ZCZC
BFF-37
BURKINA-UNREST
Nineteen killed in Burkina Faso’s volatile north
OUAGADOUGOU, June 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Nineteen people died in an attack
on a village in the troubled north of Burkina Faso, a security source said
Monday.
“Several dozen armed men carried out an attack on the district of Arbinda,
shooting several people dead,” on Sunday, a local official told AFP, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
A security source said “19 bodies have been found”.
The official said the attack took place “between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm
(local and GMT) when a group of assailants opened fire on locals”.
An emergency meeting was under way Monday to discuss the situation, the
official said.
The security source said on Sunday morning three vehicles had been stopped
and burnt and a driver killed before the attack.
Arbinda has witnessed a spate of deadly violence in recent months despite
an operation to clear the area of jihadists.
At the start of April, 62 people were killed in jihadist attacks and
ensuing ethnic clashes in Arbinda.
Burkina Faso has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks
attributed to a number of jihadist groups, including the Ansarul Islam group,
the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and Islamic State in the
Greater Sahara.
The raids began in 2015 in the north before targeting the capital
Ouagadougou and other regions, notably in the east.
Nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015 — mainly in hit-and-run
raids — according to an AFP tally.
Jihadist groups target Christian clerics as well as Muslim ones they do
not consider sufficiently radical in a country where traditionally both
religions have co-existed peaceably.
Former colonial ruler France has deployed 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina
Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces
flush out jihadists.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2020HRS