Burkina Faso's al-Qaeda affiliate, Jemaah Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM), claimed on Thursday that it targeted regime-allied militias, not civilians, in attacks that killed about 300 people over the weekend.
“Those eliminated in this attack are nothing more than militiamen affiliated to the Burkina Faso army… They lied and said they were civilians but they are not,” the terrorist group said. said In an angry statement.
The JNIM attack, carried out near the northern town of Barsalagogo, was one of the deadliest attacks Burkina Faso has seen in the past decade. Reportedly Among them were many women and children.
The attack came after Burkina Faso's military government warned local residents that rebels were preparing an attack. Residents of Barsalougo were reluctant to help the military dig trenches to defend their town. They were hesitant because they feared that the rebels would see them helping and target them for supporting the military.
Those fears became reality last Saturday, when a horde of JNIM fighters attacked the trench builders, killing nearly everyone involved in the project. JNIM social media accounts posted videos of slain civilians lying next to shovels in half-dug trenches.
The rebels also killed Burkinabe soldiers who were organising the trench-digging project and seized weapons and a military ambulance. More than 100 survivors of the attack were wounded and are recovering in a local hospital.
Burkina Faso's Security Minister Mahamadou Sana on Tuesday Condemned He condemned the killing of civilians and vowed to “make sure our enemies know that we will never again tolerate such barbarism on our territory.”
“In any case, we want to assure the Burkinabe people that we are committed to defending their people and their property and that we will stand firm,” Sana added.
UN Secretary-General Antonia Guterres on Tuesday be criticized He described “horrific attacks” and “quite frightening” conditions in the conflict zone.
“According to local officials, at least 90,000 displaced people were living in Barçalogho as of last year. These families had sought refuge here to escape insecurity in the surrounding areas and their arrival has put additional strain on local services and supplies,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Guterres.
Dujarric said the entire province around Barsallogo was facing severe hunger due to the high number of refugees and the difficulties humanitarian organisations were facing in getting aid to the area.
Some observers of the conflict criticize Burkina Faso's military junta for putting so many civilians at risk. The junta runs a program called Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), which is not easily distinguished from the regime-allied militia groups that JNIM claims to be attacking.
The VDP program is Release Before the military overthrew the civilian government in September 2022, there was no civilian conscription, but junta President Ibrahim Traore called for more civilians to be recruited. Protecting towns from militants was one of the main tasks he had in mind for civilians to serve.
On Wednesday, the victims' support group “Barçalgo for Collective Justice” Accused They accuse the military junta of negligence, which forced civilians to dig trenches that turned into “mass graves.”
The group said in a statement that the military “used threats to force people to take part in construction work against their will” and “led our parents to genocide.”
The Collective Justice Movement for Barsalougo also said the death toll from JNIM attacks could be much higher than Burkinabe authorities have acknowledged, and its members reported tending to a mass grave containing more than 100 bullet-riddled bodies.
JNIM is a Salafi Islamist group. Jihadist Organizations It was formed in Mali in 2017. This new terrorist organization was created by four Malian extremist groups that merged and pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda. Since its formation, JNIM has expanded its activities to Burkina Faso and Niger.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are all run by military regimes and all three are battling jihadist rebel groups. Niger, under the Biden-Harris administration, has expelled U.S. counterterrorism forces from its borders and is increasingly turning to Russia for military assistance.
