Dozens killed in separate Burkina Faso attacks

An armed group in Burkina Faso attacked a cattle market and a humanitarian convoy, killing at least 35 people, the government said on Sunday.

Twenty-five people were killed and more wounded in the attack on the market in the eastern village of Kompienga, while five civilians and five military police were killed near the northern village of Foube, the government said in a statement.

More:

• Burkina Faso comedians combat COVID-19 anxiety with humour

• ‘Kill the men, free the girls’: A family abducted in Burkina Faso

• Out of school, forced to fight: Children pay price for Sahel war

Armed groups “targeted a humanitarian convoy returning from Foube after delivering supplies”, it said.

A further 20 people were wounded in the convoy attack, it said.

No group has claimed responsibility.

Saturday’s violence underscores deep instability in parts of Burkina Faso, which has been battling armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) since 2017.

Hundreds have been killed in the past year in the Sahel nation, and more than half a million people have fled their homes due to the violence, which has also raised ethnic and religious tensions.

The bloodshed follows the death of at least 15 people on Friday in an attack on a convoy transporting traders in northern Burkina Faso. That attack, in Loroum province, was also blamed on armed groups.

In the past five years, more than 900 people have been killed by armed groups, while some 860,000 people have fled their homes.

The Sahel country is part of a regional effort to battle an armed uprising along with Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Chad.

 

Their militaries, under-equipped and poorly trained, are supported by 5,000 French troops in the region.

 

Unrest in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger killed approximately 4,000 people last year, according to UN figures.