About 170 people ‘executed’ in Burkina Faso village attacks, official says

Regional prosecutor says he received reports of deaths in three northern settlements as jihadist violence flares

About 170 people were “executed” in attacks on three villages in northern Burkina Faso a week ago, a regional prosecutor has said, as jihadist violence flares in the junta-ruled country.

On that same day, 25 February, separate attacks on a mosque in eastern Burkina and a Catholic church in the north left dozens more dead.

Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said he had received reports of the attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe in Yatenga province, with a provisional toll of “around 170 people executed”.

Others were wounded and there was material damage, the prosecutor for the northern town of Ouahigouya added in a statement, without apportioning blame to any group. He said his office ordered an investigation and appealed to the public for information.

Survivors of the attacks said dozens of women and young children were among the victims.

Local security sources said the attacks were separate from deadly incidents that happened on the same day at a mosque in the rural community of Natiaboani and a church in the village of Essakane.

Authorities have yet to release an official death toll for those attacks but a senior church official said at the time at least 15 civilians were killed in Essakane.

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency waged by rebels affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

The violence has killed almost 20,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries situated in the Sahel, a region racked by instability.

Anger at the state’s inability to end the insecurity played a significant role in two military coups in 2022. The current strongman president, Ibrahim Traoré, has made the fight against rebel groups a priority.

There were a number of attacks on 25 February, notably against a military detachment in Tankoualou in the east, a rapid-response battalion in Kongoussi in the north, and soldiers in the northern region of Ouahigouya.

In response, the army and members of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), a civilian force that supports the military, launched operations that were able “to neutralise several hundred terrorists”, according to security sources.

Earlier this week, the security minister, Mahamadou Sana, described the wave of attacks as “coordinated”.

“This change in the enemy’s tactical approach is because terrorist bases have been destroyed as well as training camps and actions were carried out to dry up the enemy’s source of financing, as well as its supply corridors,” said Sana.

Mosques and imams have in the past been the target of attacks blamed on jihadists.

Churches in Burkina Faso have also at times been targeted and Christians have been kidnapped.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project says 439 people were killed in such violence in January alone.