Over 60 Terrorists Killed In Burkina Faso- French Army Confirms Amidst Escalating Insurgency
By Uganda Online Media Correspondent
Nearly 60 “terrorists” have been killed in Burkina Faso by local forces assisted by French forces deployed in the country, France’s military said on Sunday, as a bloody insurgency rages.
“On four occasions between January 16 and January 23, 2022, groups of terrorists were located, identified, and neutralized by Burkinabe forces and by (foreign) units… in total, nearly 60 terrorists were taken out,” the French military said in a statement.
Burkina Faso has been struggling with jihadist attacks since 2015 when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group began mounting cross-border raids from Mali.
More than 2,000 people have died, according to the latest reports.
The national emergency aid agency says that 1.5 million people, nearly two-thirds of them children, were internally displaced as of November 30, 2021.
The country’s security forces are poorly equipped to face a ruthless and highly mobile foe, adept at carrying out hit-and-run raids aboard motorbikes and pickup trucks.
On November 14, a force described as numbering several hundred men attacked a police base at Inata near the Malian border, killing 57 people, including 53 gendarmes.
On December 23, 41 people were killed when a convoy of traders was ambushed near Ouahigouya, also near the Malian frontier.
Last week the West African bloc suspended Burkina Faso’s membership following a coup and the detention of the prime minister several days earlier.
