The Military said on Sunday that 15 Burkinabe soldiers and volunteer militiamen were murdered on Saturday while returning from a supply operation in eastern Burkina Faso.
According to a statement, 11 soldiers are still missing after the attack in the province of Gourma. Four more soldiers were injured.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been battling terrorists, some of whom have ties to the Islamic State and al Qaeda. In the nation’s second coup this year, troops overthrew the government last month as a result of the escalating bloodshed.
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced by the crisis in Burkina Faso alone, and thousands have died throughout the Sahel area of West Africa, where an insurgency that began in Mali has spread over the past ten years.
The nation has been battling insurgency since 2015. There are active armed organisations, some of whom are affiliated with the so-called “Islamic State” and the al-Qaeda terrorist network (IS).
Just a few days prior to the attack on Saturday, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) took credit for storming a military base in Djibo, a town in the north that had been surrounded by insurgents for three months. The military led a second coup this year to remove the government last month amid rising violence.
The militants’ assault on Saturday also occurs just a few days after Burkina Faso’s most recent coup, which resulted in the installation of a new administration.
The new president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, toppled Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba after accusing him of taking insufficient effort to combat terrorism.
