Ouagadougou
– Suspected jihadists have killed 18 civilians in an attack in northern Burkina
Faso, the governor of the Sahel region said.
“The defence and security
forces brought back the body of the nurse to give it to her family in Yalgo and
secure the area to allow the burial of other victims,” Colonel Salfo
Kabore said on Sunday.
Several similar attacks were
carried out a week ago in the country’s north, with one on January 25, leaving
39 civilians dead in the neighbouring province of Soum, northwest of Seno.
A security source told AFP that
during the massacre, which took place in Lamdamol village in Seno province on Saturday, “the attackers, heavily armed and on motorbikes, literally executed the
local inhabitants”.
A local health official, speaking
from the town of Dori in the north, said the chief nurse at the nearby village
of Lamdamol was among the victims.
‘Difficult to be everywhere at once’
“There is panic in the
village and the surrounding area,” the official added, saying local people
were fleeing the area towards the centre-north of the country.
Another security source said that
the attack had come as a reprisal after jihadists had told local people to
leave the area a few days earlier.
The security forces worked day
and night to make the zone safe, “but it is difficult to be everywhere at
once”, said the source.
Burkina Faso borders Mali to the
northwest and Niger to the east, both countries that are struggling to contain
a wave of lethal jihadist attacks.
Burkina Faso security forces,
under-equipped and poorly trained, have not been able to counter the deadly
raids in their territory, despite the help of foreign soldiers, notably French
troops.
According to UN figures, the
jihadist attacks in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso killed 4 000 people in 2019
and caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, forcing 600 000 to flee their
homes.