No fewer than 170 people were killed in brutal attacks on three villages in northern Burkina Faso a week ago, marking a surge in jihadist violence, according to regional prosecutor Aly Benjamin Coulibaly. The villages of Komsilga, Nodin, and Soroe in Yatenga witnessed these murders.
Survivors of the attacks recounted the harrowing scenes, with numerous women and young children among the victims.
On February 25, separate attacks struck a mosque in the eastern region of the country, and a Catholic church in the north, resulting in dozens of causalities, thereby adding to the previously high death toll.
Although the prosecutor refrained from assigning blame to any single group, he launched an inquiry and solicited information from the public.
The attacks also targeted a military detachment in Tankoualou–a rapid-response battalion in Kongoussi–along with soldiers in Ouahigouya’s northern region. The army, along with the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland, successfully neutralized several hundred terrorists.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been fighting a jihadist insurgency affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which has killed 20,000 individuals and displaced over 2 million others.
The recent increase in violence has not only harmed residents of remote communities, but went so far as prompting military coups in 2022.