Fresh jihadist violence in Burkina Faso has killed “several dozen” soldiers and civilians in the northern town of Djibo, security and local sources said on Monday.
On Sunday, hundreds of jihadists carried out simultaneous attacks on a military detachment and police posts, as well as launching incursions into various areas of the town, the sources told AFP.
Burkina Faso has endured a decade of attacks by jihadist armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
On Sunday, assailants “arrived by the hundreds, on motorcycles and vehicles, practically encircling the town,” said a security source.
“Groups have made incursions into some areas of the town causing civilian casualties,” a second security source said, adding that there had been an undetermined number of military casualties.
Residents whom AFP reached by phone confirmed the attacks and gave a death toll amounting to “several dozen.”
In one district of the town, “people were executed in front of their homes,” notably adult males, one resident of Djibo told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The military junta of Captain Ibrahim Traore, which seized power in September 2022, rarely communicates about attacks and regularly claims to have taken back territory in thrall to jihadists.
But the country remains caught in a spiral of violence which has left more than 26,000 civilians and soldiers dead since 2015.
More than half of those have been in the past three years, according to the NGO Acled, which tracks victims of conflict.
