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Forty-four civilians have been killed by “armed terrorist teams” in two villages in northeastern Burkina Faso, close to the Niger border, a regional governor mentioned Saturday.
The provisional toll of “this despicable and barbaric assault” which focused the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in northeast Burkina Faso in a single day Thursday “is 44 civilians killed and others wounded,” mentioned Rodolphe Sorgho, lieutenant-governor of the Sahel area.
Sorgho mentioned that 31 individuals had died in Kourakou and 13 in Tondobi.
The regional official mentioned that a military offensive put “out of motion the armed terrorist teams” that carried out the killings.
The governor additionally assured that “actions to stabilise the world are below manner”.
The dual assaults occurred near the village of Seytenga, the place 86 civilians had been killed final June in one of many bloodiest assaults of a long-running insurgency.
The impoverished Sahel nation is grappling with a seven-year-old marketing campaign by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Burkina Faso’s new army chief on Thursday vowed to step up a “dynamic offensive” in opposition to jihadists following a string of rebel assaults because the begin of the yr.
“The dynamic offensive below manner prior to now few weeks will probably be stepped as much as pressure armed teams to put down their weapons,” mentioned Colonel Celestin Simpore after a handover ceremony following his appointment final week.
Sorgho on Saturday invited the native inhabitants to hitch the Entrance for the Defence of the Fatherland (FDS) — a pro-junta motion, and enrol within the VDP volunteer militia.
For the reason that jihadists launched their marketing campaign from neighbouring Mali in 2015, greater than 10,000 civilians, troops and police have been killed, in keeping with one NGO estimate, and at the least two million individuals have been displaced.
Burkina Faso witnessed two coups last year. Since junta chief Ibrahim Traore seized energy in September, the actions of all political events and civil society organisations within the nation have been suspended.
(AFP)
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