DOZENS OF BURKINA FASO TROOPS KILLED IN 'MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK'
The president of Burkina Faso has said at least 24
soldiers have been killed in an attack on a military base in the country's
north.Roch Kabore said in a statement on Tuesday that seven other soldiers
were wounded and five were still missing following the previous day's assault
in Koutougou, near the border with Mali.
"August 19th is a dark stain on the
life of our national army," Kabore said in a statement posted on the
presidency website. "It is a heavy toll, which ... saddens us."
The Burkinabe army did
not disclose the identity of the
attackers
or their affiliation but blamed “terrorists” for the “major” attack which it said could be the deadliest ever against the country's
armed forces.
"In response to this barbaric attack,
a large air and ground operation led to the neutralisation of several
assailants," it added A security
source told AFP news agency that the assailants used heavy weapons and burned a
large portion of the camp.The source said the base was attacked by
"several dozen terrorists" who arrived aboard motorbikes and pick-up
trucks.
"It's clearly an attack that was well-prepared and coordinated by
several terrorist groups. They fired heavy weapons, including rockets, which
set fire to several installations, transport and weaponry," the source
said.
SECURITY
CHALLENGES
The impoverished country in the Sahel has
been battling a rising wave of violence over the past four years, which began
in the north but has since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and
Benin. Most attacks
in the country are attributed to the Ansarul Islam group, which emerged near
the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (Group to Support Islam and
Muslims), which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Those groups are believed to be
responsible for about 500 deaths since 2015. Burkina Faso's capital,
Ouagadougou, has been attacked three times.The Union for Progress and Change
(UPC) party, Burkina Faso's main opposition, called on Tuesday for the
government to step down, accusing it of failing to effectively counter the
rising threat posed by armed groups.
"It's a team overwhelmed by the turn
of events, which is currently crossing its arms, waiting for how fate will play
them and the Burkinabes," the UPC said in a statement.In December 2016, 12
soldiers were killed at Nassoumbou, also in Soum province, when more than 40
fighters assaulted a military post close to the Mali border.Overnight on
Thursday, fighters also raided a village in the restive north, killing 15
people, plundering and burning shops, a regional governor said.Former colonial
ruler France has deployed 4,500 troops in Mali,
Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local
forces flush out fighters. Burkina Faso
has also joined four other Sahel nations - Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -
in an initiative aimed at creating a joint 5,000-troop anti-terror force, also
backed by France.
Source:
Aljazeera – 21 August 2019
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