Five people, including two soldiers, were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in eastern Burkina Faso on Thursday, security circles and local sources told AFP on Friday.
On Thursday, “more than a hundred armed men attacked the village of Partiaga in Tapoa province (east). Unfortunately, five people, three civilians and two soldiers, were killed,” a security source said.
According to the same source, “more than fifteen terrorists were neutralized” by soldiers and volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP, Army Civilian Aid).
A resident of Partiaga also mentioned a figure of “five dead during the attack”.
“In their escape after the army’s response, the terrorists burned attics (food) and houses,” the resident said on condition of anonymity.
On Thursday morning, members of civil society and other socio-professional and religious organizations in Tapoa province, meeting in Diapaga, its capital, in a statement read to the local press, urged the authorities “to act to tighten the grip.” loosen “armed terrorist groups” on the province’s communities to “prevent the worst”.
“The last few weeks have not been easy for us at all. More than fifty people have been killed by people we have not yet identified and who continue to make us fear the worst,” lamented her spokeswoman Kondjoa Pierre Yonli.
According to him, the administration works in only two cities of the province, Diapaga and Kantchari.
“All other communities are under the influence of terrorists who dictate their laws to the poor, who are forced to submit to the will of the new strongmen of the moment,” he said.
Deadly raids attributed to jihadists have multiplied in recent weeks in Burkina.
About 60 people died last week and 50 the week before, according to an AFP count.
Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught in a spiral of jihadist violence since 2015 that emerged a few years earlier in Mali and Niger and is spreading across their borders.
According to NGOs, the violence left more than 10,000 dead – civilians and soldiers – and about two million displaced.