Burkina: Three soldiers and « twenty terrorists » killed

Three Burkinabé soldiers were killed in the night of Monday to Tuesday during two attacks, in the north and the north-west of Burkina Faso, announced in a communiqué the staff of the armies, which indicates a Twenty terrorists « shot dead.

« On the night of December 2 to 3, the military detachments of Toeni (Sorou province, North-West) and Bahn (Loroum province, North) were simultaneously attacked around 2H. The vigorous counter-attack has neutralized about twenty terrorists (…) Three of the soldiers have unfortunately lost their lives, « according to the text.

Seven other soldiers were wounded during « intense fighting, » the statement said. « Armament, ammunition, a dozen motorcycles and various other materials were seized », according to the army.

Safe sources had given the same report to AFP earlier in the day. Already on 18 October, five members of the defense and security forces were killed and 11 wounded in two simultaneous attacks on Bahn and Yensé (North), according to the army.

On Sunday, 14 worshipers were killed during the attack on a Protestant church in eastern Burkina Faso near the Nigerian border.

More frequent jihadist attacks

Despite the presence of the French forces (Barkhane), regional (joint force of G5 Sahel including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad) or UN (Minusma).

The Sahel is the subject of jihadist attacks increasingly frequent after the first violence in northern Mali in 2012. Since 2015, jihadist attacks in Burkina have killed more than 700 people, according to a count of AFP and about 500,000 IDPs and refugees, according to the United Nations.

These attacks, almost daily, are rarely claimed but attributed to jihadist armed groups, some affiliated with Al Qaeda and others affiliated with the Islamic State group.

The police, who pay a heavy price, seem unable to stop jihadist violence. They remain under-equipped and under-trained, despite the government’s deliberate rhetoric.

Since the beginning of November, the defense and security forces have announced that they have killed 76 jihadists during several operations, without being able to confirm these reports independently.