According to the SITE Intelligence Group on Tuesday, the attack on a convoy in Burkina Faso that resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen soldiers last month was carried out by the Sahel-based affiliate of al-Qaeda, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM).
A supply convoy carrying goods to a community in northern Burkina Faso was ambushed on September 26 by the Al-Qaeda affiliate days before the West African nation saw its second military coup this year.
According to the statement, JNIM claimed responsibility for the ambush and said it “caused huge economic losses to the adversary and ‘led to a shakeup’ in the ranks of the Burkinabe army, culminating in the military coup.
The former administration said that following the attack, 11 troops were discovered dead and about 50 people were reported missing.
This development comes after Burkina Faso’s ousted coup leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba left the country for Togo Sunday two days after he himself was overthrown in a coup, while the new junta urged citizens not to loot or vandalise.
Their seizure of power was the second military coup in Burkina Faso this year, escalating worries that the upheaval in politics would draw attention away from insurgency, whose violence has killed thousands and driven 2 million people from their homes.
It came after rioting in the nation’s capital, Ouagadougou, in which mobs on Saturday attacked the French embassy and other French-affiliated buildings under the mistaken impression that they were providing refuge for Damiba.
Damiba implored Traore and the new junta leadership to respect the promises already made to the West African regional group ECOWAS in addition to promising not to injure or prosecute him. Damiba, who took control in a coup in January of last year, has agreed to conduct elections by 2024.