faso has been struggling with jihadist attacks since 2015, when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group began mounting cross-border raids from Mali.
More than 2,000 people have died.
The national emergency aid agency says that 1.5 million people, nearly two-thirds of them children, were internally displaced as of Nov 30, 2021.
The country’s security forces are poorly equipped to face a ruthless and highly mobile foe, adept at carrying out hit-and-run raids aboard motorbikes and pickup trucks.
On Nov 14, a force described as numbering several hundred men attacked a police base at Inata near the Malian border, killing 57 people, including 53 gendarmes.
On Dec 23, 41 people were killed when a convoy of traders was ambushed near Ouahigouya, also near the Malian frontier. — NNN-AGENCIES
