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BURKINA-UNREST-BOMB
Bomb hidden on corpse kills Burkina Faso soldiers
OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A bomb hidden on a corpse dressed in
military uniform has killed two soldiers in Burkina Faso, the military said
Friday.
The booby-trapped male body had been left just outside the northern town
of Djibo, near the border with Mali, and a team was sent to investigate, a
statement from the armed forces general staff said.
“The body, which turned out to be a trap, exploded when it was handled,
killing two soldiers and wounding six, three of them seriously,” it said.
A security source told AFP that the corpse exploded on Thursday when
soldiers tried to turn it over, killing an army doctor on the spot, and
wounding others.
Burkina Faso, in the heart of Africa’s vast Sahel region, is struggling
with a bloody Islamist insurgency as well as bouts of social unrest.
More than 300 people have been killed in Burkina Faso in four years of
jihadist attacks, according to an AFP count.
Last week there were three attacks, one of which killed five members of
the security forces on the same day President Roch Marc Christian Kabore
hosted a regional summit on the fight against terrorism.
The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times, most recently in March
2018.
On Thursday, the United Nations said 1.2 million people in the country are
in need of humanitarian aid.
About 83,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of the
violence, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs. More than 1,000 schools have been closed, depriving 150,000 children
of an education.
About 120,000 people do not have access to medical care in areas most
affected by the violence.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1634 hrs