The Burkina Faso government said it will respond firmly to a terrorist attack that killed at least 200 people, mostly civilians, in the Barsalogho region, where terrorist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS are active.
The attack, which is the deadliest in the country this year, was carried out by dozens of heavily armed terrorists who entered the village in the early hours of Saturday morning.
For more than seven hours, they clashed with a unit of the army supported by local militia.
At least 200 people were killed, with another 300 wounded, according to an unofficial tally.
Local witnesses said every family lost at least one relative in the assault.
The assailants also targeted security forces, killing community leaders, numerous civilians, and several members of the security forces who responded to the attack.
The victims were buried in mass graves not far from the village.
Most of the injured were taken to a hospital in Kaya, the regional capital, about 45 kilometers from the site of the attack.
In light of the popular shock caused by the terrorist attack, the government sent on Sunday a ministerial delegation to the hospital, including Health Minister Robert Kargougou, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana, and government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo.
Ouedraogo, denouncing the attack on national television, described it as a “cowardly and barbaric attack” carried out by “hordes of criminals” who targeted “women, children, the elderly, men, indiscriminately.”
Security Minister Sana assured the public that the Burkinabe armed forces will give “an answer so that the enemy knows that we will never again accept similar barbarism on our territory.”
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, evidence show the attack was carried by the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al-Qaeda’s branch for West Africa.
According to a local resident, the victims were mainly “young civilians, who came out in large numbers to help the soldiers dig trenches around the town, to protect themselves from possible attacks by armed terrorist groups.”
A security source said that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralize several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”
Extremists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS have waged a grinding insurgency since 2015 in Burkina Faso that has killed more than 20,000 people, including 4,000 in 2024, ACLED figures show.
The attacks have also displaced two million people.
