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BFASO-UNREST
12 civilians killed in jihadist attack in Burkina Faso
OUAGADOUGOU, Jan 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Twelve civilians were killed on
Thursday during a jihadist attack in the north of Burkina Faso, which has
been battling a wave of Islamist violence, officials said Friday.
The west African country declared a state of emergency in several
provinces at the end of last year and on Thursday replaced its army chief as
it struggled to put a stop to a spate of such attacks.
In the latest violence, gunmen attacked a village market in broad
daylight, the security ministry said in a statement issued late Friday.
“Around 30 armed individuals perpetrated… a terrorist attack in the
village of Gasseliki,” it said, giving a toll of 12 dead and two wounded.
“A barn, a cart and six shops were also set alight,” it added.
A local source told AFP that the attackers “ransacked stores and opened
fire on people who had gathered for the weekly market”.
Jihadist attacks began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 but then spread to
the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.
The country is part of the vast Sahel region and one of the poorest states
in the world.
The region turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness after
chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, which was followed by an Islamist insurgency in
northern Mali and the rise of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.
Most attacks in Burkina Faso itself have been attributed to the jihadist
group Ansarul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and
to the JNIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims), which has sworn
allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Ansarul Islam emerged as violence spilled over from Mali, where radical
Islamists seized key Sahara towns in 2012 before being ousted by French
troops.
Smaller groups are also active, with the overall number of fighters
estimated to be in the hundreds, according to security sources.
The groups are believed to be responsible for more than 270 deaths since
2015. The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times and almost 60 people
have died there.
The jihadists extend their hold gradually, forcing government workers and
others who oppose them to flee. The violence has so far displaced some 40,000
people.
In the north, armed groups move freely through the country’s porous
borders.
The jihadists mainly target the security forces, but also attack
government officials and local chiefs who oppose them.
Teachers are vulnerable due to the jihadists’ fierce opposition to
secular, French education, with their threats and attacks sparking the
closure of hundreds of schools in the north and the east.
As the country struggles to get on top of the violence, army chief Major
General Oumarou Sadou was replaced on Thursday by General Moise Minoungou,
according to a presidential decree read on public television.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0845 hrs