Thursday , March 28 2024

Dozens killed in another Burkina Faso attack

25 December, 2019

BURKINA FASO/ MELBOURNE: Suspected Islamist militants have killed 35 people, nearly all women, in an attack on a military base and a town in Burkina Faso, local officials say.

They say seven soldiers and 80 militants were killed as the army repelled Tuesday’s attack in Arbinda, the northern Soum province.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore declared two days of national mourning in the landlocked West African country.

No group has so far said it was behind for the attack.

Earlier this month, at least 14 people were killed after gunmen opened fire inside a church in eastern Burkina Faso. Jihadist attacks have increased in Burkina Faso since 2015.

Once relatively stable, Burkina Faso has descended into serious unrest, with a home-grown insurgency and the spillover from jihadist militancy in Mali. Hundreds of people have been killed this year and a million displaced.

The conflict spread across the border from neighboring Mali where Islamist militants took over the north of the country in 2012 before French troops pushed them out. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)

Check Also

Australia debates seizure of Insta-famous magpie

28-03-2024 QUEENSLAND: An Australian state premier has backed a campaign to return an Instagram-famous magpie …