More than 600 people were shot in a matter of hours in Burkina Faso in an August attack, according to a French government security assessment. The latest analysis nearly doubles the death toll cited in earlier reports.
The latest assessment makes the August massacre one of the deadliest single attacks in Africa in recent decades. The August 24 attack saw militants from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) shoot people dead methodically on the outskirts of Barsalogho.
The militants entered the area on motorcycles and shot down villagers, who had dug trenches to defend Barsalogho. According to several videos posted by pro-JNIM accounts on social media, people lay helpless in the dirt dug out to make the trenches as the militants killed them.
Several of those killed were women and children who tried to play dead. Sounds of their screams reverberate in the video along with with that of automatic gunfire.
JNIM is an al Qaeda affiliate based in Mali and active in Burkina Faso. If confirmed, the horrific death toll will mark one of the most brutal moments in the Sahel, a region in West Africa marked by increasing lawlessness. The United States and French militaries have been struggling to combat jihadists in the area.
However, the forces had to leave the area following a series of coups across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The initial death toll by the United Nations was estimated to be at least 200. JNIM said civilians had not been attacked and it had only targeted militia members affiliated with the army, killing nearly 300 people, according to a translation by Site Intelligence Group cited by Reuters.
Before the attack, the military had asked locals to dig a vast trench network around the town to protect it from jihadists circulating nearby. The JNIM gunmen came in and attacked the defenses as they were being buily, saying that the civilians were militants, according to eyewitnesses.
“Large-scale deadly attacks (at least a hundred deaths) against civilian populations or defense and security forces have been occurring for several weeks at a rate that seems unsustainable for the government,” the report says.
The report also mentions that a military convoy in the village of Tawori was attacked 15 days before the Barsalogho massacre. “No fewer than 150 soldiers” were killed by jihadists in the attack, adding that the military is struggling to retain potency and credibility.
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Source: Wion
