Some 44 people have been killed after two deadly attacks in northern Burkina Faso on Thursday, officials have said.The twin attacks happened in the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in the Sahel region, near the Niger border.No group has admitted to carrying out the attacks, but jihadist violence is common in the area and officials have blamed “armed terrorist groups”.Militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) are known to operate in the region.The Lieutenant-Governor of the Sahel region, Rodolphe Sorgho, said the assailants behind the “despicable and barbaric attack” had been “put out of action”.
t was on Friday morning that we saw that there were several dozen dead,” he said.AFP has also reported that the killings were in retaliation for the lynching of two jihadists who had tried to steal cattle a few days earlier.
But he failed to stamp out the attacks, and he was removed in a second coup by Capt Ibrahim Traoré the following September.Capt Traoré has promised to win back territory from the jihadists, and to hold democratic elections in July 2024.His new military chief, Col Celestin Simpore, vowed earlier this week to step up a “dynamic offensive” to counter the jihadists.But Capt Traoré has also requested that French troops leave the country and there has been widespread speculation that he might start working with Russian mercenaries.
