OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Militants killed around 20 people in attacks in three villages in northern Burkina Faso’s Seno province on Wednesday, a government spokesman said Thursday.
“Armed terrorist groups attacked civilian populations in the villages of Demniol, Bombofa and Peteguerse (commune of Gorgadji). The provisional count of these attacks perpetrated in markets and villages shows about 20 victims, as well as wounded and missing persons,” Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said in a statement.
Regional governor Salfo Kabore confirmed the attack in another statement.
An area resident said at least 24 people were killed in the attacks.
“Wednesday is the day of the weekly market in the area,” said the resident, adding that the toll could be much higher as many people were still missing.
“The government condemns these cowardly and barbaric attacks against the peaceful civilian population,” said Dandjinou, adding that security forces have been deployed to the three villages.
Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, is being battered by an insurgency that came in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Hundreds have been killed in dozens of attacks on civilians this year.
Earlier this month 25 civilians, most of them people displaced by militants violence, were killed in an ambush in the central-north of the country, according to the UN’s refugee agency. — NNN-AGENCIES
